Oliver House Preparatory School on Nightingale Lane is a wonderful Catholic School if you are willing to pay fees and cannot get into Holy Ghost or St Anselm's. It is absolutely worth going to take a look.
They have an Open Day in October.
They do not advertise in any significant way as they simply do not need to. Places get filled quickly and easily. Both our daughters are there and we are very happy indeed.

Hi all,

I am hoping to get our little girl in to St Marys in clapham which is also a catholic school with a brilliant reputation. I am catholic and we actually had Isobel baptised at Holy Ghost but have recently moved to St Marys because I found father stephen a bit tricky.

I do go to mass as often as possible and am keen to get more involved in the parish (going to the toddler group, doing reading etc) but admit that I dont go every week as we are often away at the weekends

Does anyone know if St Marys has the same system of 'signing in' at mass each time you visit? Are the issues over places as extreme as holy ghost? Any advice greatly appreciated.

iirc last year about 3 people left at the end of reception (July 2010)
not sure what the movement has been like this year
depends on your luck and how long you are prepared to wait

Does anyone who has experience of applying for Holy Ghost know how quickly the waiting list goes down a) between the April offers and the September term start date, and b) in years 2, 3 etc? We attend mass every week as it's our parish but live too far for our child to get in. I was just wondering what our chances were in later years if we stayed on the waiting list. Any advice welcome!

St. Anslems has a small catchment area and attendance requirements as well. You can meet with the head and/or the parish priest to find out more.

I have started another thread on a similar topic (re: St Anselms, Tooting) but if anyone knows how close you need to live to St Anselms to get in, I'd appreciate any advice! (We're looking to move anyway so might as well try and move to the 'catchment area' if we can, although if it is too strict it may well price us out...) We attend mass weekly so that's not a problem, I don't think. Thanks!

Not sure exactly where HG school is, so can't vouch for the proximity, but St. Bedes in Clapham Park is an excellent Catholic infant school. Having lots of school experience, I would always say view schools yourself and don't take reputation into account. We had a negative experience with a school that was meant to be amazing....

In my opinion Fr Stephen is enough to put even the most devout Catholic off going to church.

Well said BalhamMumWorkingFT!

I am a Practicing Catholic in the Holy Ghost Parish and agree the school is great.

In regards to "applying", please consider your faith first. Holy Ghost gives your child a strong Catholic education. If you aren't Catholic or feel strongly about your faith there are many other outstanding state schools in and around Balham. It is excellent to support your local school, that is how they get better and better.

If you are Catholic and support your parish as you can, the application won't be an issue. Father Stephan has open evenings posted in the weekly bulletin and will see you if you have questions or want to get more involved in the parish.

Good Luck, we too are waiting for a school place in Wandsworth.

I live in East Sheen, has anyone got any insight into whether they take attendance at St.Mary Magdalene's in Mortlake?

I go irregularly and so am worried we are not part of the in crowd

I have a Catholic friend who had regularly attended church in her area before moving to Balham and approaching Fr Stephen about joining HG parish. She was basically told not to bother trying to get her son (then a recent newborn) in because most of the places were already allocated. On hearing that, I didn't see a point in wasting my time attending church every week. I'm obviously not a devout practising Catholic but do like attending every now and again; however Fr Stephen's words were so off-putting and made me reaffirm my belief that Churches are a con. Short of giving significant monetary donations and scrubbing the floors to his £2m house in the square, I'm not sure what else you can do to 'sway his opinion' in favour of you over the other parisioners, especially with the surplus of babies in the area. Call me cynical. May have better luck at St Anslem's which I hear is also very good if you live in the Tooting Bec area.

if you work on the principal that HG has the catchment area of a postage stamp, one form entry plus sibling priority then don't be too optimistic.

The form askes when you moved to the parish and I think if you moved within the 3 years they take this into account.

I think the last person to be offered a place in April for entry in Sept 2011 was about 500m from the school (walking distance, etc.), so you basically need to be on a neighbouring road.

Wow. This is really terrifying! We're moving to Earlsfield in the next month or two and our plan was to get our (now 2YO) child into HG, but it sounds like we've already missed the boat with the mass register, and probably won't live close enough anyway...

Does anyone have any experience of other local catholic primaries? Are any on a par with Holy Ghost?

TH