Iver village vs iver heath primary school and late applications

[lovebug77]

Hi there.

I have two LO (8 months and 3yrs old). And are looking to move to iver. Was wondering if anyone has any opinions on either of these schools?? And which is better??
Ofcourse I will be reading the ofsted and visiting both. The problem
I have is that we will not be moving untill early next year therefore I will Be applying to schools for my ds reception placement after everyone had received their placements. How does this work??
I have heard that one of the primary/ infant schools in iver is less "desirable". So my concern is that the better school will be over subscribed and therefore DS will be stuck in an awful school

[Aethelfleda]

Hiya. It depends upon whether you think Ofsted is everything!.... And what you are looking for.

Iver itself is split into two parts, the main village which has the infant and junior schools, the doctors, the play park and the village hall, and then one-and-a-half-miles away is Richings Park which has the station and a little line of shops (and a few hundred thousand extra on the pricetag, it's the naice bit. Will be crossrailed in a few years but at present trains are half hourly to london).

Iver Infants is a lovely school, though I know some parents who didn't feel it was for them just because it's small (160 kids) and if you don't like the "feel" of a place like that you soon know. My child was very happy there. Iver Juniors has had a lot of bad press as the old head was allergic to Ofsted a few years back, but they have just been reclassified as Good, the classes are small (23 in a class) and I reckon it's on the up. Both the infants and the juniors have space, partly because there are other options outside of the village (see below)

You could also go over the border and look at schools in Langley: there is Langley Hall Primary Academy, it has just had an abysmal Ofsted but the school says they are appealing as it's "just plain wrong" (google their website then look at the 2016 report). It's quite a complicated split-site setup but they are very into arts and extra-curricular music/drama which is their big publicity point. They want the new (inadequate) Ofsted report overturned and redone, so it may be that it will be reclassified: I know someone whose children go there and they say they are happy, a lot of folks come from out of area to the school so the transport in can be tricky. I think they do run school minibuses for some of the Iver kids that go there.

Parlaunt Park school is on the Iver side of Langley, it has a good ofsted rating, they have just had a new head come in but the parents I know with kids there seem happy.

Iver Heath is north of Iver and has well regarded infant and Junior schools but you really do have to live in Iver Heath as their cachement is very tight because they are over subscribed. My friend lived in Richings Park and was told she was well out of cachement.

What I'd recommend is looking at all the school websites and then visiting Iver Infants to see if you like it. None of the schools in the area are dreadful, it's more a question of are you looking for a little village school (two form entry) or a big one like Langley Hall (four form entry) or Parlaunt (three form entry). If you move mid year there will probably be space at Iver Infants, or you could take up a free nursery place at one of the village preschools (Premier Nursery, Iver Community Childcare or Iver Village Preschool) while you check out the infant schools for later.

[Aethelfleda]

Oops, just seen this is a zombie thread. Darned phone.