Wokingham - Woosehill, advice on location please!!

[Aila]

Hi We are moving to wokingham over the next few months and I would be so grateful for some advice on which areas are nice with good primaries. I have looked up ofsted reports and been to see Hawthorns Primary which did seem lovely. However it is in an area called Woosehill and I have heard that its not the best place to live in, youths hanging around etc. When we drove/walked through it seemed fine, so its hard to tell!

I have discounted church schools (as we would not get in!) but if anyone can recommend high performing primary schools and also which areas to live in that would be most appreciated.

I lived in wokingham years ago and have friends still there. Some parts of Woosehill are better than others. Personally, I'd prefer to live elsewhere in town but house prices are rather limiting.

Hawthorns is ok.

I realize this is of little help. There are quite a few wokinghan MNers

Hi Grockle, thanks for your message! Where else would you suggest in Wokingham?

Also when you say Hawthorns is ok, is that based on the local view of the school? as the ofsted report was outstanding.

Why are you discounting church schools? Its not compulsary to attend church to get into one although it may get you higher on the waiting list if its a criteria in their admissions policy. Dont be put off..

My sister lives in Wokingham, doesnt go to church and her daughter was still offered a place at a church school!

I had a look at the admissions policy and we would be in the last category 'any other children'. I just thought that if it was a good school, it would be massively oversubscribed, and being in the last category we would be highly unlikely to get in!

Woosehill is quite enough though I think areas like Sirus Close have a bit of a bad rep. Houses in Woosehill are quiet overpriced because of the school. There are other good schools like Embrook and Walter... don't let an OUTSTANDING Ofsted report fool you. The Hawthorns has it's problems just like any other school. Usually outstanding reports mean that they are very good at dotting the i's and crossing the t's required for the inspection. You need to go look at a few schools and make your own mind up about what is best for you and your children

Bren

Does it have to be in Wokingham itself or could you be in the borough of Wokingham? Because Crowthorne is 5 minutes from Wokingham, has some great primaries and has one of the best state secondaries in the South East (Edgbarrow)...I'm biased as I live in Crowthorne, but would much rather live here than Wokingham!!

Also, Hawthorne's head is about to retire, they are advertsing the post now...so whilst that isn't automatically a terrible thing, it does make the school a bit of an unknown quantity as a new Head could change things totally..

I was going to say that the Head at Hawthorne's in leaving. When I was there for a few days I was really impressed by him so I think he will be a significant loss to the school. The future may be somewhat dependent on whether they find someone who can fill his boots.

There is a new school that opened on Jennetts Park that looks like it has a very swanky new build and lots of land and probably has plenty spaces with being new?