relocating to oxford

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ok,
before I research, I'd be interested in the mass opinion please....
DS y4 - bright and sporty
DD y1 - talkative, confident, middle of class, poss sporty too.

Which private schools do people like/dislike
around Oxford? Prefer countryside I think.

The Manor, mixed up to eight, I think, girls only after then, is good for sport. Chandlings, St. hugh's and Pinewood are all well regarded and out of town. Both take boys and girls. All seem to do a lot Of sports. Abingdon Prep for boys is very good, too.

My DS & DD went to St.Hugh's, and were very happy. (DS bright & sporty, DD bright, v.musical, v . talkative, enjoyed sport at school but more into riding). Do you want day/boarding/flexi/up to 13 and CE or option for DD to leave (and be prepared for) at 11 for local day schools (Our Lady's, St.Helen's)

Both now at independent senior day schools locally, (it's worth considering what you would like for them next, day/boarding, mixed/single sex, as this will influence your choice of prep school).

St.Hugh's intake comes from a large area of S & W Oxon (Faringdon/Oxford/Wantage/Lechlade/Burford), there are loads of lovely villages around Oxford.

You should bear in mind that Oxford traffic is hellish at peak times.If you need to commute into the city and consider school drop offs think carefully about where you live, which side of the city you need to be etc. eg dropping off at St.Hugh's at 8.30 will be no use if you need to be in Headington by 9am

There have been posts about this area before, so try searching.

Please feel free to ask more about living here (it's great!), but I could only comment about the schools my children have attended.

This is my mass opinion!!

My children were at the Dragon, which is a great school for all-rounders, though absolute hell to get to in the morning and crushingly expensive. Dd was also at Helen and Katherine, or Helkats as it is known, which is nice enough. DS now has a scholarship at Abingdon. None of these v. suited to academic high-flyers, IME.

Thanks.
Want day schools, not too bothered with co-ed, am happy to do two schools if logistics work (school bus ect).
Am fancying Abingdon senior for DS, so AB prep is on my list to visit, don't have a clear fav for DD, St Helen and Kat seems close by - which schools feed into that??
Won't be working initially, until things are settled, so schooling will come first, and I'll work around that eventually.
Whats Abingdon like to live? Could DH do Oxford and London from there?

I live in a village five ish miles from Abingdon and 7 ish miles from Oxford, we are classed as being 'Abingdon'.
I wouldn't want to live in Abingdon town personally, there are some nicer areas but there are more not so nice, I am also blinded by the fact I love village life and wouldn't live in town/city again!
There are some truly lovely villages close to Abingdon and Oxford with great access for the main routes to all the closest towns and cities (I will let you know what one we are if you PM me). If you are looking to do a London commute by train you want to either be on main line through to Oxford so that would be west Oxfordshire (we also used to live in a lovely easy railway communing village there to, will also tell more about those villages by PM) or going down to Didcot parkway. The closer you get to a main line railway the more expensive housing is and it is pretty expensive anyway round here!

Over schools I have friends who currently use Dragon pre-prep who are very very happy, other friends who pulled hers out of Dragon to send them to the fantastic village school, her eldest is now at high school and very happy and settled at Wychwood (all girls, mix of day and boarding, not very academic but a lovely friendly happy school) I also have a friend who's eldest girl is at the Manor, a very good school, her daughter is very happy there and doing well, very academic and hopeless if a child has more complex needs, they wont even entertain taking them on and this isn't talking about just SEN this is also physical disability.

I will happily go into more detail by PM of the villages

It's also worth noting that the village CoE primary schools in most of this part of Oxfordshire are pretty good. Both mine were in one until the end of year five and found it fairly easy to get into very selective boys' and girl's schools in Abingdon.

I have seen some very good teaching, particularly at KS1. Frankly, there's not much point spending money at this stage because what goes on in the state system, is IMHO, probably at least as good anyway. If you want sports/music/languages, you might want to move at around eight.

Further west, Ferndale in Faringdon feeds to Helkats; it's a lovely small private, in the Cognita group.

For your DD;
Official feeder school to Helkats is the Manor Prep, lovely school, very nurturing, like Helkats pretty academic. You might want to look at Our Lady's Abingdon if she would prefer to be near top of the class rather than middle of the class as its equally nurturing but less academic (OLA only really feeds to its own senior school.) You shouldn't have a problem getting a place at a girls school.
For your DS;
How bright is he? Best prep & senior for super-bright boys (helps too if they are either sporty or musical) is Magdalen College School - highly competitive to get into, and central Oxford so nightmare traffic.
Abingdon prep just got new head, families with very bright DS's left in past year or two (to go to MCS) but he'll probably get it improving for the bright ones fairly quickly I suspect, with the support of new Abingdon Senior head who wants the prep to pull its socks up. If you're moving in time for 11-12 academic year then you're going to struggle for a boys school place, but you should be alright for DD. School bus from the Manor to AP, and lots of parents lift sharing too.
St Hugh's best thing for mixed in Oxon, but means living in opposite direction, not nearly so good for DH's commute.
In terms of where to live;
Abingdon itself; you'll get more house for your money than living in one of the nice villages. Good community spirit and a lot on offer in terms of parks, clubs etc... Obviously though, living in a village always lovely, and more character homes available.

I don't think all that is necessarily up to date, checkmate. :)

My son left Abingdon Prep last year (under the new head). There were a record number of academic scholarships, including to MCS, Abingdon, etc. The top academic scholarship at Abingdon was won by one of my son's friends and two other boys received academic awards at that school. Two boys had awards at MCS. Four or five received music awards at Abingdon/MCS and other schools. Two received art/drama awards at Abingdon. Then there were two sports awards.

None of the boys in his year left at Prep School stage to go to MCS prep.

Equally, the Manor isn't the 'official' feeder in the sense that it has special dabs on SHSK, though there is a slight sense that the Manor and Chandlings girls are automatically shoe-horned into sports teams, almost sight unseen, because the school knows they will have been well coached in team sports. A lot come from Chandlings. Also Our Lady's Prep, The Dragon. And an awful lot from state primaries, including Wantage Church School, St Nicholas in Abingdon, the primary schools in Hendred, Hanney, etc. As far as the feeder is concerned, obviously the junior department at SHSK would probably say that they fulfil part of that role. My daughter was there just for one year and did very well.

Sorry, that should have read 'under the OLD head', not the new one, who's only just arrived!

hi Ab1de - your 2nd sentence did make my eyes shoot out of my head with confusion and wonder if we're in 2012 without me noticing!

I stand by what I said, I've got/recently had DC in all the schools I mentioned and have also worked at one of them. And I've just double checked some of my info to make sure I'm not spouting rubbish!

My son was in pre-prep at Abingdon Prep, which is where the problems have been, rather than the prep where I think it improves. We're one of the families who took our son out in past few years; he just wasn't being stretched enough. We've found MCS much better for meeting his individual needs. We have another son who will probably go to Abingdon Prep though, as it'll suit him more to be near top of class there rather than middling at MCS, as long as new head addresses a few of our concerns about lack of organization which always drove me mad. I liked him when I met him.

By "official feeder" I don't of course mean that it is the only feeder school. Just that the Manor is the official feeder to Helkats just as AP is to Abingdon - see
www.abingdon4education.org.uk/. Its not advertised, but the Manor actually gets a set amount of places each year, so they confidently can tell parents whether or not their girls are likely to get a place, depending on their position in the year (determined by CAT tests in the year prior to entrance exams.) Which isn't to say that other schools don't also feed to Helkats of course.... its bigger than the Manor, for a start! But the number that get into Helkats from the Manor is significantly higher than any other school (I've just checked "leavers destinations" for the applicable schools the league tables to make sure this is still correct and it is.)

I agree with you that the state schools you mention are very good - in particular St Nick's in Abingdon; our financial advisor tells all his Abingdon clients not to waste their money on pre-prep, as long as they can get a place there! Alas, we couldn't, but also had other reasons for choosing independent from the start, including the wraparound care.

For the OP:
The weakness with Helkats is the sport. Very sporty girls troop off to Headington instead, and I can understand why. Still much better than at one of the Abingdon comps, of course, but way behind a lot of girls independent schools. Hopefully by the time you're choosing for your DD, they'll have managed to improve it.

ooooo, lots and lots of info. Thankyou.
I have ruled out St Hughs as being too west for DH. Chandlings also, due to only going up to y6.
DS I think is fairly bright and sporty, so maybe I should look at Magdalene also. Headington then might be the one for DD. It has prep too, so this option would reduce school moves also.
My list to visit then: Headington, Magdalene, Abingdon Senior and Prep, Manor, HelKats (great nickname!) and Our Lady's.
Oxford traffic sounds really scary. Living-wise I reckon I (we) should aim for south/southeast of Oxford.

Lots to do then......
Thank you everyone.

Does your DH generally work in Oxford or London? If London, Abingdon is probably easier than Oxford because the trains go from Didcot via Reading and Swindon. We live just north of Oxford (sadly the state schools there are atrocious so check for your specific village) and DH finds it takes the same journey time to get to Didcot as Oxford although Oxford station is only 4 miles away.

Can't help much on schools I'm afraid as I'm only really able to go into Oxford city. DD is at Oxford high junior school and loves it.

Lots of school buses from the villages around Abingdon into St Helens and the Manor. Used to be good with both sport and music - but I think some of that has been pushed out a bit by the emphasis on accademic sucess.

You should speak to these guys, they are a relocation search agent in Oxfordshire, but they also have an education service

Try again!

You should speak to these guys, they are a relocation agent Oxfordshire, but they also have an Education service

I'm not very well informed on private schools, but if you would like to live in a nice village, with a young family, and your husband needs to travel to Oxford and London, then I honestly don't believe you can do any better than where we live in Goring. There is a station with services to Oxford and London and it is just lovely. Not too big and not too small. Pretty and practical.

I'm happy with the village state school, as are most people I know, but a few go to Moulsford or to the Oratory, both very near by. For secondary some people seem to be considering Abingdon.

Happy to talk about Goring and other nearby villages if you like.

Has anyone else had experience of Ferndale? I am considering it but concerned that a) it's a Cognita school and b) the staff turnover is slightly high??

These guys are relocation agents in Oxfordshire and they have an educational service that might help?

Relocating to Oxfordshire

this thread is terrifying. Why only PMing about the good villages? are you scared too many people will get in on the secret of the best places to live. Are we competitive about that too!?

I'd assume people only want to PM about good villages as it publicises their whereabouts too precisely and may lead to them being identified in RL.

Have had two children at Ferndale.DD did really well recently lots of changes of fantastic teaching staff and three heads in a year.Moved my son to a different school to make sure he was ready for the exams

This has come alive again!!!

Thought I'd update - we're now living in a lovely village outside abingdon and dc are really happy in their schools.
DH still alot in London, but gets the train from Didcot which is quick. I've started work a few days a week (at the moment) in Oxford and am hoping to build on that.
All in all, a good move for us and the kids love having more space and open land to run around in.
Many thanks for all your help - it was really helpful getting opinions.

Also thinking of relocating to Oxfordshire, and wondered if anyone knew how long the bus that drops off to the private schools in Oxford city takes from a) Thame and b) Abingdon?