Best place to live for St. Michael's Catholic Grammar in Finchley

[NewtoSecondaryWorld]

Hello! my daughter will most likely be accepted at St. Michael's Grammar school in North London, so we are looking to move to a convenient place. We do not know the area, so I am looking for some suggestions of good places for her to commute from, considering that parents need to travel to central London for work. We are open to all areas and will adjust to our budget as we know that North London is expensive.

I am a bit lost at the options, and will receive any hints most gratefully. DD will travel by public transport and it would be great if she can go with other girls, at least at the beginning.

Also, if you know any families at St. Michael's, I would also appreciate your thoughts on whether they are happy there.

Many thanks in advance!

Hi, am familiar with the area although don't know any current families. Would you be able to post a rough budget and requirements for your house (e.g. £500k 3 bed semi or £6 million 10 bed mansion ) as this would help guide you to a suitable area.

Perhaps easiest from your DD's point of view, you could look to live in North Finchley/Woodside Park itself, not the very nicest/poshest area but safe enough and your DD could then walk to school. St Michael's is a short walk away from Woodside Park tube and also a number of bus routes go through North Finchley or to the bus station, which I suspect are used heavily by school children in the area, so if you do go down the commuting option I'd recommend looking at stations/stops along those routes so she doesn't have to change - e.g. on that branch of the Northern line you have Tufnell Park, Archway, Highgate and all the Finchleys to the south or Totteridge and High Barnet to the north, or the 221 bus goes from Edgware to Turnpike Lane via North Finchley, so you could look at places like Mill Hill, New Southgate, Bounds Green etc all of which also have tube or train stations for access to central London. In general stations along the overground rail lines and Piccadilly line are a little cheaper than the northern line equivalent, but as with all things suburban north London you get posh/expensive areas rubbing shoulders very closely with more deprived/cheaper areas so it all depends what exactly you are looking for, and also how you feel about your commute(s) - personally I will accept a little longer in journey time if I don't have to change frequently and/or am at the end of the line so am guaranteed a seat but everyone is different in that regard...

@maxelly Thank you very much! I will start looking at the areas you suggested. We are lucky to have a large budget but not quite the 10 bedroom mansion though : ) we have a large family and are looking for a 4 bedroom house. We are flexible about most things apart from easy commute to school (ideally a single bus or train) and work, and within catchment to a good state primary school for younger siblings. Many thanks again!

Girls tend to get the bus rather than the tube - it's quite a long walk from the nearest tube, although still doable.

Anywhere on the 134 or 263 bus route will work well - Muswell Hill or Highgate are nice if your budget will stretch, otherwise East Finchley has a nice villagey centre and is slightly cheaper. Both those areas have lots of girls travelling to St M. A slightly longer bus journey would get you to Archway/Tufnell Park/Kentish Town/Camden, which don't have lots of girls travelling because of other good local schools, but she'd def have company at least part of the way.

Less sought-after/cheaper areas that are still perfectly okay would be north Finchley/Finchley central.

@effzeh Thank you very much! This is very useful. I will investigate the 134 and 263 bus routes - this is great information : )

the 125 bu has been extended to hendon, terminating at colindale station.
finchley itself is very pleasant, and moss hall is an excellent primary school very near to st michaels. there is also st teresa's if you want religious school, a bit further towards east finchley.
st michael's had a reputation of being highly pressurised, and the girls highly competitive, not so much on the warm fuzzy community engagement thing, but i guess you know that.
finchley, whetstone with totteridge tube for commuting, high barnet, hendon, golders green, are all one bus ride.
golders green is very nice, very pricey too, and hampstead garden suburb, but worth a look if you can afford it.
i would personally avoid points east of north finchley, gets a bit rougher, esp for a school girl walking alone. don't go near wood green for example. very dodgy, high crime area. there is some animosity to the distinctive purple grammar school uniform
good luck.
(apologies to anyone who lives in those areas, but i wouldn't).

Lots of St Michael's girls travel on the bus as previous posters have said. Whetstone is a great family area and reasonable for North London-lots of 4 bed semi's for around the 1 million mark. Woodside park is actually a lovely area for 4 bed houses and loads of families. ( not sure why the previous poster said it wasn't!) North Finchley isn't great but NW3 is a better postcode. You are looking at around a million for a 4 bed family semi home, detached around 1.2 upwards. Mill Hill or Hendon might be worth looking at if you can work out a decent bus route. My neighbours daughter is going-they found out she has a place a few weeks ago. Have you an idea where your daughter is on the list? You can ask them as I think allocation date is end of March and it doesn't give you much time to buy and get settled.

I didn't mean Woodside Park was bad at all, nancy, only that people's definition of a 'nice' or even 'safe' area varies, I have definitely heard people describe North Finchley (and Woodside Park effectively is North Finchley) as rough, I wouldn't say that at all but if you are judging by the standards of say Hampstead, Highgate, Muswell Hill et al and are wanting to see lots of boutique clothes shops and wine bars then you'd be disappointed. Hence me asking for a bit more on Ops expectations and budget. If you want a good range of such useful everyday things like grocery shops, banks, charity shops, supermarkets etc then north finchley is ideal, the schools in the area are good plus there are absolutely some very nice houses at the Woodside Park end, and it's more affordable than East finchley and church end. So sorry if I accidentally put anyone off, not my intention!

@maxelly you are absolutely right about North Finchley high st, it's not great sadly. Crime is higher in Muswell Hill then Woodside park-loads of teens being mugged for their phones. Yes Muswell Hill has a lovely centre-I always feel it's expensive since it doesn't have a tube however has lots of buses. East Finchley has smartened itself up recently. ( lived there for a few years before we moved for a bigger house and a drive-luxury in London!) Highgate and Hampstead are out of most Londoners price range sadly! I would love a townhouse just of the heath and hampstead high street .

@nancypineaple @maxelly thanks for all the additional tips, I will look up Whetstone as well as I have never heard of it. We are currently in an area that some people consider rough, so we are not put out by lack of boutique shops or fancy wine shops, though that would be nice : ) Our budget is around 1.5 million, but we'll know for sure when it's time to sell. My DD was number 80 in the ranking and the school told us that we can expect to get offered a place as she's in the top 125, so I think it's highly likely that she'll be accepted, and as you mentioned, there is not much time to look for a house and move before the school year starts.

The 134 bus looks very promising, and I am going to check the 263 and 125. Many thanks again for taking the time to share your wisdom and advice, I really appreciate it!

The 134 bus looks very promising, and I am going to check the 263 and 125.
The 134 goes from North Finchley (from the splendidly-named Tally Ho Corner) down to Muswell Hill, and then via Highgate tube station down to Archway, Tufnell Park, Kentish Town, Camden Town and onto Tottenham Court Road. It's a useful bus route for non-school purposes as well, as it will get you directly into the centre of town. although it does take a bit of a loop through Muswell Hill, so the journey from eg. Tufnell Park or Kentish Town to North Finchley will take a bit of time (tfl journey planner will give you an idea of timings).

The 263 (think I've got the number right) goes from North Finchley through East Finchley and Highgate to Archway, so not as useful for getting into town, but the best route from St M to East Finchley (there may be other buses that do this route as well). I don't know the areas to the north of the school at all.

If she's no. 80 on the list you will get a place at StM as long as you put it first on your CAF. £1.5M is possibly a bit tight for a nice big house in Muswell Hill or Tufnell Park, but there should be options in the areas around E. Finchley - I'm not really up to speed on London house prices post-Brexit and Covid.

@effzeh many thanks! It's all a bit complicated, and the idea of finding a house, move, finding schools for the younger ones and move them is a bit daunting, so I appreciate the time you took to post. Have a good day!

The further north you go on the 263, the cheaper it gets. High Barnet, end out the route/line is civilised (poor high street though), has good primaries and plenty of girls round here go to St Michaels and boys to Finchley Catholic.

OP, I'm very familiar with St. Michael's and the surrounding areas. My DD went to St. Michael's many moons ago and she loved it there, in fact, it was my first choice school for her over everything else. I'd say, short of the sky falling down, being ranked No. 80 would guarantee you a place there. My DD (born end of August) was ranked 23 and even then the headmistress said during the parents' interview that we wouldn't get a confirmation until March when schools would then be authorised to send out confirmation letters. But in the meantime, we could get uniforms etc organised.

There used to be only 96 places available for ages but this was increased to around 120-ish (?) in the last couple of years or so - during Theresa May's grammar school expansion scheme. My friend's DD (both from Eastern Europe) got a place last year and both were over the moon!

The Tally Ho bus station is literally a stone's throw from the front gate of St. Michael's! It's the best and most convenient way to reach the school - forget about the underground which is far away; unless you get another bus from Finchley Central Station.

Seven different buses come to Tally Ho, namely:
Bus No: 13 - starts and ends here to and from central London - Victoria
134 - starts and ends here to and from central London - Warren Street
112 - fairly new service single-deck bus terminating at Ealing Broadway
125 - begins at Southgate and terminating at Colindale (vice versa)
221 - begins at Turnpike Lane and terminating at Edgware (vice versa)
263 - begins at Barnet Hospital and terminating at Highbury Barn (vice versa)
460 - begins and ends here to and from heaven knows where. . .

Please refer to TfL's bus routes for the areas and places the above buses cover. It's got to be a huge chunk of London!

With your budget there should be many properties around the north Finchley area which I think is ideal for schools. Queen Elizabeth 's Boys (QEB), the nation's No. 1 grammar is one bus ride away. Personally, Highgate, Muswell Hill, High Barnet and all the "high" places don't appeal to me as far as properties go. East Finchley is rather dull with nothing except the tube station.

@peteneras thanks so much! I agree that a bus ride would be preferable, I will look at all those options you mentioned. I wasn't aware of the bus going straight to Victoria, will check it up. It's a shame that the lockdown will make it more difficult to get a sense of all the possible areas, as north London is quite unknown to us. But we are quite pleased and hopeful about the St Michael's place : )