Orleans Park, Grey Court , Richard Reynolds Secondary school

In Middlesex part of Richmond where I live schools are small as 30 kids per year e.g. St Mary's Hampton or medium and they have 90 kids like in Hampton Hill, Teddington, Hampton, Twickenham.
Petersham, Ham are on the other side of the river in Surrey.

"Add post" adds to the current thread. You need to go to the top of the page and choose "Add a new thread" from the drop-down menu.

Thanks! I thought I did a new post didn’t realise it was attached to this thread. Thanks for the heads up!

I think this may be true for the borough as whole, but not for Ham and Petersham, the closest to Grey Court, where there are 3 single form entry schools. It comes from 2 original boroughs being amalgamated, each with a different history. Perhaps this pattern has got blurred as some schools south of the river have expanded

@Ronich best to start your own thread - as the schools on this thread are no where near Bromley... you will get more people who know that area if you put Bromley in your title. Good luck.

We are on the waiting list for St Catherine’s in Bromley for yr 7 entry. This is still our first choice and hoping we might still have a chance of getting in.

Can anyone please give me any advice on waiting list places into St Catherine’s, and if we should expect to receive an offer.

Does anyone know if girls at the bottom of the waiting list eventually receive an offer?

I suspect we are at the bottom of the waiting list as we haven’t yet heard anything. I know there might still be some movement, but most offers have now been accepted. Thanks!

The schools change position from year to year, so it's never sensible to make decisions based on a single year's data. The biggest 'variable' factor is the demographic of the cohort. Orleans Park, Waldegrave and Grey Court are most stable because their catchments have shrunk and become expensive. Turing House is heading in that direction. Teddington used to be in that position, but is recovering from some wilderness years (OP and GC have had wilderness years in the past too). SRR is random allocation but selects for regular church-attendance which requires parental discipline. Christs is a combo of house price and church attendance. Hampton High, Twickenham School, RTS and RPA have less affluent catchments and generally less stable cohorts.

Is there a table like that available showing the 2023 data? As I can only find the table for 2022, as you posted above.

In Richmond borough most of the schoolsl years have around 90 kids. 3 classes per year

Many primary schools in the Surrey side of the borough are single form entry and feed into Grey Court, so the school is used to dealing with small to large. I think the Middlesex side has larger primaries

I know a mum who applied basing on Lo crating and the council gave her place in Gumley school for girls that wasn't even on her list. And she was convinced that she is in catchment.

Always look at last 2 years of catchment

@CPF please do not use Locrating as a resource to check distances/ catchment or school performance. They are far from accurate. School admission is not based always on the radius, a circle and for Waldergrave, Turing and SRR locrating map shows irrelevant data

Here is the government page where you can check school performance
SRR has slightly lower GCSE results than Orleans, Grey Court or Turing

https://www.gov.uk/school-performance-tables

And here are results from 2022 " at a glance". 2023 is also circulated on the internet

My DD had an amazing time at GreyCourt (she left last summer) and I thought it was a truly excellent school. Their sports provision is outstanding. She was a sports scholar on their scholarship programme which, although no financial benefit, provides 3 extra sessions of sport each week , including strength and conditioning. In the 5 years she was there she represented the school at basketball, football, cricket, athletics etc etc and only left for sixth form to go to a specialist sports academy.

They also have extensive music and drama provision. While my DD isn’t musical she was in the panto in y7 and was backstage in y8 which she enjoyed so much she did this for the next few years and learnt about lighting/sound etc.

And the academics are great - they set the DC for almost all subjects from y7 (based on SATS and CATS that the school do), which I liked because it meant they had opportunity to mix with loads of other children rather than staying in their one form. My DD got all 8s and 9s in the 10 GCSEs she took and there were others doing even better so if your DC is academic then they will have every opportunity to do well. But the school also has an extensive BTEC offering including health and social care and creative media with DC able to do a mixture of GCSEs and BTECs.

My DD has some lovely friends (boys and girls) from GC and really did love her time there.

We got in by just 13 metres in Sept 2018 and the catchment was around 3kms. But as a PP said, only about 10 years before then GC was a failing school which could only fill about 50 of its 240 places so schools do change. GC had the charismatic Maggie Bailey as Head who turned the school around and then current Head Chris Rhodes (who had been deputy) took over when she left.

Yes , correct. Her daughter has an older bro in the school

I think they'll get fewer kids from the 111 bus route over time. Most of them are younger siblings of children who joined the school when it was located on the temporary site in Hampton. The school's more recent catchments don't stretch to that end of Hampton.

Well, most of them will go immediately home as everywhere, but those who travel 111 are going to Hounslow main road and mock around. Heard it from a parent who observed it and decided to opt for another school for her gentle daughter. And we are spoilt here - we have a choice of good and only great and good schools :)

about bullying in SRR but I guess that can happen in any school.

Exactly. That was only one person's experience so I don't think you can rely on it

Are you moving ahead of time or is your child in Y5 or Y6?
Please take into account that if you are making plans ahead of time, things change. Years ago Greycourt School was one of the worst in the area. Now is blooming is one of the best. Or few years ago Turing was a new school moving around without a permanent location. Now it has the best results in the borough.
That is contrary to other people in this thread, if I were planning years ahead of time, I would move to the location where I am in the catchment of 2 or maybe 3 good schools. One of them surely will remain good. If it is now e.g. next year then things should remain as they are.

The other schools worth considering are Teddington school with a generous catchment. Fab facilities for sporty kids. Just by the river. Very positive energy. Not bad results, good results but not the top of the borough.

There is also Christ School good results. And people speak very well about The Richmond School ( do not mistaken it with The Richmond Academy as it is a different school)

We are Catholic, and I liked St Paul's Sunbury the most. I ranked it higher than SRR. I live in the parish in Richmond Borough listed for both schools. My son has been offered a place at St Paul's Sunbury, which was my second preference. I wasn't sure whether to choose Turing or St Paul's, so I placed Turing first, thinking that we might be on the verge of the catchment area. This way, if we were not placed at Turing, we would still have the option to decide if they put us on the waiting list for Turing.
St. Paul's boasts superb results, and its Progress 8 is even better than Turing. The school has an amazing campus-like site with a small park containing benches, trees, and fields exclusively for school use. The atmosphere is warm, with teachers recognizing and greeting students when they see them. I have visited the school several times, including outside of Open Day. St. Paul's follows an ethos of "service to others and empathy" and is highly disciplined.
St Paul's has recently been inspected by OFSTED and has retained its Outstanding rating. In these times, maintaining an Outstanding status is significant, considering that OFSTED is stringent in its evaluations and has downgraded many schools in the latest inspections. Numerous schools may struggle to maintain their Outstanding status.

"The school is located at the verge of Richmond borough, and kids tend to hang out in the Hounslow area after school. Not the safest area."

This is an odd thing to say, and not my experience. Most of the Turing kids are from West Twickenham, Fulwell, Hampton Hill (because of the admission point in Fulwell), and they get straight on the bus home after school. Some might hang out on Heathfield Rec or Crane Park but it's no worse than hanging out in Marble Hill (Orleans Park) or Ham Riverside (Grey Court) or Kneller Gardens (St RR).

Orleans Park is ace - a lovely caring school. Field is out of bounds during lunch but students can play football on the Astro. The catchment seems to have expanded a bit this year, last year was particularly bonkers? Only issue is that it’s massive - but that does mean it has lots of resources.

Re primary schools - St Mary’s is excellent in many respects but perhaps avoid if your child has SEN.

Why don't you find out which primary schools have an in-year application year 5 space for your dc as it would be helpful to know your dc is moving into year 6 before you get to the break in July. And for example if you get St Stephen's primary school then you know some of the classmates will be going to Orleans etc.

@CPF I don't have a child in any of these schools...yet... because my son is in Y6. We are on the waiting list for one of the schools below. But , we may stick to our offer from another school that is equally good or better and not listed here. If we get offer from one of the below it will be tough choice.

However, I can tell you my observations. Maybe these will be helpful, or not.

Orleans Park - The positive thing is that the bus stop is just at their doorstep. It has wonderful results. The computing rooms are splendid. The atmosphere there is very much like at the university. It can be a positive or a negative thing. Children seem to be anonymous, teachers pass by without any interaction just like at uni. I just didn't get that personal, caring vibe. It is great, though, for the Sixth form and may be overwhelming for Year 7.
The area where kids can hang out outdoors is rather small, where the benches are, as nobody can go to the sports field apart from during the lesson. I also didn't like the fact that there are outside buildings with separate access from outside to each room. In the winter, it may be cold there, and the lack of a corridor doesn't help integration. They have a great offer for languages should you wish to pursue it. If a child is into humanities, and languages that would be the best option in the borough. They are also great at maths though.

SRR made a better impression on me. The school has that personal vibe and care. The building is squeaking clean and very well decorated with the children's art and projects. They seem to be very organised. The extracurricular offer is amazing and very holistic. Everybody will find something there.
Unfortunately, the sports grounds are limited, and they use the sports field at another school. It may not be ideal if one has a sporty child Also, there is a primary school section in the school. They were not visible during the Open Day and were well hidden, but I am sure that they run freely around every day. The school may be crowded. The Open day was neatly prepared. The teachers stay in that school for a long time, so it must be a good environment. However, there is a thread here from the past in which one mum complained about the bullying and swearing. The school is very close to the high street Twickenham, and kids tend to hang out there after school, which I don't like.

I cannot say anything about Grey Court as I have never been there, nor do I know anybody from there.

Turing school is very disciplined and is spot on choice if somebody focuses on maths, or computing. The kids are very well-behaved. I think this school observes less bullying but I cannot be sure. They have a very charismatic headmaster who invests heavily in practical novel solutions. Because of the proximity to Waldegrave, there are a bit more boys than girls at Turing. The school is located at the verge of Richmond borough, and kids tend to hang out in the Hounslow area after school. Not the safest area. The school is very new, so the building is a bit "blocky" and overwhelming and they still raise money for wall decorations. They have a fantastic canteen with great food.