Secondary schools in Milton Keynes

@Sergeil not being hostile- just trying to correct the misinformation you were giving.

If OP looks at the secondary admissions information on the council website she will find the catchment areas for each school (helpfully also written the other way too, so you know which schools any given area puts you into catchment for). This information also explains that the majority of areas are in 1 school catchment only; a few are in 2. And none of the areas you mention are in catchment for Kents Hill Park or the other Walton High campus (not that that matters as you apply to the school, not the campus).

Getting a place mid year is entirely different to applying for a place in the normal round of admissions. It's much harder to get a place at any particular desired school, so OP should maximise her chances of doing so by living in catchment (the actual catchment, not a location where you might have got a place for Year 7 admissions that's outside the defined catchment) and as close to the school as possible.

All of the above is why I mentioned looking at the neighbouring Bedfordshire Upper Schools which - for the meantime- still do year 9 entry.

Reading back, I can see my post wording may have been deceptive but even still, just trying to be helpful.

Anyway, I believe that some of those estates are in catchment for more than one school and they were worth researching.

If you read my post, you will see I said that those areas have children going to 3 schools that have been mentioned on this post as good schools, not necessarily on the OPs original list. The two you have mentioned and Kent’s Hill Park. I think maybe also the other Walton campus as well. My point was that if they researched those three and liked the look of them, then it might be worth looking at those particular areas as a chance of getting in one of those good schools. Just trying to be helpful. Not sure why you are being so hostile.

@Sergeil you have listed areas of Milton Keynes, not schools?
The schools for which those areas are in catchment are Oakgrove and Walton High (Brooklands). I'm not sure what 3 on OP's list you are referring to?

Milton Keynes has defined catchment areas and, as a result of this, there are very few areas that are in catchment for multiple schools. if OP is trying to get a place from a waiting list she needs to live in catchment and as close to her preferred school as possible.

Yes, the schools I refer to are state secondaries and my point is, to give OP the best chance to get a place, choose an area where they are in the catchment for several.

Not sure why discussion about Leon is relevant. Not the same area.

Also, not sure why talking about grammar is relevant, when they are really hard to get in to from MK in the first place, let alone in year.

Finally, not all parents ‘rich enough’ choose private. I certainly don’t.

@SergeiL
Are those secondary schools?

There are not 90 parents in this area of MK rich enough to afford private schools. Or there would be one. There’s none in the west of MK that I can think of. If MK was so good, it would not have people avoiding Leon. That serves a less well to do area anyway. Always did. It’s on the Lakes Estate where I would bet not a single person could afford a private school. Leon was an old secondary modern in the days when Bletchley was a grammar area.

The OP's issue is that most MK schools don't have places for her Year 8 child. Which is why the discussion about schools in Buckinghamshire started ...

This seems to have been derailed by the grammar debate. I have family in MK and there are some excellent schools in MK. On the east side, there are three mentioned favourably on the list above which children from my sister’s area have got into. Have a look at Monkston / Middleton / Broughton / Brooklands and the associated catchments.

A lot of the MK children getting into Bucks grammars will have Leon as their catchment school. And I'd be prepared to bet that the parents of children passing the 11+ would not be sending them to Leon if the grammar option did not exist.
That's why the "MK missing 3 top sets" argument doesn't hold water. You're assuming that those children would be in MK comprehensive schools if they didn't have the grammar as an option. Whereas, actually a lot of them would be going to private school as an alternative, or their parents only moved where they did because they thought their DC would get into grammar and would have picked to live somewhere else (Bucks proper?) if they didn't have that option.

My DC go to a MK comprehensive. At the open evening the headteacher said that there were 40 more children living in catchment of the right age, than there were places at the school. But past experience had told them that actually a lot would go private/home ed/move and that the school always took at least a few out of catchment. People do make big decisions around secondary schools.

Substantially into Beds and MK urban areas at the borders then. Except RLS where that has shrunk a lot. AHS is still getting loads from MK and Beds. It’s still 90 pupils.

And here is the Buckingham one.

Even the Shenleys are hardly a guarantee these days. Here are the 2022 allocation maps for the three Aylesbury ones showing how far they went out of catchment.

As the MK children get to Bucks grammars on distance they are mostly living nearer the Bucks border and are not spread through MK. Outlying areas are still MK children if they are in MK. Post code is irrelevant. My DM has one and she’s miles away from the MK border. 90 plus children lost from a small number of mk comps in the west of the area is a lot.

I can't help with schools in MK @Aj981 but if you want recommendations for tennis coaches in the area, let me know

Only 100 is more than 3 top sets. Given these DC are from a limited area in MK due to distance to Bucks schools, it’s a lot. Only 11 to RLS so last year it was 89 to Aylesbury schools. That is a big loss from MK snd is reflected in results.

I think they are still provisional numbers, so yes, they may change. But last year's numbers from MK (with the same point in my previous post that most of these are actually outside of what most people would generally call MK) were only 100.

most of the 90 aren't even in what you would generally call Milton Keynes - they are in outlying villages with MK postcodes. I think the Shenleys are the only place in Milton Keynes that you can actually still get into Bucks Grammar schools. 90 children taken out of the whole MK secondary school population in a year group (bearing in mind that I bet some of these children would have been put in private schools if they hadn't passed the 11+ and a lot do go into Bedfordshire schools) is really not a big impact.

It's not like 10 years ago, when huge swathes of MK children went to Bucks grammars.

Also 90 is not 50% of a MK secondary school's intake. The secondary schools are nearly all huge!

Im surprised they have heard all appeals. The large numbers coming into Bucks equate to a whole school every year with MK supplying 50% of them. Let alone the DC who want to come into Bucks grammars that don’t make it.

90 is 50% of a school intake. It’s 3 top sets. It absolutely affects MK schools.

@TizerorFizz If you look here www.thebucksgrammarschools.org/test-data it gives you Bucks school allocations by area. Only 90 from MK got accepted into Bucks grammar schools this year. So about 6 per secondary school in MK (yes, I know they won't be evenly distributed).

St Paul's catholic school is good...dont have to be catholic anymore either

@redskyatnight

For 2021, Aylesbury Grammar, Aylesbury High, Sir Henry Floyd, and The Royal Latin School took 179 out of Bucks pupils between them. It’s possible some were from Bedfordshire and Oxfordshire and even Northamptonshire but the majority come from MK and are in the Aylesbury schools. RLS has far fewer. In anyone’s reckoning this is equivalent to several top sets from MK! These DC will be living in the South/West of MK but the idea few come into Bucks is not backed up by stats. For an average child, the Bucks upper schools are fine but progress 8 and attainment will give a fuller picture. These schools do have a decent number of higher achieving DC too. MK is very different to Winslow and Wing.

@TizerorFizz Whether OP's DC would have qualified for a grammar school or not, it's still worth her knowing that Buckinghamshire schools are not comprehensive to aid her decision. (She may of course think they are better than the MK schools with places).

The number of children from MK getting into Bucks grammar schools is getting smaller each year; there are certainly not enough to mean that the schools in MK are not fully comprehensive.

@redskyatnight
The OP said her DD was average. Therefore who is in a grammar school is of little consequence. Lots of Buckinghamshire non grammars hold their own against the worst MK comps anyway. Also in that area, it’s certainly not 25% in the grammars and loads come from MK making MK schools not truly comprehensive.

Winslow parents didn’t like Buckingham School. Everyone fully supports the Sir Thomas Fremantle. The only issue is no 6th form in the future. The Cotesloe would be a good shout and you should look at Leighton Buzzard.