School recommendation in Leeds?

[Crazybit]

We are looking to move to the Leeds area. I do not know the area at all so any advice and observations, recommendations and warnings about schools will be great please.

We need both primar and secondary and preferably a decent area and good value housing.

TIA

chicken I like Morley. I used to live there. I don't know anyone who supports the BNP either but iirc a few years ago it was the constituency with the most paid- up members of the BNP in the whole country.

It didn't put me off living there and I was only aware of it with all the signs around election time - and a particularly vocal supporter who lived next door to my polling station. As I said before, I know people of ethnic minorities who live there too and have never had a problem but I do think it is something to be borne in mind.

It is more affordable than North Leeds and I REALLY miss living round the corner from the White Rose as well.

link to Yorkshire Post so 90 people isn't a lot in the grand scheme of things. It's hardly like there's definitely going to be someone on your street, but it's still a fact.

Wow, thanks for all the replies.

I am waiting for Carr Manor to call me back about a visit.

Kateshrub, the 2 oldest are girls, would love to put dd in a girls school! However, Manchester is a bit far from East Yorkshire as we're trying to be within an hourish of parents.

IfNot, I like the look of Horsforth but I think the houses may be a little bit more than we can afford for what we need.

Uggmum, yes Wakefield could be something to consider.

Lot's of things to think about :) DP is away atm so I am having to read all this out to him, so I may have more questions when he get's back and can read it properly!

Have you considered Otley? no train station but v good schools and v close to airport. Housing slightly cheaper than a lot of North Leeds.

Will have a look Nixpix, is it the secondary or primary that is excellent?

Otley or Morley much better suggestions than Carr Manor, it is not a good school. Very welcoming to visitors does not go far on a UCAS from!
Horsforth and Garforth both also have good schools, but as mentioned Horsforth is quite pricey. Garforth would be ahndy enough for M62 to zip over to Manchester airport.
Another option, and i don't know that much about the schools would be further over towards Manchester such as Halifax. some of the schools there are dire, but there are some selective schools available.

The secondary schools in Leeds are very mixed and to be frank few of them are outstanding. I can only guess they are creamed by church schools and Leeds Grammar to an extent. I think the comments on schools in Morley schools are probably fair. The schools all seem ok or better, but the Head of Morley Acadamy takes no absolutely dissent at all. He attracts very strong positive and negative reactions from teachers and parents in Leeds. Google him. Plus I agree to all the comments on Morley. I work there and it's high street is super depressing.

We're local to Carr Manor and it does have a good reputation locally. Perhaps better than it's results suggest. The children all seem pleasant and well behaved when you seem them outside. Bear in mind that a lot of children leave to go to Nostre Dames college to do A levels. This seems to happen in a few schools in Leeds. No idea what rents are like, but Allerton High would be the preferred option for us. Failing that in Chapel Allerton Allerton Grange has better results but living next to it never gave us a good feel. Kids skiving off site during lesson time, etc.

I think most of the primaries round here are pretty reasonable. We like the idea of our local one and plan on going there.

Roundhay is the most popular secondary school in Leeds with an excellent reputation. All the Pudsey schools are fair bets. Look on line and you can find the catchment areas for previous intakes and you can see some catchments are quite small. After buying a house we are two streets away from Allerton High's.

We have family at Leeds Grammar www.gsal.org.uk/

Xenia, if the OP has said house prices in Horsforth might be too much for her then it is not very likely she will be in the market for Leeds Grammar. It is very much the best school in Leeds, but pretty certain it is not what the OP was after.

Prince Henry's Grammar Shool is the secondary in Otley, it's a grammar in name only. Just had its Ofsted, good with outstanding features. This is under the new Ofsted criteria. It has a great working and caring atmosphere, does well for all its students and is forward thinking. Top of the league for Ebacc results this year for state schools in the authority - 44%.
Primary schools in Otley have a good reputation too.

Holmfirth? Outstanding secondary school and half way between Manchester and Leeds airports (roughly). It's near Huddersfield so may be a bit far out but worth considering.

Huddersfield also has one of the best sixth form colleges in the country (Greenhead).

Thank you for all the imput, some great information and things that we will have to spend some time looking into when DP gets home (he works away)

Rezzle, dps best friend has literally just recommended Holmfirth as they've just moved there!

Going to look round Roundhay today and waiting on Holmsforth to get back to me.

Otley houses appear to be a bit out of our price range from what is on Rightmove at the moment. Worth a look but the lack of train station is off putting.

Pudsey school have not responded to requests to have a look round.

Garforth has some good primary and secondary schools, is affordable and has good train links for Leeds, Manchester, York, and not far from M1 or A1.

I'm based in Pudsey and can recommend it. :) Though DD is too small yet to be at the schools, I've been looking into the primaries and they all seem pretty good. Not really bothered looking at the secondaries - they could be completely different by the time she gets to that point!

Pudsey has excellent transport links. It has a big, modern bus station at the centre and on the outskirts a train station that leads to Leeds/Bradford/Manchester. So access to Manchester or Leeds/Bradford airports should be pretty easy, via car or public transport.

There's a lovely town centre to Pudsey with good local shops, a fantastic park, war memorial, playground, medical centre, leisure centre, library, town hall, post office, banks, pubs, churches, etc. The other park on the far side of Pudsey (Queens) has also just been granted funding for brand new facilities/playgrounds/etc.

Getting into the centre of Leeds for shopping is a doddle and there's easy access to the Birstall retail park, the White Rose centre, Crown Point retail park, etc. Between them all, pretty much every major store is covered!

Pudsey is also close enough to Bradford that getting fantastic takeaway curries or access to the tools and ingredients to cook them at home is easy. Yum!

A bit more information that may be of help. Horsforth School has recently changed its admissions policy and after siblings will in future prioritise children who live in the LS18 postcode area (i.e. they will take priority over children who live nearer the school but in a different postcode area). I don't know whether the same criteria apply in determining who gets offered a place in relation to year groups higher up the school than Yr 7. I believe Horsforth has recently been full in all year groups, so I imagine that means that your 13-year-old would not automatically get a place at Horsforth even if you do live within LS18.

Re Carr Manor: I know someone who teaches there. She is certainly a committed teacher who regards the school as heading in the right direction. However, my understanding is that a much higher proportion of pupils at Carr Manor will come from relatively deprived backgrounds compared to (say) Horsforth or Prince Henry's.

Thanks everyone.

We have looked round Roundhay school, Morley Academy and Temple Moor. They all seemed good. DD liked Morley, so did I, I found it a little more traditional than the other 2 however the Deputy Head told me that they are full for her year and if there are spaces in the other 2 closer schools, she wouldn't get it. We visited Morley town and thought it seemed like a good place for us, housing seemed affordable, if we decided to move there then we would need to check the other 2 schools out as their would be no guarantees to where she would get.

We didn't spend a great deal of time at Rounday, but I think it is worth exploring further, especially looking at the new primary part of the school, looked good but not properly opened yet.

I really liked Temple Moor, but again, we didn't have along time there and we would need to explore further.

Spirael, We drove through Pudsey but I think we where pretty tired by then and maybe didn't get a good view of the place properly, it's a shame that the schools didn't get back to us.

Needanew, Horsforth called me back and decline us visiting, they do not show people round unless you move into the place and actually get a place. I pointed out that we would need to get a feel for the school first really, she said she understood but lot's of people are on waiting lists etc so they just have a policy not to do it. It's unlikely that we will be going there tbh for that reason.

Fluffy, Garforth was nice, again, I wish we'd got to see the school, we did a drive by. I'd like to have a better look there too.

Looking round Tingley school tomorrow. We only have tomorrow and then we're going to have to do distant research for a while again.

Compared to the other schools you have looked at temple moor is as rough as fu*k. You might not mind that, then fine, but just thought it was worth a mention (used to teach near there, in an equally challenging school and it was recognised as an equal, and not in a good way).
Garforth and tingley both much better.

Loshad, I really liked Temple Moor. They where very firm that they crack down on behaviour etc...usually that is mentioned only when it may be a problem iyswim. Thanks for your input :) It is worth bearing in mind.

OP, if you are willing to consider schools which are not in the "top tier" academically you could try looking at Ralph Thoresby. Ralph Thoresby is one of those schools about which you will (IME) hear very mixed opinions depending on who you ask. I know of one family who recently moved their son out of the school as he was not happy there, but I also know a couple of people whose children are happy there. The reason I mention it is because it's not consistently oversubscribed the way Horsforth is, so if you did like it, it may be that you could be confident that a place would be available - obviously you would need to check. Whilst RT is not at the top of the league tables for Leeds schools, it's certainly not at the bottom!

Thank you Needanew, will have a look into it :)

An update in case anyone stumbles upon this thread..
we did in fact move to Tingley
I appealed to get dd 1 into Woddkirk and we won. She is doing very well. I put dd2 in a less desirable school but hsve just this week been offered a place at our first choice.
I wonder if i know any of you!

I've just read the thread, then realised it was a zombie thread, then realised it was the OP who reanimated it, which I think is entirely acceptable!

Which airport is your DH using, out of interest?

I'm interested in needanew's comments about Ralph Thoresby. It's our local and I had assumed that ds would go there as basically everyone else will, but as the time approaches I am getting concerned by what I hear from older siblings of his classmates. ds is young for his year and I worry it could be like throwing him into the lions' den.

Could you stretch to Guisley ?
It's a nice area, close to the airport but I think it costs a bit more..

Oops ! Glad you like it anyway.