Notts schools

[mollysmum82]

Hiya, we're about to choose our primary school for dd but we're not from the area. A lot of people have told me the secondary schools in Nottingham are dire so it's best to choose primaries 'from the top down'. Can anyone recommend any secondaries in Nottingham? We're in Basford but don't mind travelling (if we can get a place). We couldn't afford to move now and it would be nice if the secondary was attached to the primary for friendship reasons. I'm catholic and dh is cofe so we have the faith school option. Any help would be really appreciated!

Hello,

I am no expert but I have not heard that the Notts schools are dire! I live in Colwick and DD is in the catchment for Carlton Le Willows (Gedling) which is a good school (DD is only starting primary next year though so a long way off yet!)

I used to live in Bobbersmill which is near to Basford - I think the Blue Coat School is a good school - it's in Aspley which isn;t far.

Another catholic secondary is Christ the King in Arnold.

My friend went to The Trinity School which is also in Aspley and is a catholic secondary school - I believe it is also a good school.

I believe that Arnold Hill is a good secondary too.

Apart from the two Bridgford Schools - West Bridgford High and Rushcliffe, I don't really know any others.

Sorry, not sure which primary schools link into the above though but their websites will probably tell you.

Hope you get it sorted - it's hard not being from the area - I am not either, I'm Scottish so just going by what friends have told me!

Have a look at the government's performance tables - Nottingham schools do perform below the national average, but there are still some that perform well.

Ofsted reports - search by distance from your home, then sift through the ones listed to find a good'un.

This BBC website ranks school in order by county - click on whichever column you want to sort by here. Bluecoat and Fernwood are indeed the top performing if you use '5 good GCSEs' as your criteria, unless you're catholic (Trinity) or can pay.

The best Primary school in Basford is Heathfield. I think Bluecoat is the best secondary around here. Trinity is a catholic school and there another in Arnold thats also Catholic school.

South of the river some excellent schools. My children go to East Bridgford St Peters, just received its umpteenth outstanding OFSTED. The local secondary is Toothill also good.

Christ the King in Arnold is a well performing secondary (just recently overtaken Trinity on results). I went there for GCSE and to Trinity for 6th Form. The feeder primaries for CTK are St Margaret Clitheroe in Bestwood and The Good Shepherd in Woodthorpe (my old school, good reputation but MC now also getting good reports and results). The other catholic secondary is The Beckett School in West Bridgeford which is also supposed to be very good. Hope that helps. It's been a few years since I went to the schools but I did well out of them and also know the chairman of governors at CTK well so know quite a bit about their current performance.

Trinity and Bluecoat are the closest to you and are most likely to give you a place. The primary feeder schools for Trinity are Our lady in Bulwell and St Theresa's I believe.

Faith schools in Notts have good reputations generally. The Becket school has good reputation locally. West Bridgford, Rushcliffe, Toot Hill and Redhill are also highly regarded as far as I'm aware. There are also plans to open 2 secondary free schools in Nottingham in the near future.

Wow thank you all so much, I really appreciate all your replies, they've been so useful.