St George’s Catholic Primary School admission

[Verita2005]

Hi all!

We just got an offer accepted on a house close to this primary school in Enfield; the house is not perfect and we need to do quite a lot work to it (which requires lot of effort and money!) but our main focus is school catchment as we have 2 kids that will start school in the next couple of years.
I would like to know how likely is it that we can put our kids in that school - it’s the best in Enfield but the admission doesn’t seem to be that easy. We are a bit concerned as we are committing ourselves with this property a lot to get our kids in the school. Any experiences on this anyone?!? Thank you so much in advance!!!

Hello OP

The only way to estimate your chance of success is to ask the school (based on recent years admissions) which category of the oversubscription criteria was used to fill the final place, then see which category you fit into.

I assume you are looking for entry into September 2019? You'll need to keep a watch on the website as the categories may change in future. The full 2019 admissions policy is
HERE

Oversubscription criteria

1. Catholic ‘looked after’ children and previously ‘looked after’ children, who have been adopted or made subject to child arrangements orders or special guardianship orders.
2. Baptised Catholic children, with a Certificate of Catholic Practice, who have a sibling at the school at the time of application.
3. Baptised Catholic children with a Certificate of Catholic Practice, who are resident in the Parish of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and St George in the borough of Enfield.
4. Baptised Catholic children with a Certificate of Catholic Practice, who are resident in the Parishes of St Monica’s, St Edmund’s, St Mary’s, Vita et Pax and St Joseph’s.
5. Other baptised Catholics with a Certificate of Catholic Practice.
6. Other baptised Catholics.
7. Other ‘looked after’ children and previously ‘looked after’ children who have been adopted or made subject to child arrangements orders or special guardianship orders.
8. Children of other denominations whose application is supported either by a certificate of baptism or by a letter from their Minister of Religion confirming membership of the faith community, who have a sibling at the school at the time of application.
9. Children of other denominations whose application is supported either by a certificate of baptism or by a letter from their Minister of Religion confirming membership of the faith community.

10. Children of other faiths whose application is supported by a letter from their religious leader, confirming membership of the faith community. 11. Any other children.

Tie-breaks within any category are settled on distance.

Which one of the categories do you fit into? If the school tells you they have filled all places up to and including category 7 (as an example, I have no idea...it might be category 4), you are very, very unlikely to get a place if you are in any other category.

There are some very knowledgeable posters on the Primary Education board, you might want to try there.

Best of luck.

I know this school. I don’t have children there but know many people who do. It’s very sought after. It’s very unlikely you’ll get into it if you don’t attend the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church weekly for mass. I know people who also have another church they genuinely regularly attend, but still have to go to mass at OL to be certain of getting their place at St George’s - so two services every Sunday! Madness! Actually I am amazed that they can get away with not offering a handful of places to children of other faiths and none from the local community - most faith schools round here seem to do this.
You also need to live reasonably close - within a mile I would imagine (not sure if measured to church of school)? Where is the doer-upper you are buying (name of street)?
St G’s wouldn’t be top of my list personally... it may come high in league tables but I think there are other, more inclusive and more family centred schools in this area that might suit many children better. They have very little space to play outside at St G’s (large school, small site) and it is quite a pressured environment (lots of tutoring going on etc). Don’t blinded by league tables and their (very old) Ofsted report.

Thank you so much for this Goldierocks!
Very useful info. We are looking into entry for sept 2020 but I’ve been told we need to start looking into this from now (also I learnt from when looking for nursery when my son was 4 months old and I was told I should had put his name down in the waiting list when I was pregnant!!!)

Thanks a lot Enfieldlady for your feedback.
We are moving to Halifax road, very close to the school.
It’s very interesting what you said - what other schools would you recommend in the area? We are happy with a ofsted ‘good’ school as well, we just don’t know anything about them hence me asking here for wise advice ;)
We heard that George Spicer is meant to be good or Lavander primary school?!

Thanks again!

You’d be right on top of St G’s in Halifax Rd, so providing you have the right church attendance / baptismal certificates, I’m certain you’d have no problem getting in. It would be very nice to be able to walk to school as parking in that area is not easy. St Michael’s is the other most desirable school in the area, but it’s Church of England, so whether you’d get in with Catholic church attendance, I am not sure. Don’t know much about it apart from it has been very over subscribed in recent years. St Andrews is also a good school with a well-respected and experienced Head teacher, but again you’d need the right church attendance to be certain of a place. Both have a nurturing reputation and are less overtly religious than St G’s (not sure how important the Catholic thing is to you). Definitely read the small print in the admissions policies very closely and stick to it by the letter as competition for places is fierce and you don’t want to miss out on a place having misssed one church service! (this is not an exaggeration!).
Community schools; I am not sure you’d get either Lavender or George Spicer from that area of Enfield as the catchment areas can be tiny. Check the council information or ring the schools. The only one you’d definitely get from Halifax Road would be Chase Side Primary which is a lovely school but has had a tough time of late (but a not-so-good Ofsted does mean there will be a lot of efforts made to improve). I think there is also new school opening on the redeveloped Chase Farm Hospital site this year or next.
Where are you moving from?