What are the primary options in the Balham area? Post Reply

[Catman]

Hi,

We are thinking of moving to Balham and wondering what the options are regarding primary school, both state and private.

Ideally we are looking for a school within a 10-15 commute in car and could choose to rent close to a specific school.

What are the best state and private schools in the area?

Also, is there another area we should consider, especially for good state primaries (willing to live as far out as Wimbledon).

Thanks!

[pie81]

Within Balham itself:

Alderbrook, Ravenstone, Henry Cavendish, Rutherford House (a fairly new free school I think?), Holy Ghost (Catholic) and Trinity St Marys are the state schools I know of

As for private: Hornsby House, Bertrum House and the Eveline school are in Balham.

Further afield: lots more state options but you may not get in to the ones which are distance based. Private: Broomwood, Finton, Thomas's, Wandsworth Prep, Roche School, White House, Eaton House, Newton Prep... probably lots more if you're looking at wider SW london area.

Have a look on Wandsworth council website, there should be a list I think. Estate agent websites can be helpful too.

[pie81]

Ah just seen you asked for BEST. I've just listed all the ones I know of... Best is so subjective!

[twomonkeys]

To answer the final part of your question:

Also, is there another area we should consider, especially for good state primaries (willing to live as far out as Wimbledon).

Tooting Bec has very good state primaries:

Rutherford House School (previously mentioned) yet to be Ofsted rated
Hillbrook (outstanding)
Fircroft School (good)
St Anselm's RC School (outstanding)

[Geegee007]

Telferscot is outstanding too

[rooting4tooting]

State Primaries in Balham
In No particular order
Trinity St Mary's
Ravenstone
Henry Cavendish.

the 10-15 car commute comment made my teeth grind though...
Always be at a Primary you can walk to....

[daisydaisy]

Dear rooting4tooting
Please stop grinding your teeth. With catchment areas being as they are, some children are not lucky enough to be placed at a school within walking distance.

[rooting4tooting]

where in Wandsworth can you not walk to a local primary school?

[Balhammumwithbabies]

Teeth grinding here too....
Perhaps if people stopped renting in the catchment area of the 'best' schools and then moving up to 15 minutes drive away then the majority of children would be able to attend the closest school and walk.
Surely all children should ideally attend the closest school, this would help to promote a better sense of community, enable children to perhaps walk rather than sit in a car and reduce the traffic on the roads and the number of cars outside schools. All of which promote the health and safety of our children.
As someone who lives 50 houses from one of the Balham schools mentioned and still may not get a place due to the catchment area being less than 200m it is infuriating to hear that people consider renting to get into a school then move away. Please just decide where you want to live and then apply to the nearest schools.

[Balhammom]

Hi
Can I step in here please.

Another parent has asked us for advice about the local schools in our area and somehow this thread has been hijacked into a critisicm about whether people should walk to school.

I understand that people may feel strongly about people school catchment areas but I don't think it's for us to turn every request for information and help into a teeth grind.

[NightingaleMum]

I can offer some of my own opinions on private options (it's been a while since we looked as DS is 2.5yrs now so he's not at school and we did all the applications 2.5yrs ago so things may have changed):

Hornsby House in the Nightingale triangle is usually described as "exactly what a state primary should be like if it had all the resources it needed to achieve it". It's got a great reputation locally for being a child centred primary school. I think I'm correct that it doesn't have an academic test for entry unlike some other private primary schools locally. It's admissions policy was/is something about the age of the child when they are added to the waiting list I seem to remember.

Finton House is our second choice, again, non selective admissions, first come first served - our DS has a guaranteed place there as we applied so early. They have a lot of support staff for handling children with special needs at both ends of the spectrum (it's easy to forget the super bright kids that can need just as much attention to stop them getting bored as the kids at the other end of the spectrum). Something that comes up on this forum about Finton house is the split of sexes, I understand that boys tend to leave for secondary schools before the girls do (due to the intake age of local private secondary schools) so the upper age classes of kids tend to have way more girls in the classes than boys. Don't know if that's actually true but I've seen it discussed a few times on NVN.

Broomwood Hall - does have a selective admissions policy I seem to remember, we toured the school and decided it wasn't for us very quickly so I didn't do too much more research. Plenty of posts on this forum though about it... I'm still not sure whether to believe that there is a parental dress code for picking the kids up and are hunter wellies actually specified on the uniform list ;P

My knowledge decreases from here on in I'm afraid:

St Thomas' - highly academic and is selective (interviews, tests etc I believe). Again, we decided against it early on so I can't offer more.

Bertram House - has nursery intake as well, I know as we got offered a place but we decided against it as our son is super happy where he is. I think if you take the nursery place up you are almost guaranteed a place at the primary?

Eaton House
Newton Prep - heard really good things but too far away for us so never investigated further
Wandsworth Prep
White house
Eveline School

I'm probably not being that much help really!

I should note though that we've were told by staff at a couple of the local nurseries that they've never had kids not get a place at a local private school regardless of when they start applying - lots of early applicants get offered a couple or more places and once they choose where to send DC spaces open up at the other schools... and their sense was a place is always found even if it isn't at your first choice.

HTH

[Seb]

Can I say upfront that these are not my words but from AP.

They do, however, keep getting reposted by various people because they're true!

If local independent schools were TV programmes...

Broomwood Hall/Northcote Lodge: perfect if your child secretly wants to wear spats and a waistcoat, calls you mater and pater and yearns for Edwardian England. Its like Downton Abbey but for little people.

Thomas' is the Apprentice, i.e. they openly want to conquer the work, believe in winning at all costs and *know* they are going to be prime minister one day. Some of the children are a little "Damienish". An uber-confident five year old can be a bit scary. Which is why it's The Apprentice. They also interview the kids to get a place so they really do say "you're hired" (sort of).

Hornsby House is a bit of a balance of the two and is fantastically popular and I don't know enough about them to suggest a TV programme.

Finton House is lovely and has a fab reputation. All the boys leave at seven. I found it a bit sweet and sickly so I reckon Ballamory as it has sod all to do with the real world.

Parkgate: beautiful little school but almost no sport for the boys so a few of their kids grow up thinking their football wizards and then fail to make the "Z" team at a bigger school.

Bertrum House is lovely and is especially suitable for younger children.

For a longer thread checkout here

viewtopic.php?f=54&t=18784&p=39380&hilit=spats#p39380

[Catman]

Nightingale and Seb, thank you! That is extremely helpful

[BertrumHouse]

Thank you to everyone who has said lovely things about us - it's wonderful to hear that we're making a positive impact on our families.

For anyone new in the area, Bertrum House is an independent pre-prep and nursery school situated on two sites off Balham High Road. We pride ourselves on having a strong family community and providing a broad and inspiring curriculum for our children.

We specialise in the education of young children aged 2 to 7 years old. The school is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year and has built a strong reputation for guiding children gently and successfully through these very important first five years of school life.

Our nursery department takes children from two and half years old and is based in a large and bright hall on Rowfant Road. There is an outside area with canopy so the children can learn outside all year. Children can come to our Nursery class for three, four or five mornings building to five mornings in Pre-Reception.

The pre-prep department on Balham High Road has a field for sport and play and the children learn in spacious, bright classrooms. We are very well staffed, meaning that every child is nurtured to help them achieve excellent academic results while they grow in social and emotional confidence.

We are still registering children for Reception 2015. If you have any questions or would like to find out more about Bertrum House School our Principal, Kirsty Pirrie, is available on Thursday mornings for showrounds. Alternatively, we have an open day for the pre-pre department on Thursday 23rd April from 9.45am until 11am and the nursery department on Monday 27th April from 1.30pm until 3.30pm.

Please contact the school office for further details or to book an appointment: we would be delighted to show you around Bertrum House at work.

office@bertrumhouseschool.org.uk
www.bertrumhouseschool.co.uk
tel: 020 8767 4051

[Mummy Karine]

Hi everyone,

On this note, I would have a question. We have put our girl name down for Broomwood in May 2014 for start in September 2015, she had the interview and she got a place offered so we paid the deposit.
We are a trilingual family (French/English/Finnish) and we were hoping to get l'Ecole de Wix but because it is part of the Lycée Francais they don't have this type of interview and so early before the actual start date. We had to register just less than a month ago and just got the answer yesterday that our first daughter got a space which we have obviously accepted.
However I am keen on getting my deposit back from Broomwood as I am sure they will get someone from their waiting list as soon as we tell them we are no longer taking the place. They have a policy about the refund of the deposit which is that we need to let them know by the third week of October of the year before the start we will no longer take the space. We are obviously way past that date but I truly believe that they will fill their class with someone on the waiting list
Anyone would have any tip/advice/similar situation to get my deposit back?
We are struggling with the school fees and my second daughter is born in October which means she won't get the early years education grant before she is 3 1/2 years old so getting that deposit back will help us. I am a full time working mum so we need a babysitter for after school so all of these fees added well I am sure you all know where I am coming from.
Thanks very much for any advice