Moving to the catchment area of Waldegrave

[Leo12345]

Good day!

My daughter is 9 yrs old, we live in Kingston and we have plans to move to the catchment area of Waldegrave girls school, i.e. to rent the flat we own in Kingston and hire a flat in Teddington until our daughter finishes secondary school.

I realize we need to do this 1 year in advance, i.e. we plan her to move to a primary school in Teddington from year 6.

But I checked the Richmond borough website for secondary admissions (www.richmond.gov.uk/secondary_admission.pdf) and they have
a lot of warnings there, e.g. if you own a home outside the borough and moved to the borrow, they will still consider your previous address etc.

Is it really like this, i.e. I cannot put my home at rent and move to the borrow to enter the school?

Does anybody have an experience of moving near Waldegrave to get place?

(Of course I realize they are very selective with regards to the catchment area, but I really intend to live there during my daughter studies in Waldegrave).

Yes it is true www.standard.co.uk/news/london/town-hall-fired-me-for-taking-legal-action-over-a-school-place-8834556.html
However lots do move into the Waldegrave catchment in the later primary school years in order to get into Waldegrave. However they have all we know have really moved ie sols and bought in catchment. Or stopped renting one property and rented another. Both my DS had 2 or 3 new girls arrive in year 5/6

Mary21, many thanks to you, I changed my mind, it was a chimera!

I don't want to build on something so unsure and move to another area for a vague chance to get into just one school, even brilliant.

There are plenty of independent/selective schools around my area, and we have good chances to get scholarship for part of the fee. After all we can move closer to school once we are accepted.

Also Teddington is so inconvenient to commute to London.

?????????? I lived in Teddington for 10 years and managed to get to Central London AND BACK again each day for work. Change at Richmond for the fast train or walk home from Twickenham if you can't be arsed to sit on a train for 35 minutes.

My DH does the daily commute from Peterborough to Aldwych. Now THAT'S inconvenient!

Thanks for this info!
Perhaps I'm too spoilt a child, it takes me 18 min from

Surbiton station to Waterloo, direct trains every 10 mins.

Have you considered Surbiton High School? I used to work for its parent group. It's a very hot school and I'd recommend it over St Catherine's

I recommend looking into The Green School, just north of Twickenham in Isleworth. If you are a practising Anglican, it's fairly easy to get a place from rather far. Academically, it's as good as Waldegrave. Culturally, it is very diverse (both racially and religiously). But it is a c of E school and does celebrate Christain festivals.

My DD wanted to go to Waldegrave, but did not get in because we were too far. She is at The Green School, which has turned out to be the right choice.

Of course, if you are prepared to pay for private, this might not be the school for you.

I would also recommend The Green School, my daughter is thriving and absolutely love it. I'm so pleased just she got a place there: the perfect combination of academic and culturally diverse which is why we chose it.

How old is your daughter, if you don't mind me asking? Mine is year 8.

Strip, if your question was directed to me: mine is in year 7.

Friend's daughter is at the Green School. Fantastic GCSE results and now applying for medical schools - they are really happy with the education their daughter gets.

Still chuckling at the idea of the commute being too difficult from Teddington. My 76 year old boss does Teddington to Central London every day by train to Waterloo then the tube.

You would actually stand a better chance of getting a place at Waldegrave if you lived in Twickenham, and that's a very easy commute to central London.