Applying out of borough - is it worthwhile

[mixedmamameansbusiness]

I have four choices and only two schools that I find acceptable in my brough which has just put 120 children who havent got places due to the borough just not having the facitlities into a church hall.

Has anybody applied to another borough (which iswhat I am thinking of doing for my latter two choices)? How does this effect friendship groups etc for play dates and so forth as I realise there is a social element as well as the educational element?

At present I dont drive so it is going to require some heavy duty sorting out of logistics but could probably be done.

For the sake of a good school is it worth making DS1 travel and live further away from his friends.

[RenderedSpeechless]

hi. my dd goes to primary school in a neighbouring borough. cant say its affected her friendships. she has playdates and would not say that the distance has affected her friendship groups. dd goes to after school actvities and has different friends there. hth

[AtheneNoctua]

My kids go to school in another borough. WEe go to the church, which how we got in. We are by far the furthest from the school. Everyone else live very close to the school. We are a 20 min bus ride. The school is academically superior to our local one. And I wanted a church and school that are connected. I do acept that I have do do a lot more driving to and from the twon where the school is for birthday parties, after school activities, etc. But I think that is a small price to pay for a better school. Wherever ther are parent nights out they are near the school and not near my house. I just accept that.

Do you think your chance of getting into a scholl not in your borough are good? This is often a very difficult thing to do.

[mixedmamameansbusiness]

I doubt my chances are all that good, however I live in one of the most overcrowded boroughs in London and they have trouble placing all the children as it is with 120 odd not getting a place anywhere.

I have not looked at the option of going out of the borough yet as it was suggested to me by my boss this morning, but you may well be right and it probably wont be easy.

DS1 can actually stay at nursery till 5 and then start Y1 so that is also an option but not sure how happy Iam with that.

[AtheneNoctua]

Can I be nosey and ask what borough you live in, and which one you might apply to?

[mixedmamameansbusiness]

I live in Camden and not sure where I might apply as I am not that familiar with the surrounding boroughs as yet and the suggestion was only put to me today.

[AtheneNoctua]

I think you would have to look at schools, find one you like, and check the admission criteria to see if you can meet. I think if you end up with no school place then the LEA in which you live must give you a place, but it will of course be somewhere no one else wants to go. So, unless there a school attached to your church or some other criteria I would think getting into a good school outside your borough might be difficult.

What I would suggest is to apply to the ones you want, and do not accept a school you do not want (if worst comes to worst and you don't get any of the ones you want).

All schools either publish the entrance criteria or will give it to you upon request. That's where you should probably start.

[telsa]

I live in Camden but applied to Islington and Westminster. We got our first choice place in Westminster in the end. The journey to school is about 15 minutes by bike. We find it fine - other children live between here where we live and school and most congregate in the same large play area of Coram Fields. I am glad we did this and did not go to our local schools - but it is all very specific, I guess, depending where you are, how you can travel, what you want.

[mixedmamameansbusiness]

Westminster may be worth looking into actually since it will be workable for work and uni, but as athene said need to look into the criteria etc first.