Southgate/Winchmore Hill/Enfield areas - good secondaries? Desperately need help!

[wadadlis]

Husband being made redundant so we are reluctantly having to sell up and move out, possibly to these sort of areas.

DS now 3.7 so will start primary in Sept (all sorted [fingers crossed] at current address but goodness knows what we do when we move...arghhh), however, this move will need to be the one which also is right for secondary as we won't have any money to move again!

So where should we go?
Which secondary schools are good in these areas and how can we try to make sure we get in? I know that for some you need to have been to specific primaries?? We have Catholic Priest's reference if needed!

All help gratefully received.

Dame Alice Owen's in Potters Bar takes from these areas ... 60 academic and 10 music places, siblings get in free.

Ashmole is a very good school but you would need to see exactly how the catchment area works in Southgate.

Great, thank you. Think both of those are Barnet Schools.
Anybody out there know about Enfield ones?

Dame Alice is a selective school and competition is very fierce to get in. Hardly anyone does!
Latymer is in Edmonton and is 100% selective. Edmonton may not be the best area but if you are getting the w6 from southgate it is ok
Southgate school is very good as well as Ashmole but both of these schools have a cull at the end of gcses so bear that in mind. You need to be about a mile from Ashmole and maybe you could get away with slightly more than that.
Try not to be too glum about moving to southgate. We have wonderful parks, Trent Country park, Grovelands, Broomfield, Arnos Grove, A great swimming pool and good libraries. Train from Palmers green 25 mins to moorgate, underground, good restaurants..Good luck!

Friend's dd is at Chace community school and is very happy even though it wasn't their first choice.

St Ignatius is v. good Catholic secondary for boys, but they have a system of feeder schools so check if your intended primary school is one of them. They do take from other schools as well, so all is not lost if it isn't one of the prioritised ones.

Most schools don't do the feeder primaries thing, it's usually done on distance (or exam in the case of Latymer).

Highlands in Grange Park/Winchmore Hill has improved rapidly over the past few years - it's now achieving decent results at GCSE and is beginning to prove itself at A'Level. Southgate also seems to be a pretty safe bet and comes highly recommended by parents. Enfield County/Grammar both reasonable comprehensives, but not lighting any fires.

I was a pupil at Latymer in the 90's - it was competitive to get in then and is ridiculously so now; it's a fantastic school, but your DS would need to be very academic to be in with a chance. Edmonton is admittedly not the best area, but we never had any problems beyond mild taunting from other schools. Things might have changed since then, though!

Latymer is a fantastic school, and even though it is technically in Edmonton it's in a nicer part, 10-15 mins from Edmonton green

Dame Alice is a Barnet school but we live in enfield and my DD goes there

Non selectives schools- highlands is very good, but there are not so good schools in enfield so you would have to think carefully if you would be happy for DC to attend a school like Winchmore or Edmonton county if you didn't get first choice

Don't know much about st Anne's catholic, you would have to research that one.

So what's the buzz about Highlands? I was impressed and they seem to be starting to teach the kind of A-level subjects that help you to get into good universities? Am I right?
hmm

Yes, as a school it seems quite dynamic, and very ambitious and welll organised leadership-wise. Lots of parents were slightly dubious about it for the first few years, but it now seems to be the school of choice in Enfield, unless you're going private or have your heart set on somewhere more selective. A close friend, who is Oxbridge-educated, is seriously considering it for her DD, and there are lots of teachers' kids there are well. Many of the feeder primary schools are great (I used to work at one of them) so they have a pretty solid intake, and I think they've been underachieving in the past.

Subject-wise I think they're gradually shifting from a more vocational approach to a more academic one - in the past, lots of the more 'middle class' children would do GCSEs there and then move on to a more academic sixth-form such as Latymer or Woodhouse in Barnet, but this gradually seems to be becoming less of a trend.

Hope this helps!

Dame Alice is a Hertfordshire school ... but think it is now Academy so no LEA control anyway?

If you have catholic priests reference try St. Monica's Primary in Southgate or Our Lady of Lourdes, New Southgate. Finchley Catholic High School for Boys is and excellent secondary school (in Finchley). Southgate/Winchmore Hill are currently in catchment area. Don't despair! You could live in worse places than Enfield, Southgate or Winchmore Hill!!!

Southgate is a very happy school, lovely children and teachers. It's in a pleasant area, DB loves it there.

I moved out of Palmers Green several years ago for work and still miss it dreadfully. There are some really good schools and an actual choice, which is much less true outside of cities. I went to St Monica's many years ago and it was a lovely and very good school. I hear from friends that it is still very good, with a family feel and good education.

What school is better kingsmead in Enfield or Edmonton county in Edmonton?

Out of the two most definitely Kingsmead.
Do not send your child to Edmonton County