Help!? Wokingham Schools - Evendons Lane - Advice Appreciated

[mwest123]

Re: Wokingham Schools. Help? We are looking at buying a house on Evendons Lane in Wokingham and are starting to look at what schools our nearly 7 year old son would get into (he starts Junior level in September next year). If you live on that road or know someone who does, could you please let me know which Infant/Junior/Secondary schools they have managed to get into/secured. Having done a bit of research myself, as this house isn't central, it looks like pot luck allocation and not necessarily your catchment or you are offered schools located 2+ miles away! This will impact our decision about buying the house, so I would really appreciate relevant feedback and quick :) Thank you so much.

[JellyBelly10]

I live near Wokingham (in Crowthorne, but on the Wokingham side) so am only partially familiar with the reputations of some of the Wokingham schools, but if you are on Facebook there is a group called Wokingham Gossip Girls which is brilliant for all sorts of advice and info about life in Wokingham. If you post your question there you'll be inundated with replies! I think it was originally set up by some people whose children attended Hawthorns school but now has nearly 3000 members so there will be people on there with children at all the Wokingham schools. Evendons Lane is pretty long so I'm not really sure of its school catchment but if I remember rightly you're probably slightly nearer the Finchampstead schools (Gorse Ride and Nine Mile Ride) rather than the central Wokingham schools...but I don't know. Wokingham is lovely by the way, where are you moving from?

[RustyBear]

The catchments in Wokingham are a bit odd - most of Evendons Lane is catchment for Wescott infants/Westende Junior, though they are not actually the nearest schools, but some addresses on the south side of the west end of the lane are in other catchment areas - I'm not sure which, as the maps inthe primary admissions guide are not very clear - when my children were at primary school it was Barkham and Arborfield, (now The Coombes) but I know children from round there who go to Gorse Ride or Nine Mile.

There are quite a lot of children at Westende and Wescott who live in Evendons/Manor Road.
This page shows how the places were allocated last year.

If you will be moving before September, you would probably have trouble getting your DS into Wescott - it was rated outstanding last OFSTED and it's definitely full in reception and I'm suspect it will be in Y2 as well. Its PAN is 56, of which 2 places are for the ASD resource, whereas Westende's is 60, of which 3 are for the ASD resource, so Westende usually get a couple of children from other schools, so you might be more likely to get in there. Online admissions for junior schools start in November and end in January, so if you wanted your Ds to start at Wescott and transfer to Westende you would need to apply for both schools at the same time, with an in-year application for Wescott and an ordinary one for Westende. Most of the other schools in Wokingham are now straight-through primaries, so you'd only need one in-year application for those In year guide here

As for secondary schools, the catchment areas have been radically changed since my children were at school, and may change again if Wokingham Borough's plan to close The Embrook and build a new school in the south of the borough ever come to fruition - it would be fairly likely that Evendon's would be in the catchment for that, but I wouldn't bet on it happening by the time your son is 11.

I think, though you need to check this, that you would be in the joint designated area for the Forest/Holt/St Crispins/Emmbrook. In this area, the tiebreaker for children within the designated area is radial distance from the school concerned, though in the case of the Holt and the Forest schools which are single sex, girls and boys respectively, it's the combined radial distance from both schools. as the Forest school is in Winnersh, to the north of Wokingham, this is likely to mean children living in southern area like Evendons are less likely to get in.

There's also a brand new Free school in Ryeish Green, which has opened in the old Ryeish Green school buildings after that unpopular school was closed by WBC. It's in its first year, so there could be all sorts of changes in the next few years.

I'm going out shortly, but please pm me if you want any more information and I will try to get back to you as soon as I can.