Henreitta Barnett

[FlurryGoddess]

We currently live in Sutton and our son goes to Wallington Boys Grammar School in South London, our Daughter will be joining Henrietta Barnett School in North London
Whats the best place to live to be commutable from both kids ?

Is this for September? You're leaving it a bit late, no...?

One parent stays in the family home with your son and the other gets a flat in Hampstead with your DD.

What made you decide to go for places at schools 20 miles apart on two different sides of London??

Waiting for schools to finish before I move ...we are not open to living apart...just thinking to live in between and where more girls from HBS can join my daughter to go together...

and we dont own a home...we are still renting

How does your son currently get to school? Public bus from Sutton?

Living at Victoria station would give both kids a 50 minute commute. If your son is close to finishing school, he can probably cope with a longer distance, in an unequal split.

A lot of HBS girls will live within 3 miles, as that's the first major cut off criterion. I'm not sure you'll find many families with children's locations split in the way you have it.

Well they say money can’t buy sense.

OP why on earth would you send your kids to two schools nearly 2 hours apart on a good day?

This

Elephant and castle is horrendous sort of equidistant and each will do a 1hr plus commute

Chatgpt says...

These schools are roughly 25 miles apart, North-South across London.

✅ West Hampstead / Finchley Road / Swiss Cottage
Pros:

Direct Northern Line access to HBS (daughter).

Thameslink from West Hampstead → London Bridge → Wallington for your son (about 1 hour).

Great area for families, with good schools and amenities.

Cons:

Commute for your son is longer, but doable.

✅ King’s Cross / Camden / Kentish Town
Pros:

Northern Line (High Barnet branch) → Henrietta Barnett.

Thameslink from Kentish Town / St Pancras to South London.

Cons:

Less residential in parts; more urban.

Can be expensive.

✅ Wimbledon or Raynes Park
Pros:

Easy access to Wallington (Southern rail).

Take District line to Embankment → Northern Line to Golders Green for daughter (about 1h 15).

Leafy, family-friendly, good schools and houses.

Cons:

Daughter’s commute is longer and requires changes.

Do you have any capacity to drive one child to school? Do you/DP have any requirements to commute for work?

are you on glue?

Your post doesn’t make sense, which you know. Surely moving your son to Queen Elizabeth Grammar School in Barnet would make the most sense? No one in their right mind would turn down a place at HB. Your family could rent affordably in Enfield.

Enfield would be a good idea if it didnt make the sons commute 1.5hrs each way 🥴🥴🥴

The level of "failure to plan" is just off the charts... especially given the kids are bright so presumably mum and dad are too?

Chatgpts suggested areas are the best of a bad bunch (id be looking at the north.london options not wimbledon) but even so it's still a fair old trek and your rental costs will be ££££

OP, if your son is going into an exam year, consider the impact if he has travel delays getting to exams.

Are you sure you want to do this? Why not get your DD back on Sutton girls grammars list? Surely if she passed HBS so far away she easily passed Sutton? People do change their mind last minute.

Weird! I’ve just double checked and the boy could get to school in 57 mins on public transport and the girl 1 hour 15 mins (from Enfield). I went to prep school in Hampstead and my brother went to Queen Elizabeth Boys Grammar - we lived in Crouch End. The reason I suggested Enfield is that rentals should be affordable.

that can be an option too but now also considering putting her in wait list for tiffin girls school as she had good score in the exams and without looking at north and south schools

West Hampstead, Finchley Road, Swiss Cottage are all mentioned above as having direct northern line access to HBS. They are actually on the jubilee. Bus would be best way to HBS from those areas.

Did you have an offer for Tiffin Girls that you declined, or was the score not high enough to get an offer?

I would be surprised if there's much movement on the Tiffin Girls waitlist now, given it's only a few weeks until the end of term. Anyone weighing up Tiffin and private has probably decided by now.

And you would have to give notice on your rental (or not!) before any September movement on the list.

There's some nice enough residential bits off the Walworth Road/Camberwell Road near Burgess Park which is an easy commute to Elephant & Castle, or a bit further south nearer Ruskin Park/Loughborough Jn, which will let both kids commute via Thamelink

No one in their right mind would turn down a place at HB

Someone not totally deranged living in Sutton with another DC in a secondary school in the borough might not even consider making their DD sit the entrance exam for a school 25 miles away the other side of London, actually, but for some people, presumably while HBS exists, even Nonsuch and Wallington High, relatively speaking on the doorstep, just aren't going to cut it.

So true. I know of people who have moved for HBS and other top schools once their child got in, but they got their kids to sit the exam only knowing that they would be able to move close to the school. But having another child in a school on the opposite side, makes it a situation that the OP should have thought of before. Endless hours of commuting for the kids is really not worth the top school.
Please remember schools are ranked by their results. And your child will do well in the 20th ranked grammar school as well rather than only the top one.

These things happen because there tends to be a very short window before the October deadline to make a choice on the CAF and so people get sidetracked by prestige/results rather than practicalities. We know at least 3 sets of parents who have made the mistake this year but now have a more practical option. When you choose you often do not know their actual results anyway so it is a bit of a gamble at that point.

OP remember also that you are only really choosing for Years 7-11 anyway and for a high achieving girl who made it into HBS there may be other excellent Sixth Forms locally and slightly further away as well.

Qe Boys is massively oversubscribed, so you can’t just ‘move’ a boy there.

What’s money got to do with it? Both schools are free and the OP rents her home. It seems much more likely that she has two very bright children, not enough money to get a house in a catchment area for a great state secondary school, or to pay for private schools, so she is trying to find a way to get them the best possible education she can. I genuinely think that apart from love and security, the best thing you can give your children is a good education which stretches them and instills a love of learning.

Maybe there isn’t a solution in terms of a suitable place to live for both schools, but why such a snide - irrelevant - remark for someone clearly just trying to do their best? Did it make you feel better about yourself in some way?

Just curious. Why were the local girl grammar schools Wallington Girls and Nonsuch not an option?

The cachet of HBS...