Primary Schools Earlsfield / Tooting

4 posts
HettyHetty
Posts: 2
Joined: Feb 2021
Options:
Share this post on:

Primary Schools Earlsfield / Tooting

Postby HettyHetty » Sun Feb 28, 2021 8:52 pm

We currently live around Tooting Broadway and are expecting our second child later in the year so thinking we need to move to a bigger house.

I'm interested in the area between Tooting and Earlsfield, around Garratt Lane, but I am a bit unclear about primary schools. We currently seem to be quite spoilt for choice in Tooting. But this area seems to be a bit of a no man's land - not quite Earlsfield, not quite Tooting.

We also attend St Boniface Catholic Church and so I had hoped to be able to potentially send the kids to St Boniface PS but I think by moving in this direction we leave the parish and so might not get in. The admissions criteria seems to favour children more in the direction of Collier's Wood rather than Earsfield.

Does anyone have any insight into this area? There are loads of families with kids around there so they must go to school somewhere! And does anyone know if St Boniface tend to accept children living in that direction? Or are there any other Catholic options I'm missing?

Thanks
Post Reply
JosieTG
Options:
Share this post on:

Re: Primary Schools Earlsfield / Tooting

Postby JosieTG » Sun Feb 28, 2021 10:27 pm

Hi, in response to your question about St Boniface, if you’re a practising Catholic I’m pretty sure you’re almost guaranteed a place. If you look at the admissions info on the WBC website it says that for 2020 all applicants were offered a place. I’m not sure why that is - it is less popular than it used to be a few years ago (possibly combination of Brexit effect and COVID and maybe also a reaction to the decision a year or two ago to merge year groups).

Not sure about other schools in the area. The only other catholic school I’m aware of is St Anselms, you may want to look at that too, don’t assume you live too far away, worth giving it a go if you’re interested). There are a number of good schools in both Tooting and earlsfield, would you be close enough to Tooting Primary or Earlsfield Primary?
Post Reply
HettyHetty
Posts: 2
Joined: Feb 2021
Options:
Share this post on:

Re: Primary Schools Earlsfield / Tooting

Postby HettyHetty » Mon Mar 01, 2021 9:20 am

Thanks Josie. Interesting about St Boniface. I knew it bad been a little easier recently. Didn't know about the merging years though. I suppose my worry was if things change again over the next few years (we're still quite a way from actually applying) moving out of the parish might cause issues.

I had assumed St Anslem's would be a no given we're not all that close. But perhaps I shouldn't discount it completely.

I don't think the area we're looking at is close enough to Earlsfield Primary, while we currently might be ok for Tooting Primary. Hence the dilemma!

Thanks again.
Post Reply
JosieTG
Options:
Share this post on:

Re: Primary Schools Earlsfield / Tooting

Postby JosieTG » Mon Mar 01, 2021 1:06 pm

I just don’t think it’s possible to predict which way things will move. If you’re interested in those two (or any ohner) Catholic schools the best thing you can do is to continue to attend mass regularly (when that becomes possible again). My personal advice is to find the house that suits your family first. The faith schools usually have larger catchments - for St Anselms, for example, there are many pupils that live in Furzedown which is quite a distance away. It will change from year to year but it seems to me that catchments for these two schools are increasing year by year - also influenced by relatively new “free schools” that were opened 7 or 8 years ago. I think a number of people who might previously have applied to St Anselms are now applying to Rutherford House and something similar is happening (I think) for St Boniface and Tooting Primary.
Post Reply

Start a conversation
To create a new post and start a new conversation, please click on the button.