Where to move in London for secondary

[LondonSchoolsHelp]

Feel like this is a classic topic but haven’t found a recent one.

I’ve got a boy and girl, currently year 2 (summer born) and preschool (autumn born). We live in an area with lots of well-off families and private schools (which we can’t afford), a couple of super selective grammars (which are 95% Asian - we are white and I wouldn’t want the kids to be in such a small minority, even if they got in). As a result the local comp isn’t really a comp, results not great and there is a drugs problem.

Planning to move to the catchment of a good state school in the next couple of years. But where?

It’s very early to say but I don’t think DS would get a place in a super selective grammar - he is in the top handful in his class (and is summer born) but it doesn’t sound like this would be enough (or is it too early to tell at 6?). I’d be more confident about DD who is only in preschool but ahead of the game (typical girl). But I think really for safety we are looking for a good comprehensive.

I work near Liverpool Street and DH works in Victoria, though I am in the office 3-4 days a week and DH only 1-2. We’ve always lived East but I don’t think there are any areas near us that fit the bill.

Our house budget is probably £1.3-£1.4m if we were to move now…who knows in a couple of years.

I feel sad as love our current area and we have made so many friends here, but I can’t see things changing at the local school, even with the VAT increase. All the parents at our (excellent state) primary are just saving up for secondary.

So where should we go and when?

@Arran2024 Yes, I do see what you mean. In our case the move is very calculated - we're getting in early and and have spent years researching and visited different areas (it helps that I've worked in education myself and know exactly what I'm looking for). But over and over again I've seen people panic once their child reaches Year 5 (often after they've visited the local secondary options and realise they don't like any of them), and attempt a panicked last-minute move to a different area. Then it is definitely all about the schools and is much less likely to work out for everyone longer term.

Completely agree that it needs to be a balance, but I think the London schools landscape can be overwhelming, to the point that many people do feel compelled to move where otherwise they wouldn't.

posted too soon. The majority of my friends are my own school friends, same for DH.

I went to catholic schools (parents are immigrants) and my dc will likely do the same.

In our case, we are not Londoners or even English. We’ve lived in several places in different areas in London and have generally found it easy to make friends locally and become part of the community, especially through kids and their schools. We did it when we moved to our current area 6 years ago and we will do it again.

I have quite a good list of good comps on the Barnet area in my post, so have a look at them.

DAO is partially selective. You get in either by being in the catchment or by passing entrance exams. The DAO catchment and the ashmole catchment do not overlap at all. So if you were in Ashmole catchment you would need to pass entrance exams for DAO or Latymer.

If you were in Ashmole catchment you would also probably have the choice of going to east Barnet school, southgate and highlands depending on what side you were. All are good schools and well recommended.

Thank you @Sparklingsplashes - really helpful and clear.

OP if you like East London I would stay local and move within area. Ealing/ west London is nice but has a very different vibe. Given your working locations, I would move to Waltham Forest so you could get the overground into Liverpool Street and husband on the Victoria line- he'll also always get a seat getting on at Walthamstow. Walthamstow school for girls is highly rated, there is also Woodford county grammar for girls.

On the other side of Barnet to Ashmole, you also have Ark Academy (outstanding), Queen Elizabeth Girls, Totteridge Academy, which all seem well recommended. You would need to move to High Barnet/New Barnet for those.

@LondonSchoolsHelp - I should be wary of Cambridge. It is promising on paper, but I recall there have been recent shortages of Y7 places, resulting in children being allocated to schools miles away.

We're in Walthamstow - I'd suggest perhaps looking at the options here. The Girls school is great - albeit you have to be in catchment. But other local secondaries are also good. The demographic has certainly changed a lot over recent years, and the schools are genuinely diverse, reflecting the local population.

I don't find it bizarre in the slightest. People move all the time for work reasons, so why wouldn't they move because of their children's schools? Children spend a great deal of time in school and how they get on there, how happy they are, how well they do academically, makes a big difference to the whole family. My children are in their 30s now but all the way back when we were thinking about schools (nursery, primary, secondary, sixth form) it was a big deal for us and for most families we knew, and very few took the view that their kids would just go to the nearest school, regardless of what it was like.

Also, if our experience was typical, during the years when the children were at school and we were both working, there wasn't a great deal of time or energy for anything else. Community activities and volunteering opportunities would have been bottom of our priority list at the time. Far more important now that we are both retired.

like it or not, for a lot of people it's the realisation that 25%-50% of their local comp might have English as a second language and be on free meals aka "poor". people get scared that that isn't the best possible upbringing for little Henrietta and run for the Home Counties.

Ffs. My kids go to a school that is very, very mixed but with NO single culture dominating. A proper London school. It has a true mix of all the skin colours you could possibly find and just as importantly all the different classes and religious backgrounds - I am one of those ‘free school meal aka poor families’, to quote you - and my ‘poor’ kids mix with the wealthy middle classes and everyone in between, and the kids that have all the different cultures at home, with zero issues. A typical sleep over at my house includes 1 white kid and 3 non white kids.

And my kids are thriving - 4 A levels for the 1st, currently doing 4 A levels for the 2nd and projected 9’s and 8’s for all subjects for the 3rd. Despite being in a truly mixed school. Mixing of all colours, faiths and classes firmly encouraged.

You are deliberately misconstruing the OP.

It is not misconstruing. The OP posted they didn't want their child to go to a 95% asian/muslim school on the basis their children would be in the minority. They wouldn't have posted that about a 95% jewish school for right concern of seeming antisemitic or 95% poor for risk of seeming classist. It was unnecessary to include the specifics of race and they could have posted that the school had a monoculture (generic and to the specific issue if that was their concern) and was therefore unsuitable, but instead made it specific to the dominance of a specific race/religion.

If they had wanted school recommendations to be the sole focus of this thread they could even, perhaps, big stretch here, just have asked about that without the unnecessary explanation!

like it or not, for a lot of people it's the realisation that 25%-50% of their local comp might have English as a second language and be on free meals aka "poor". people get scared that that isn't the best possible upbringing for little Henrietta and run for the Home Counties

True dat! 😆

The OP has reiterated many times that she wants her children to attend a multi-ethnic school, she doesn't care what those backgrounds are, and I don't see an issue with that? I am Asian and I also wouldn't want my children to attend a school that was 95% Asian! There is nothing wrong with wanting your children to mix with others from a range of backgrounds and cultures rather than just one. It doesn't make her racist.

The OP's value of prioritising education will be shared by the very families OP is moving away from.

More in common and all that. But white flight is real so I don't know why some posters are putting energy into denying it exists.

I'm familiar with some of the areas on the shortlist and, guess what, brown families have thought the same. So OP will be forever moving to get away from them!

And living abroad does not make one anti-racist as evidenced by many British people in Spain, Australia and even Dubai.

Wondering if OP's children play with brown children and if OP has discussed her concerns with their brown parents.

But really, what a sad state of affairs that an Oxbridge-educated (property) millionaire is spending money to get away from too many brown children.

I'm not saying it's racist to not want to go to a 95% of anything school. I've been saying it was unnecessary to list which race/culture - they could have said a 95% monoculture and not mentioned whether that was race, class, whatever based. What happened when the OP mentioned race was that people started in on how different cultures over-tutor etc, which is generalisation and race based assumption. They should take some responsibility that it was an unnecessary detail to include that allowed(at least some) to start creating negative stereotypes about other cultures.

Orpington area is a possible: good, fast rail connections, generally very good schools and two super-selectives.

lve replied to you privately at length so I’m unclear why you’re repeating allegations that I have already denied - what basis have you to say that I wouldn’t have said I didn’t want my kids to go to a school that was 95% Jewish - I would have said that. I said I don’t my kids to go to a school that is 95% anything. I don’t know how I can make it any clearer to you. I mentioned the particular demographic because it is relevant - there are loads of excellent schools in London in the same boat. It is purely factual.

If there are specific posters who responded to what I had said with comments that you didn’t like then you should be following up with them rather than repeatedly blaming me for stuff that other people have said on a public forum. I do not have to “take responsibility” for randoms on the internet any more than you do.

@DuvetsCovered Ive reported your post.

Aside from ignoring basically all my posts, I think you might not have grasped that the school I am talking about is a highly selective and extremely competitive grammar school. I don’t think my kids would get into it even if they tried (as I also said in my post). What I’m complaining about is the fact that the local comp is missing all the kids who go to that school, with the result that neither the school nor the comp are properly mixed or reflect the local area.

I have to say the points about London schools and needing to go further out for better more racially diverse schools or be less reliant on selection to get quality doesn't reflect my experience of schools in London at all. I live quite central in London, son goes to new local academy - wasn't our first choice as he started pre any inspection or exam results but it's since got decent inspection reports and GCSE results and he is happy. The ethnic diversity reflects the local community, very mixed. When I was looking at schools for him I saw a lot of options including further away where there were other ways to get places beyond distance (largely a few selective places - he didn't do well enough in most of the tests to get in) and all of the schools were pretty racially diverse. The only school in my area that seems less diverse is a girls cofe secondary that is prob around 75% black African background.

out towards Shenfield/further east
Essex grammars
https://www.aesessex.co.uk/ Anglo European school (helps if you’re from a European country)

I wasn’t referring to the OP. I was referring to the poster - I quoted - asking why people leave London comps.

Bullers Wood boys and girls in chislehurst or the Langley schools near Beckenham? You could get an amazing house for that money with those areas and they're on fast train lines. Chislehurst is quite burby though.

We're further in, there are good schools across most of SE London tbh.

Sympathies as I've had a roasting here in the past for similar concerns about the Redbridge grammars. I echo bickering and another poster in recommending Walthamstow - not too far from where you are right now but it's a great place to live where there is a genuine mix of kids in all the great local schools. I barely know anyone here who has gone private. I highly recommend Frederick Bremer - not great results on paper, but it's an incredibly nurturing, inclusive, genuinely diverse community school where I know lots of bright kids who are absolutely flying. The girls' school is good too (though quite a lot of anxiety/MH issues). Highams Park and Leytonstone schools are strong options too.