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Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

Hiya, Wondering if anyone else living near us is in our position... We found out earlier this week about school admissions and discovered to our dismay that we were (in the 6% of people) not offered any of our six choices which were all within the local vicinity. We live on Uplands Road. if there are more of us perhaps we could put pressure on the council to build
extra provision nearby for this year.

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Thanks for all your advice and suggestions. John, yours was the most original and extreme! We've now been offered st mary's which I'm much happier with.

St Mary's where? I trust that's not St Mary's on Hermitage Road which must be even further away and more inconvenient to get to from Crouch End?

I chose Seven Sisters for the same reason as you apparently would have prefered one of your original choices, it's our nearest primary school.

Other children at the same childminder were there, and my kids used to go to pick them up, my older son was in the nursery class and we have used the Children's Centre regularly, a brilliant place which is working hard to help local families and children to have fun, find support and prepare for education later, so we had built up a relationship with the school in various ways over the years.

I have since become a parent governor and believe that the school has a very committed head and some very enthusiastic and inspiring teachers - my older son was very sad to finish Year 1 and leave his teacher there but he now thinks his year 2 teacher is even better, and was even sad on the last day of last term.

We've just been offered a place at Seven Sisters - it was by no means my first choice but I asked to be put on their waiting list when we started going down, rather the up the waiting lists at our 6 first choice schools. The staff at Seven Sisters have been super helpful to us and so I've got a really good feeling about the school. It's reassuring and nice to hear of such positive comments from parents of children who are already at the school. We are going to have a look round tomorrow so my son is very excited about that.

I live on Ridge Road and would be interested to meet up, over the summer, with any parents whose kids are going there, as it might be nice for our kids to already have established some friendships. So if you're off to Seven Sisters, let me know! 

Hi Charlotte

Can I ask how you get to the school (Seven Sisters Primary I mean) ? My daughter doesn't need a reception place till 2015 but I am looking at what's happening now and what's likely to come up.

I worked out that we would either have to get the W3 or the train from Harringay to Finsbury Park (both the bus and train can be unreliable, especially in bad weather when you want reliability!), changing at Fins Park to get the Victoria Line to Seven Sisters and then walking. I reckon its about an hour plus from Ridge Road unless there's a faster route that I've missed. Also, can I ask if the council are going to be contributing towards the travel costs?

W5 to Green Lanes then 341 to Chestnuts park. Then a 5 min walk.

We went to see the school today and got the 341 from Green Lanes and then walked to the school from Chestnuts park. That was fine but quite a long walk for my little boy so from September I think I am going to get the train from Harringay to Hornsey and then get a 41 bus from outside New River Village to West Green Road and walk from there - it's less than five minutes. I think altogether the travel time should be around 30 mins. I don't think the council have any plans to supplement travel costs but I haven't looked into it at all.

FYI - we went to see the school today and we were so impressed. I definitely would have put it one of my initial 6 choices if I had known about it. The school is making so much progress and the staff all seem really dedicated and enthusiastic - they also seem to want to make life as easy as possible for parents.

Thanks. I think we'll go have a snoop round. And time the transport options!

I still think it's worth prodding Harringey about school places planning though. According to the school places planning report from July 2013, it is known that demand is going to exceed supply all over the Borough. It's just that it's already happened in our patch to a ridiculous extent.

Well all I can say is that I don't think the school situation is going to change in the next few years. Every new school that opens or extends has to be an Academy or a Free School. I would be very reluctant to send my son to an Academy and I certainly wouldn't send him to a Free School.

Providing he settles into Seven Sisters without any problems, I also wouldn't change it even if we were offered a place higher on our list. I found out about, and researched Seven Sisters after we failed to get any of our initial choices - it is on my way to work and offers the out-of-hours provision that I require.

The only complaint I have about Haringey Council is that all they kept telling us to do was wait even though we were dropping down waiting lists. If I hadn't found a school for my son, we would still be sitting here twiddling our thumbs.

Indeed. I was speaking to another woman with a son the same age as my daughter. We think the secondary situation might be pretty grim further down the line and we do have enough time to do something about it now. Aside from Highgate Woods (near Queens Woods), I don't think boys have many options if they want to stay local and not go to an academy. I don't wish to be alarmist but have you noticed that the catchment for Highgate Woods isn't exactly massive either. It's about 0.8 miles now but I bet it won't be 0.8 in seven/eight years' time. I don't understand why the old Town Hall is being turned into luxury flats instead of repurposed as a school (I know Mountview Drama School are also going to be housed there but even so). Maybe it's time to hassle Michael Gove (or whoever is Education Secretary after next year) about repealing the Act of 2005(?) that local authorities can't build new schools. Tristram Hunt lives around here apparently so we should be able to invite him round to tea and a chat...

The 341 goes as near to Seven Sisters as the 41 does - instead of getting off at the first stop on Black Boy Lane near Chestnuts School, with the park just over the road, stay on until the second stop on Black Boy Lane - you have to get across the road but there is now a zebra crossing. Turn into the road off Black Boy Lane where the shop is, turn up Falmer Road and walk to the other end, cross Cornwall Road, then Gorleston Road (another shop on the corner, which becomes Newsam Avenue, cross Avenue Road at the zebra and Newsam Avenue takes you to the school. (it sounds much more complicated than it is like that, basically you carry on in the same direction from the bus stop. If you then need to get the tube, you can walk through both playgrounds and come out much further down towards Seven Sisters Road and the station.

Also, the 41 runs to and from Tottenham Lane near the Clocktower - I don't know how long it takes to walk up Ferme Park Road to Tottenham Lane but I think it might be closer than Hornsey station. Also, the bus doesn't run FROM outside the station heading east to get to school in the morning, heading west it stops opposite but going east it comes a different way, and you'd have to walk down and face that rather nasty road crossing.

Thank you - that's so kind of you.

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