Anyone know Bristol Free School?

[LittleBridge]

I’m moving to Bristol and considering secondary options for DS.

I hear good things about Bristol Free School but I don’t know it and I don’t know the area very well yet. Can anyone help with any insight? When I did a quick recce, the school looked okay but maybe not in the nicest location? blush Can anyone tell me what the school is actually like?

Redland Green always gets good press, and obviously gets very good academic results, but the catchment is tiny!!! And the area so expensive.

Bristol Free school had a catchment into westbury-on-trym (and possibly Henleaze) which are both lovely areas! St Mary Redcliffe has always had a great reputation too if you want to be fairly central

I have children there and I am very happy with it. Since the new head joined about three years ago, it keeps getting better and better. Don’t let the location fool you. I don’t think it is worse than Redland Green. I looked at both and preferred the Free School.

Thanks Annalou. I’m hoping to be in either WoT, Henleaze or possibly Redland (at a stretch), so the Free School would work. Will look at St Mary Redcliffe though, thank you.

Disappointed, that’s great you like the school and your children are happy. Can I ask why you particularly like it? Is it a safe school? I know it sounds a bit snooty (I’m really not) but the outside looks a bit uninspiring I suppose. I get the impression that Redland Green is academic and expectations are quite high. My son is middle ability but will happily coast along if expectations are a bit slack!

It’s really hard to get a feel for what schools are actually like, especially with no open days last year. As I’m moving, I need to make a decision on location well before entry deadline so any info is massively helpful, thank you!

St Mary Redcliffe is a CofE school with specific regular church attendance criteria for admission. I think quite a lot of people in NW bristol still send their children out of area into north somerset - St Katharines has school buses from the henleaze/WOT area, I think, so would be worth a look. Would also be worth looking at Cathedral school as they operate a city-wide lottery admissions system rather than catchment areas.

I don't kniw the Free School myself (kids too young at the moment) but i know families there who are very happy. I think it may look like an uninspiring building as it is based in old local government offices!

Thanks Anotherunimaginativeusername.

It doesn’t sound as if we’d be a fit for St Mary Redcliffe tbh. But I’ll check out Cathedral and St Katherines. It’s good to have some other options.

WoT works well for location though so I guess our first choice is BFS. I didn’t realise that about the buildings - makes sense. Hopefully there’s some decent outside space as it’s hard to make out from the site.