BRISTOL primarys

[PoodleNoodle]

We're about to leave London for Bristol and I would love to hear from you if your primary aged child goes to a lovely school. My son is 7, very active, struggles with reading and is very anxious. Unfortunately his anxiety can present as an apparently stubborn unwillingness to learn / do as he's told. I'd love to find a school that is more supportive than punitive with this kind of child.
Thanks!

[Bowerbird5]

I'm sure you will love Bristol to live in and so will he as there are lots of parks and open spaces for an active boy.
My daughter was at uni there and as part of her course she looked at the Steiner school there and was very impressed with it. I think they have open days. Sorry can't help about the other schools except to say there was one we used to pass in Clifton that looked interesting from the outside.
I would asked for an appointment to view several schools without your son then review the ones you like with him. It might be confusing to go to too many so if you do the leg work first then take him to a couple that you feel might suit you should find something you are both happy with. Good luck with your move.

[coldlocation]

Which area are you moving to. Primary catchments can be tiny.

[cantkeepawayforever]

As you are moving outside normal admissions rounds, it will not so much be a matter of choosing a school for him (unless you pay), but finding one which has a space at the time you want it (even if an occasional place does come up, you will need to take it up within a couple of weeks of it being offered). It is worth being realistic about this at this point - I have limited knowledge of Bristol in particular, but there are many areas where all schools are full for your DS's age group and so it becomes a matter of where an occasional place comes up or where you have the best chance of an appeal succeeding.

However, on the other hand, catchments don't need to worry you, because if a school has a vacancy (and no waiting list), where you live will not matter. If, on the other hand, you set your heart on a specific school, it is currently full and it has distance as one of its admission criteria, then you may choose to find a place to live absolutely on its doorstep to put yourself top of the waiting list.

Ideally, unless you identify a perfect under-subscribed school, you would want to find an area where there are a reasonable number of schools that you would be happy with - and none that you definitely want to avoid - and apply to them all, and see where a place comes up first.

You will also need to decide on an overall strategy if you cannot find a 'good' placement initially. Will you Home Ed, send private, accept whatever school is given (which may not be the one you would choose, and may be a significant distance away) and wait to move?

Good luck! We did an in-year move when DS / DD were at primary and it was deeply stressful and had to be planned with military precision - even though DS was in a much lower birth year than the current 7 year olds so places were relatively plentiful.

[cantkeepawayforever]

Oh, and which year group is he in?

Y2, you are still within Class Size Regulations and so it is VERY, VERY hard to win an appeal to a school which has 30 in the relevant class.

Y3 these no longer apply, so you if you have to go down the appeal route, it will be heard on balance of prejudice (basically, is it worse for the school to admit your child or worse for your child not to be admitted to that particular school?) and your child can be admitted as the 31st / 32nd, occasionally 33rd, in some areas of the country and some schools 34th / even 35th member of the class, and this makes appeals easier to win.

[catslife]

Which area of Bristol are you moving to.
My dd was at a primary school in Bristol that was interested in the well-being of the child and not just the results so they do exist.
The only difficulty is that some schools in Bristol are very oversubscribed and may not have places.
My tip would be to visit several schools and don't just pick ones that market themselves on their KS2 results (often these are the ones that do not/ may not provide the support your son needs).

[Bookridden]

I would recommend Hillcrest or Holymead if moving to South Bristol.