Best schools in Birmingham and surrounding area

[InBedBy8]

Hello, can anyone help before my head explodes.
I grew up in Birmingham but moved away 23 years. We’re considering moving back to be closer to my family and for a job opportunity at the UoB.
We’ve been living in Hull for the past 18 years and although we’ve had good times here, we feel we need to move on.
My DH commutes to Sheffield and we have 4 DC aged 8, 11, 15 and 17. My main concern is finding good schools for the 11 year old and 15 year old. The school they’re in at the moment is excellent. They’re currently in Yrs 7 and 10.
I’ve been trawling through old posts which have highlighted Solihull and King Edward schools as the best. Surely there must be others?

Does anyone have any knowledge of these schools: Wheelers Lane (Boys), Swanhurst(Girls), Queensbridge and Ninestiles?

None of those are excellent schools. Queensbridge and Wheelers Lane are OK. Swanshurst not great. A huge no to Ninestiles!

I live in same road as ninestiles. It’s a big no from me. I don’t send my children there.
Parents have assaulted children and staff there recently. They now need security on the gates.

Most Solihull schools are ok.
Langley has a good reputation but you need to live in walking distance to stand a chance of getting in.

To be honest the waiting lists for school in Birmingham may mean you don’t get to pick the school your children end up in but rather are given a choice of one school or home school them yourselves.

That actually happened to my friend. (Although in a different part of Birmingham).

She was 47th on the list for year 9 in her preferred school.

You can ring Birmingham City Councils School department who will tell you the waiting lists for some schools you are thinking of. They are quite helpful and honest in their opinion.

Good luck.

You might want to check the exam board for the 15 year old - they may have different syllabus

Let me check where friends DD goes as that’s a great school

King Edward's schools are grammar schools- you're not likely to get in if they've already started secondary.
Big fat no to Ninestiles!
Arden/Tudor Grange/Alderbrook are the best in Solihull, but you'd need to live very close indeed.
Would you consider a religious school?
Bishop Challoner is good (Catholic).
Also depends where you're going to live- Birmingham is a big place.

You really need to find out where has places. I know people with kids at Queensbridge and they seem happy. They have actively avoided the others on your list though, especially Swanshurst.

Of the schools on your list, I would say that Wheelers Lane, Swanshurst and Queensbridge are basically very average comps. Ninestiles isn't great.

It really depends where you plan to live, because the good non-grammar schools are usually very oversubscribed and take people from a tiny area. When I worked at UoB, aside from the King Edward schools, Lordswood Girls and Boys and Kings Norton Girls and Boys were popular for staff children. If you are willing to consider religious schools, Bishop Challoner and St Paul's Girls have good reputations.

Honestly I would go private for your 15 yo. It's the only way you will get them into a school that isn't awful or a huge commute to sit their GCSEs.

Birmingham is hugely oversubscribed for school places. The most in demand schools will have waiting lists for places and unless you get a house within a couple of hundred metres you'll have no chance. You will be extremely unlikely to get a place in a school that you want anywhere in Birmingham in Year 10. I'm being as honest as I can here - I work in a school and every day we get parents new to the area wanting a place. We don't have any and neither do the other local schools.

You can't apply for a school place in the Birmingham area until you have a Birmingham address. I would really urge huge caution about moving a child in the middle of his GCSE s. I wouldn't do it.

You haven't got a cat in hell's chance of the KE fed schools until 6th form.

Arden or Tudor Grange yes if you can get into catchment.

Langley is nice school, pick where you live carefully.

Ninestiles, run like the wind. Ditto Lyndon.

Hi OP. Would you believe that we are just in the process of doing the exact opposite...going to move from Birmingham to Hull as we have fallen in love with the place!! We love Birmingham too but are ready for a change. We are actually just outside the city, Halesowen way and the schools out here are pretty good actually. The Earls School is non selective in Halesowen and has a very good reputation although oversubscribed but the less prestigious schools such as Leasowes are fine too...much better than many in Birmingham itself. I don't know too much about the schools you've suggested apart from Ninestiles which I would definitely avoid!! Just one thing to consider if you are looking at the Solihull area is the commute to UoB...it's so busy and a bit of a nightmare tbh. Also agree with pp that Lordswood Girls is good but the boys isn't (think it might be closed atm.)

Ninestiles used to be excellent. Now it’s a shit hole.

Tudor Grange is a good non-private school in Solihull.

I went to Saint Martin’s School for Girls, but Solihull school is excellent for a mixed environment.

Thanks everyone. This really is driving me mad. So the Ofsted reports are definitely not a good gauge to determine if a school is good or not. The ones I listed were classed as Outstanding.
I have family in Bournville and Edgbaston, so want to stay close to these areas. But if the schools are that bad then I’ll have to think a bit further out.
I’ve emailed Birmingham and Solihull councils so will hopefully get an idea of spaces.
Raspberry88-what a coincidence! Which part of Hull are you moving to?
Ok-KE schools crossed off the list.

Try Compare School Performance and see what is coming up there. Ofsted reports for outstanding schools are likely to be very out of date (they're not inspected again for ages).

Any school that has good results in 2018 for GCSE is likely to do so again - most schools are now mostly doing the new 9-1 grades and ECDL is no longer counted so they're not trying to game the system as much.

It's going to be hard work to get your children into a decent Birmingham school. Maybe one of the surrounding areaswould be better - I don't know much about them but my colleague used to work at the Earls until recently and she says it's a good school.

Check out The Earls high school in Halesowen. My dsd went there, terrific school, terrific teachers. (Dsd is in her final year at university so I think The Earls fulfilled her potential)
It’s just a few miles out from the city centre, near to Birmingham but far enough away for house prices to drop substantially.

I moved away from Birmingham 15 years ago, but my impression was that there are fantastic primary schools there, but most of the comps are awful.
My DS was at Kings Norton Boys school, sought after and oversubscribed, and I thought it was dire.
I was glad when we moved away and he (and later my younger DCs) got into an excellent new school.

We're looking around East Park but are most likely going to be renting in the city centre for a few months whilst we sell here so we are going to make sure we have a good explore of everywhere! Just noticed a few other people have mentioned Earls...it is a really good school, and a lot of people commute from the Halesowen area to UoB, it's not a bad drive and not too far from Edgbaston really. There's also Bartley Green school, which is supposed to be outstanding, not sure what it's really like and Hillcrest which is a good but seems to be performing well, not the most glamorous area but nice and close to UoB.

If your dh is still going to have to commute to Sheffield you consider the North side of Birmingham as well as near the University Schools generally have a good reputation in Sutton Coldfield and there is a direct train line to the University from stations in Wylde Green, Four Oaks, Sutton Coldfield etc. The commute by car though from this location to the University may well take longer than driving to Sheffield!!!! (peak times anyway).

@OneInEight, you’re right about commute times! It’s really making us reconsider if we should do this. Another option was Sheffield where DH works. We’ll have to have a good think over the weekend.

I lived in Sheffield for a little while when I was younger. Only moved back to Birmingham as I met my DH and that's where he was. I absolutely loved living in Sheffield, really loved it. Could easily walk out into the countryside and to the city centre from where I was. Always felt safe going out and found it really easy to get jobs too, had about 3 different cafe jobs in a short time. Lots for young people. Don't know what the school situation is like in terms of how full they are but I know there are some really good ones. It's a really great place.

@Raspberry88 thanks for this. Many people have said it’s a great place. My DH loves it there-workwise and it would certainly be more convenient for him. Where were you living when you were there?

I lived in Broomhill, had a flat in the most beautiful converted building, all the houses were lovely. I liked it all that side of the city, anywhere around the botanical gardens and Encliffe Park. Lots of lovely cafes and bookshops. I liked Crookes and Crosspool too. I spent a lot of time just walking around and it's amazing the views you just come across around there. You just turn a corner and can see for miles of just fields and trees, it's beautiful!

Haven't read tft but avoid Swanshurst Girls and Wheelers lane. Not because of the staff, but it has a tough catchment.

Cranmore/Widney for primary in solihill and Tudor Grange are excellent schools not too far from there.

I would also avoid Kings Norton Boys school! Again super staff, some great kids, but the catchment means there is a lot of poor behaviour.