North London - in a high school black hole

[SquintAndLookCloser]

DH is convinced that it's too early to be thinking about this, but our eldest DC is in year 4 and I've realised we're in a complete secondary black hole! We want a coed school for the DC as we'd like them to be at the same school, and ideally we'd want a non denominational environment. However, our two closest schools are both single sex catholic schools. So I suppose I have a few questions.

Firstly, how oversubscribed is St Aloysius RC College? Would you get in without being a baptised christian? Looking at their admissions criteria, I don't think we'd stand a chance without being christian, however we do only live 0.2 miles away.

Secondly, our closes coed school is Acland Burghley. However we're 0.8 miles away and I take it that it's quite oversubscribed? How is it as a school?

And finally, given our situation school wise, do you think we're at risk of DS not being allocated a school at all? Is it worth moving to guarantee a school place?

Acland Burghley is a good school, I'd be happy with it. It is quite urban and there are some kids from difficult backgrounds, but also lots from m/c families. It's got a nice creative arty vibe to it. I think the initial cut-off distance is generally around 0.7, but it will go higher as the waiting lists move after offer day. Are you not also in catchment for William Ellis?

You can download Camden's admissions brochure here which will tell you what the cut-off distances were over the past few years. But remember that's only the initial allocation, people will have got in from further away, though they might have had to wait a few weeks for the place to be offered.

St Aloysius college is oversubscribed in theory, but not sure how many of those are first preference choices. They get good results on paper, but very few m/c families from nearby Catholic primaries choose to send their dses there. Make of that what you will. It's better than it was, but still not perceived as a desirable school by most people. Make of that what you will.

I can't quite work out whereabouts you are, but Highgate Wood might be worth a look if you're that side? If you're 0.2 miles away from St Aloysius, you must be reasonably near HW. People get in from the Whitehall Park area, and I know several people who are very happy with it.

Thanks for the reply. Interesting about St A's. A lot does change in these couple of years, and looking at the admissions brochure Acland Burghley's catchment is shrinking yearly. Last year they had over 700 applicants for 180 places. It looks like we would just squeak into the catchment for William Ellis at the moment, but that's getting increasingly smaller too so who knows where we'll stand next september.

If we're just outside of the catchments for all of our local schools, can we not be allocated a school?

If you are out of area for all nearest schools you will b allocated a place, but it'll be further away and not of your choice.

The 700 applications for AB won't all be first choice applicants though, not by a long way. And remember the distance given in the brochure refers to the initial offer date - the last place offered from the waiting list will be quite a bit further away. Areas tend to fluctuate according to the number of siblings, so it does go in and out quite a bit. Though AB's ofsted has recently gone from 'satisfactory' to 'good', so it may become more popular.

Are you not in catchment for Highgate Wood if you're near St Aloysius?

And yes, if you don't get any of your stated preferences, you will be offered places at a school that has spaces, assuming there is one. IAMS is the islington school that people tend to end up if they don't get any of their preferences - no idea what that is like. It has a reasonable ofsted, but I don't know anyone who's actually chosen it, iyswim.

Year 4 is not too early to be thinking about these things, because if you decide to move you would have to do so in year 5.
We live about the same distance as you from Acland Burghley and two of our neighbours dc got in last year. They didnt get in on the offer day but apparently the list moves very fast in the following few weeks. If you are more than 1.2 miles then its a bit more hit and miss.
All the families around here seem to go for William Ellis above St Aloysius and I dont know of any non-catholics who have chosen to send their sons there. I would imagine its pretty easy to get into, even if you are not catholic.
On the other hand I predict that William Ellis will be hard to get into in a few years, what with the new head.
If you are really hooked on mixed schools then you don't have much choice in this area, however its definitely not a black-hole. AB, Camden, Parliament Hill, LSU etc are all good schools, just not mixed.
On the other hand, there's quite a lot of social mixing around the Parliament Hill schools so I wouldnt be worried about boys or girls being too isolated and not knowing local kids of the other gender.
Good luck with your research.

My 2 older dcs went to AB, then I moved just up the road from my address.

Come to dc3, and I put AB as first choice, and Highgate Woods as second choice. We got HW.

Then two months into the new term,AB called me to say they had a place, but dc3 was settled in Highgate Wood so I declined it. I am very happy with HW

Thanks for the reassurance re being allocated a place. Is IAMS a good school, would it be a bad thing to have that school allocated?

I think we'd have about the same chance at HW as we would at AB as we're just outside of the initial offers area. I'm glad that there's quite a lot of movement, so thanks for pointing that out :)

Have never met anyone who said anything good about IAMS, but have no direct experience.
Whereas HW and AB seem to be in a different league altogether.

Yy, what others said.

If you're equidistant between AB and HW, I should think you'd get offered one or other (both, sometimes, via waiting lists) if not on offer day then shortly thereafter. Lots of people put those schools down when they're really hoping for one of the selectives, or Camden girls', or even go private. So there will be lots of places turned down shortly after offer day, as other schools' waiting lists move, and then probably more freed up shortly before or after the start of term. You could phone the admissions depts for Camden and Haringey to see if they will tell you the cut-off distance for the last place offered from the waiting list, that might put your mind at rest.

There are several Islington schools that have no cut-off distance, which means they were not oversubscribed, and I presume that's what you get allocated if you don't get one of your preferences. IAMS - like I said I don't know anybody who's actually chosen it. Which is not a good sign, but I have no first or even second-hand knowledge. Depends what you want in a school, I guess. Holloway is another Islington school that is not particularly sought-after - again no first-hand experience. I'd guess the proportion of dc from m/c educated families is vanishingly low at both. But schools can and do change - Highbury Grove was a sink school since time immemorial, and has really turned itself around (though the eleventy squillion pound rebuild must have helped).

I moved here to this address 18 months ago, and IAMS is on my dooestep literally next door. When I moved here the next door neighbour came to say hello (she's lived here for 30 years), and when she saw DD in her HWS uniform...I must say she seemed mighty relieved and very impressed that it wasn't IAMS!

I don't like giving opinions and writing off schools I have no experience of...but I must say it doesn't have the best reputation, although the dcs' there have never been rude to me in the street or anything

I'm a parent at IAMS and can only say how happy I am. My son is doing really well and is desperate to get to school each day. He loves it. What more could you want!! He is being challenged academically, but is also doing lots of extracurricular stuff. The leadership team there are very ambitious and are determined for the school to be Outstanding (and they are well on their way!). The school has just had major building work so they have great IT, sports, music and science facilities.

Go have a look at the school and try to talk to parents with kids there so you avoid out-dated, uninformed opinion and get the real story. It's not a perfect school (what school is?) but I felt extremely lucky to have such a great school on my doorstep. It wasn't easy to filter through the negative comments to focus on what people who actually knew what they were talking about were saying. But I managed it and I'm very glad I did. The latest exam results and ofsted (literally last month) demonstrate the results of the hard work that's gone on there over the last few years. The school is keen to show off, so book a visit!