Edgware's schools are the part of the move that needs the least worrying about. Nearly every graded school in the borough is good or better. There's a primary a short walk from most front doors. The choice at eleven comes down to two local secondaries. Parents here have less to fret about than they tend to assume, and fret anyway.
Around Edgware there are 15 mainstream state primaries, and their pupils average a maths score of about 108 at the end of primary school. The Department for Transport's modelled walk to the nearest primary, from 2019, is about seven minutes. Edgware Primary School carries the town's name, and Watling Park School serves the streets round the Watling Estate. London Academy appears on both the primary and the secondary lists, so some families get through the whole of Year 6 without filling in a secondary application.
The area has two mainstream state secondaries, and their pupils average an Attainment 8 score of about 45 across the whole cohort. Canons High School and London Academy are the two names. The modelled journey to a secondary is about 17 minutes on foot or about 16 by public transport, against seven to a primary. Parents who picture an eleven-year-old walking to Canons High on their own should walk the route at half past eight on a school day first. With only two state secondaries, choosing one is less a decision than a coin toss with paperwork.
Across the London Borough of Barnet, Ofsted has graded 59 schools and settings, and 57 of them are good or better, so almost all of them. Twelve are outstanding, two require improvement and none is inadequate. Another 66 hold no published grade yet and are left out of those counts. The council allocates places by its published admissions rules, so buying near a well-graded school does not secure a place there, and that applies to every name on this page. An Edgware listing that says "close to outstanding schools" is pointing at a borough with a dozen of them, and makes no promise about which one will take your child.
The schools are the easiest part of the Edgware decision. The primaries are close and good, and the borough's Ofsted record is close to spotless. At eleven the choice narrows to two, and both are in the area.