Guildford Catholic schools - primary and secondary

[Hadeda]

I'd love to hear people's views on the Catholic schools in Guildford. We have 2 DDs and live in SW London. We are Catholic and are involved in our local church. We're thinking of moving out of London, with one of the reasons being schooling.
Right now DD1 is at a Catholic private school and DD2 will join her there in Sept. The school is great but, of course, expensive.
Looking at Guildford there seem to be good primaries in the areas we might buy: Merrow (St Thomas of Canterbury) and in Goldalming (St Edmunds). And there is St Peter's as a secondary school.

So what I'd like to know is.....
Are the primaries in Guildford massively oversubscribed, like in London? Could we even get in.....
Does St Peter's compare well to George Abbot? And to the private schools - eg GHS or St Catherine's?

Our ideal is to send the DDs to a state primary school, and then look again for secondary but it would be great to have a reliable state secondary available. Where we are now, we could just have lived with the primary school but the local comp is out the question. So a move out of London might make sense, if we can fit all the pieces of the puzzle together...

Hi, I don't live in those areas so can't really advise but wonder if ringing the schools in question might give you some idea about how oversubscribed they are. Also if they ARE oversubscribed, do places become available etc. Our Catholic primary is oversubscribed but a third of the children come from India and Europe so there is a fair bit of movement in and out each year meaning that the waiting list moves. I know that some schools don't have this though and the waiting lists don't move. Good luck though, hopefully someone familiar with those schools will be along.

I know from reputation the GA and St Ps are both very good schools and it can be a difficult choice between them. Plus I know of people who have left Guildford private girls schools to join state schools like GA/St Ps and been very happy (there is actually a fair bit of movement both ways), so would not worry about the state/private comparisons too much.

Re primary places, Surrey has needed to put in extra classes in the last few years but the schools you mentioned do not look horribly over-subscribed this year.

You can see the offer info for the schools on SCC website here and here

This looks pretty promising from your point of view.

As you are catholic you would be top of waitlist (despite not being close) if you applied now as both schools offered places to non catholic children. The distance cut off is not relevant to you as you are a higher admissions category than where this is being applied.

Why not speak to the schools to get an even more up to date feel re reception spaces and also ideas on spaces in DD1's age group. You could apply for a place for DD2 from current address and if necessary join waitlist for both St TC and St E?s.

For secondary, the same info for St Peters on SCC website shows that all catholic children were admitted in last 2 years (110 to 120 catholic children vs 180 places) so you would be in a good position to get a place. It also means you don?t actually have to be in a catholic feeder school to get in, so you could consider one of the other local primary schools if the two primaries you mention do not have spaces.

Thanks Springrain - I didn't realise you could get detailed stats for admissions for church schools in Surrey. Where we are they just say "places requested [insert huge no]; places offered 30 or 60". This gives a much better idea of where we might stand.
I plan to contact the possible schools towards the end of the year. We can't look at moving until next year anyway so I'm going to keep an eye out for open days at all 3.

I swing wildly in this - some days I reckon we should leave things because DD1 is happy at school and DD2 will be there soon. Other days I look at the costs and think "blimey this is mad!", especially when we could access really good state schools elsewhere....

St Josephs in Guildford is in a less expensive housing area but a good Catholic primary school and feeds into St Peters.

One or two join GHS from St Josephs. Not sure about the others. I think the low numbers is because there is a very good catholic state on offer for free compared to hefty fees for a non-catholic school - e.g. GHS/St Cats. Many families at St Josephs etc are very strongly catholic hence stick to the catholic option. I wonder if there is much movement to the main girls catholic private schools in the area - Farnborough Hill, Notre Dame or St Teresas.

Can't really compare as GHS/St Cats are highly academic selective girls schools compared to mixed comps but I know lots of children at GA and St Peters who have done very well and they are both reputable and highly sought after schools.
Pricey area though so hard decision.

I meant to saw the low numbers doesn't reflect the academics not being good enough but simly because parents aren't looking in the GHS/St Cats direction due to the catholic aspect.