Schools? St Francesca Cabrini + nursery reccomendations?

[semgrilo]

Hello community,

Myself and my partner are moving to the area and would love to hear your feedback on local schools. Our children (twin girls) are 2 1/2 yo and our initial research indicates that St Francesca Cabrini (catholic) or the Fairlawn School would be the closest to our home (we are in the border of Dulwich and Honor Oak Park). Have any of you sent your children to either of these schools and can share reccos? Additionally, any recommendations on nurseries nearby?

We are a mixed race gay coupe and while I was raised catholic I'm uncertain about sending the kids to catholic school (views on the "traditional family", we are not raising our children catholic), although we hear catholic schools tend to be very good?

Thanks in advance!

Daniel

[Fjgb]

Fairlawn is a very popular school and you would have to be living very close to get in. We are 350m away and did not get in. You can call the council to see how far the official distance to your house is. I understand some families rent right next to the school to guarantee a place and then move away later. My child is going to Francesca Cabrini. It's pretty Catholic (we are not catholic) but looks like it has lovely facilities nd I understand in infants religion isn't pushed too hard. There seems to be about 6 or so non Catholics going this year (those like us who are in the 'black spot' where we're not close enough to get into any non faith school). Depending on where you are horniman school is lovely if you're on the hill or else if you're over the other side Goodrich might be nearby or maybe even Ivydale in nunhead now it's 4 form entry. But if you are on Devonshire, Boveney, bottom of Dunoon, bottom of hengrave, and that area, you may not be close enough to any other schools and your 'choice' might be cabrini by default.

[Fjgb]

Ps welcome to the area! It's lovely!

[uncleglen]

I have worked in catholic schools (secondaries) in south london and i can assure you that homophobia is very much alive and well and goes unchallenged. Also the catholic secondaries exempt themselves from certain aspects of the 'equality' curriculum and sexual health matters. And a lot of the 'propaganda' coming from the RC church is from the USA and is verging on brainwashing imvho -as an impartial observer who was brought up a methodist and am now atheist

[midivydale]

Semgrilo, welcome to the area! You might want to try your luck with schools that might not be closest to you as poster above says, the catchment for Ivydale for example has really expanded no

w. Ivydale is a lovely inclusive school and I personally know of a few same sex families there. We took our chances on a school slightly further afield despite Ivydale being our closest by far and we got offered a place in May so please do not panic, there is alot of movement on the waiting lists.

Do have a look around and trust your gut. Plenty of people will say that it is fine everywhere and this is 2016 etc but trust your gut and speak to other mixed race/same sex couples. Behind the scenes attitudes vary greatly. Ultimately, we are lucky to have so many good stateschools in the area, you just need to tey and find the best fit for your family.

[semgrilo]

Thank you all for the answers! I'm already feeling the neighbourly love :)

Fjgb: according to http://www.schoolcatchment.co.uk Fairlawn and Cabrini are the only primary schools in our catchment area, but I'll call the council to confirm that information.

Uncleglen: thanks for sharing your experience. We are moving from Islington and here where we are the local catholic school was pretty progressive, there are 6 same sex families sending their children there, I've spoken to the parish about being a gay dad and he was very supportive of us applying. I will certainly take some of your advise to frame the right questions while speaking to their staff, though, I want to get a feeling for how they'd respond when the girls mention having two dad, for instance...

Midivydale: I'll look up that school, thanks. It doesn't show up when I search for my catchment area online but I'll look specifically for it.

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

[Fjgb]

In my experience, kids themselves are very accepting of different styles of families. At my eldest's nursery one of her friends has 2 mums and she explained to me how sometimes people have two mums or two dads or no dad at all. They've obviously talked about it at nursery and to her it's totally normal. However, I think Francesca Cabrini is a pretty traditional school so you'd want to get a sense of that yourself, I'm happy to talk via PM if you'd like to know more about my personal views bearing in mind we haven't started there yet. Also, there are a couple of new schools (Prendergast Ladywell and harris East dulwich) that have had open spaces for reception which are apparently lovely schools, just a bit of a distance but there are always options.

[Fjgb]

Also that website doesn't have this year's data yet and the Fairlawn catchment shrank considerably this year to I think around 290m. I imagine it will get smaller year by year to be honest. But there is movement on waiting lists, we've moved up 4 places already and lots of kids move schools in reception/year 1 as places come up.

[semgrilo]

Hello everybody

I just want to quickly thank all of you who responded - especially Johnny, Jemma, Lucy, Jules for the lovely private messages! The information has been super super helpful, I'm very excited to move there and hopeful that the girls will land in a good school, regardless of religious background.

We should be in the area in October-ish, hope to meet some of you in person soon

Daniel

[Jellybeanz]

My son goes to St Anthony's which is a very good Catholic school. I've got friends whose kids went to Cabrini and they were generally positive. I'd say go with your instincts. Don't base it on religion, base it on how you feel about the school when you look around - are the children happy? Good balance of learning/fun/being allowed to grow up at their own pace without too much pressure or stress. Good luck in whatever you decide!

[Renata Hamvas]

Hi Daniel,

welcome to the ED forum and welcome to the area. If you will be a Southwark resident in this area, you are likely to be in Peckham Rye Ward and myself, Victoria Mills and Gavin Edwards are the Councillors who represent this ward. I shall pm you.

Kind regards

Renata