Moving to Caterham and need more information on schools

[goingmadslowly]

Hi there

We are thinking of moving to caterham and looking into schools. It would be state schools rather than independent. We are Catholic so would go for St Francis primary and St Bede's secondary. Just not sure on whether catchments work for those schools.

We would be 0.7 miles from St Francis and then fairly far from St Bedes but are in their catchment on paper. Does anyone know what it is really like?
And/or any other recommendations for schools.

DD 3 1/2 and DS 18months.

Any information gratefully received.

bump

just in case there are some early morning posters!

I don't know anything about catchment areas I'm afraid, just dd has 2 friends that are in reception at St Francis at the moment and they both love it and both mums are very happy with it.

Thank Woolleybear. It is always good to hear about other children experiences.

In theory the catchment for St Bedes is pretty wide but atm about 120 places go to those satisfying the C of E criteria, 120 to RC on same basis and 20ish on the basis of high priority (SEN, looked after) and then others on distance. Even fulfilling the religious criteria is no guarantee unless you live nearby so it is always a gamble. I know of someone who lived very close denied a place a few years back. However latest is that the LA are likely to axe the school bus service which may affect where people apply for their dc in future (ie from Lingfield and Caterham, Oxted or even Croydon is more easily accessible by public transport than Redhill) and mean that the criteria for place allocations have to change too.