Abingdon Primary Schools

[LucyCJ]

Hi,

We’re in the process of moving to Abingdon (Oxfordshire) and trying to find a primary school for our son. We’re not allowed to visit any, due to covid, so it’s really hard to get a feel for them!

Does anyone have any advice / experience / recommendations of the following schools please?

Thomas Reade
Rush Common
Dunmore
St Nicolas

Thanks in advance!

xx

[FlissMumsnet]

Hi LucyCJ,

Thanks for posting - we know it's such a hard time for anyone trying to shop for schools right now!

We can't give you any insider knowledge as we're no experts but we wanted to drop in, say hi and give this a nudge for you.

We hope some of our wise users will be along soon to offer you their advice.

Good luck making your decision.

[Clettercletterthatsbetter]

@LucyCJ I will PM you once I’ve got the kids into bed - don’t want to out myself on here!

[Kabooo]

OP or others, could you please share anything you have learnt about the above schools? I have heard lots of nice things about St Nicolas and Thomas Reade from my social and work circles, but nobody could offer any information about Rush Common or Long Furlong. How are these schools like?

We are living in West Oxford area at the moment with very good schools but cannot afford to buy a house here, hence looking to move to North Abingdon.
Thank you.

[Fedoos]

We're also moving to the Abingdon area in the summer so just bumping this one again incase there's anyone around who can give any advice? Thanks 🙂

[Kabooo]

Hi Fedoos,
We have learnt a bit more since posting the thread, so thought to share that with you. We asked for opinion from all the sellers/agents of the houses we were viewing, then from a teacher who used to work in one of the North Abingdon schools, and a friend's friend who works in one of the popular independent secondary schools in Abingdon.

They all said that all the state primaries in the North Abingdon area are really good. In general primary education in North Ab is nothing to worry about (I do not know anything about the schools in South Abingdon, we were very sure that we would look to buy in the North only for other practical reasons). Thomas Reade seems to enjoy a better reputation and seems to have a more competitive/academic feel to it, which we would have preferred as we were raised in a highly competitive and academic environment. But St Nics, Rush Common, Long Furlong and Dunmore seemed to be pretty good too from all the inputs we got. So, at that point we had decided to give priority to the Thomas Reade catchment area, but if a nice house would become available elsewhere in North Ab then we would go for it.

However, we eventually decided to not buy a house in Abingdon. We are now looking in Eynsham, Appleton-Cumnor, and Wallingford.

[Fedoos]

Kabooo - thanks so much for replying, I really appreciate it. We're looking at North Abingdon too so that's all really helpful.

If you don't mind me asking, is there anything in particular that put you off the move to Abingdon? We've actually been looking in Wallingford and the surrounding areas until now but have just switched our search to Abingdon as it's better placed for our commutes.

[Kabooo]

Hi Fedoos, dont mind it at all. In short it was due to secondary schools being better in other areas. I will PM you with a more detailed answer.

[Oceans1]

For anyone still looking, I don’t know whether this is helpful or not! Primary schools in Abingdon are much of a muchness really - not very much between them. Thomas Reade has a very strict catchment area and is thought to trade off its outstanding Ofsted abit but which was in 2011. Thomas Reade and Long Furlong are smaller schools with one form entries whereas St Nic’s, Rush Common and Dunmore are 2 form entries