Secondary school in Altrincham

[fennielaw]

Hi Everyone,
My family is moving to Altrincham in Dec. My daughters are 13 years and 15 years. I am looking for secondary school in Altrincham and Sale. By reference to the information in Trafford Council, all secondary school in this area is oversubscribed.
Do we allocate a place out of Trafford area?

[FlissMumsnet]

Hi fennielaw,

UNfortunately we're not privy to any inside information on this school but we wanted to drop in, say hi and give this a bump for you.

We hope you'll find what you're looking for.

All the best

[ChezzaY]

Hi, I am also planning to move to Altrincham area soon.

We have conducted research on some schools and have targetted Wellington School somehow, and are looking for an accommodation as close to it a possible. However, I have been shocked to realise that living close alone wouldn't get a student a place of grade 7 for school year 20/21, and I am like thunderstruck all of a sudden.

As for this year, living close alone could not get a student a place at its grade 7, not even close to it, as it could only allocate a place until category 3 (children of staff, and not even ALL in category 3!).
Living super close could only get one into the top of the list in category 4, while we can't do anything to get higher than that basically.

Here are my questions:
(1) As I can only get information for this particular school year, might I know if it has been like that every single year, or it was only occasional?
(2) Do you know anyone who could so luckily get admitted from category 4 (just by living close to the school, no siblings in school, no parent working in there, etc.) in recent years?
(3) If that is the case for every single year, which other school would you recommend trying instead? (We are actually looking for an accommodation, and would be pretty flexible if we opt for another school, as we will look for a place close enough to the target school to rent instead.)

Hope someone can answer me, as we are so desperately in need for advices!

Thanks a lot!

[happytoday73]

I pressume you are looking at this?

www.trafford.gov.uk/residents/schools/school-admissions/Admissions.aspx

To be honest id ring up trafford admissions in a few weeks when things settle. My understanding is this is a bulge year into yr7

Other things to consider...
Are your children catholic? This gives more school options....
Would you consider single sex schools?
Could your children pass a grammar school test?
Its important to remember that this is a really good area for schools so many less popular schools are actually still really great...

[ChezzaY]

@happytoday73, thanks for your quick reply!

We haven't been able to make it to apply for any grammar schools as the deadlines were May or June, and as we are just moving to England from Hong Kong, I don't think my girl would pass the eleven plus exam, although she is amongst the top students here, as English is not her mother tongue.

We aren't Catholics. So we are not considering those outstanding Catholic school already, as thee is no chance to get in at all! I don't mind girls' schools although I went to one with unpleasant experience. BUT, there is only one girls' non-grammar school in the borough, AND as she has a younger brother, getting into a good co-educational secondary school will surely be an advantage.

We went there and the kids really LOVED the setting of the school, and we love both what we found online about the school and the location as well!
Yes, my daughter is trying to get into year 7 for 21/22. So you think THIS is a competitive year?
It says on the secondary school admission information pack that Welling School only admitted upto 'Some Category 3 to 1.09319 miles' (copied & pasted from there) for 20/21.

Do you think there is any error? Or was that just for this particular year???

[happytoday73]

Likely not an error as siblings are catagory 2.. But I'm not very local to that school so don't have insider scoop. I will ask a few more local parents at football and let you know if they do 😁.
Trafford addmisions will know history but are doing last minute appeals this week so probably better to leave a week or so...