Twickenham

[MagicMN]

We might move towards twickenham in the next two years but we want to be sure about secondary schools. Are secondary schools good in thta area? Any names? Any good catholic school? Will it be too far to travel to fulham to attend the Oratory?

[Copthallresident]

You might want to go over to the threads New secondary schools for Richmond . There are 3 , with well over 2000 posts and rising. It is what is known as a can of worms! Part of which is that many do indeed travel from the Richmond borough to oratory quite happily. Oratory have resisted the diocese's attempts to set admissions criteria based on distance and have a lottery based on church attendance etc details are on their website . You will need to start earning points pretty promptly, amazing how the boys around here are suddenly enthusiastic alter boys around the time they turn 10. There are plenty of good non catholic schools close to Twickenham, the issue is that many parents doubt with some reason the council,s forecasts and believe there will be a shortage of places and several parts of twickenham will soon become black holes of provision especially for boys. Next year for the first time admissions will be solely on distance, so it is difficult to predict how quickly already shrinking catchment areas will shrink. There is also a huge bulge coming through in pupil numbers, primaries are full to burstingFor that reason there is a lot of support for a local pressure group who are challenging the councils plans to use a site in the centre of twickenham for an exclusive CAtholic school, which will exclude local non catholic children, due to open in2013, that decision is now subject to a judicial review.

[sue52]

Gumley House in Isleworth is very well a look.

[mebaasmum]

Orleans park is tthe main secondary in Twickenham which is a good school, (ofsted outstanding)should be getting a sixth form in 2014. The other one is Twickenham Academy if you are closer to the Whitton end. It is run by a Swedish group and has a different approach. There are threads on here about TA.If you have girls there is Waldegravea very good school.Orleand and Waldegrave are very over subscribed so you would need to watch where you live.Richmond does have a linked primary school system but that is stopping in favour of distance
Catholic wise see thread on Richmond local. At the moment there I is Gumley for girls, , some boys go to gunnesbury boys, a few to st marks in hounslow, difficult to get into and some to oratory. other end up with st pauls in Sunbury. Private some go to St Georges in Weybridge.
There is also Tiffin schools but very very hard to get into unless you have a very very bright child and tutor