Reigate area schools?

[shanghaismog]

We will be relocating to the UK (from overseas) and I'm trying to get my head around where to live to have the best chance of securing places in decent state schools. Private would be a stretch for 2 kids, so hoping we can go state.

We like the look of the Reigate area, to commute from Redhill/Earlswood into London Bridge. That said, we really don't know the area at all...

We will most likely need school places for Jan for yr 2 and yr 5, so I know we'll be allocated whatever happens to be available at the time.

For next year's application for secondary, do we just need to focus on staying well within the last year's furthest admittance distance? So, last year for Reigate School it was 1.4ish miles (I think), does that mean everyone who applied from within that distance got a place? What about the child's nearest school thing? If, for example St. Bede's or Warwick were closest school but we were still within the 1.4ish miles (or whatever it was in the given year) and applied to Reigate school would we get in or be automatically allocated closest? We will rent for the first year, so do have flexibility on location thankfully. I'm just trying to find out how far we can push it.

Primaries, I guess it's a case of taking what we can get. It seems, from what I can glean online that there's a serious north/south divide going on both in schooling and living on the right side of the tracks. We should have an address by the time of junior school applications in Jan, so I guess we can apply elsewhere if we're close enough for my youngest for yr 3 and up. It'll be a while before we can get over to have a look around, so I'd be eternally grateful of any local opinions on schools (particularly Sandcross & Dovers Green) and places to live/avoid.

[Pixiedust1973]

Only just seen this thread. Too late it seems. We relocated to Reigate about 20 months ago & my youngest went to Sandcross school. Cannot speak more highly of it. My eldest got into Warwick in Redhill because we moved mid year. Again, cannot speak more highly of Warwick. It has a historic bad reputation & there is some snob factor because of where it is & it's intake, but anyone with kids that actually go there knows how great it is. My youngest now goes to Reigate school because it's walking distance of our house. It is also very good, but communication isn't as good as Warwick. If you change your mind about Reigate feel free to PM me. Best thing we ever did moving here. :)

[shanghaismog]

Well, all progressing well! Moving to Oxted in a couple of weeks and looks like we have school places in lovely schools. Fingers crossed we all have a nice easy transition!

[IsabellaMumsnet]

Hello, we have a Local site for Surrey in which there are listings for schools and a Talk section, which is a good place to ask locals about local stuff such as schools.
Go here: local.mumsnet.com/surrey and click on Talk or Childcare & Education.

[holidaysrcoming]

sometimes they are also GCSE 'equivalents' as well......there should be a gcse for understanding gcse tables.

i used to commute to london bridge from a station going into waterloo - not so bad, you just walk to waterloo east, trains come one after the other and less than 5 mins to LB. Most people face the tube and this was far easier.

You could then consider a number of other towns in Surrey with good secondaries and easy access to M25/M4 and airports.

[LIZS]

Oakwood got better results than st Bede's last year... ? www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/education/school_tables/secondary/12/html/936.stm

Oakwood School 65% got 5 GCSE A*-C but only 9% Ebacc
St Bede's School also 65% 5 A*-C but 41% Ebacc

Suggests to me that Oakwood offer a number of non-core GCSEs (General studies, Citizenship etc) which are more coursework assessed. Might be worth looking achievements at subject level within each schools.

[Flappingandflying]

Oakwood got better results than st Bede's last year... Not sure what Burstow school in Smallfield is like as a primary. Really I think the only thing to do is to go look round schools. What about Haywards Heath area? Warden Park School and Oathall are both good. Horsham? Milais for girls is outstanding and the mixed school there is said to be good. Think its called Tamworth or somesuch.

[shanghaismog]

Really, you lot are fab! Thank you so much. I'll have a look at the other schools mentioned. So basically, we need to live somewhere with our preferred school as nearest school, list it as no 1 preference, then list others nearby by distance as next preferences....making sure to live close enough to no 1. Easy, that leaves about 4 streets... Nightmare.

Hoping any of the other options are ok! AND that's not even considering primary places, which I've basically written off. We'll just have to take whatever's going by the look of it.

[flatmum]

I was going to mention Oasis Academy too - lots of positive "noise" recently

[sandyballs]

Excuse errors, dodg iPad.

[sandyballs]

Coulsdon isn't far from Reigate, very good links to London bridge and Victoria/Waterloo. Excellent primary schools, Smitham, Woodcote, St Aidan's and Chipstead Valley (which has recently become 'outstanding'.

Some if these kids go on to the grammars, Wallington. The state secondary is good - Woodcote high school. Not such a good Oftsed recently but when you read it properly this is mostly due to problems in the 6th form which is new for the, and is being addresses. GCSE results this year were excellent, way above average for a non selective state secondary. Oasis academy had a bad reputation but is rapidly improving, in old coulsdon.

Lovely house surrounding woodcote high.

[flatmum]

but you can live near to de Stafford as your nearest school and get into warlingham or riddlesdown as many do because the schools aren't as badly oversubscribed in Caterham as they are in Reigate. So presently thousand a chance I getting in a a cat 5 as these schools are big and have wider catchment areas. I believe you can also sit an entrance exam for Riddlesdown if it is not your nearest school. De Stafford locally has a slightly better rep than Warwick I would say and does seem to be improving. (my neighbours daughter got 11 A* at gcse there so it must be at least possible to do well there). I drive past on the way o the station and I have to say that I have seen a marked improvement in the behaviour and appearance of the students in recent years (used to see kids smoking for example, never see that now).

[LIZS]

Often nearest available secondary to Merstham is Warwick and De Stafford in Caterham is similar results and reputation-wise. Very few get admitted to RAAS from local area although I think you'd stand a better chance at Year 3 than Year 7. Demand has been high since introduction of flexi boarding. Traffic in the area is slow but not gridlocked unless there is a problem on M25 or by the station at around 5.00/5.30. For some reason particularly slow in mornings on A23 too atm.

[AfricanExport]

I have to agree with F atmum

I would not move to Reigate unless I could afford private schools. The traffic in both Redhill and Reigate is horrendous in the mornings so I would have to be walking distance to station and school. ..ie. sooo very expensive. ... but very nice. Reigate school is in South Reigate and although a good school its the traffic again.

Unless you're a practicing Catholic you have next to no chance of getting into st bedes. Warwick school is not great. Not sure about the primaries but there is nothing to feed into.

I would look at Caterham, Merstham, Kenley or Warlingham. Riddlesdown, Warlingham or Oxted are probably your best state schools in the area. Well that and RAAS which you really need to live in Mersham for or meet other criteria.

good luck

[flatmum]

larger!

[flatmum]

exactly. we put out nearest school at application time as first choice so would have been category 4. this was the year they then changed the way they measure distance from using roads and pathways to radial instance so we became, in actual fact, 46m closer to a different school that we hasn't put down and hence ds slipped down to category 5. school was full with category 1-4 by the time they got down to evaluating category 5. so he then was passed to second choice school, same thing, and at third.

if have thought you stand a good chance of getting in as a category 4. Never rely on being a category 5, 1 or 2 get in if lucky.

so basically, you have to live very close to the school you want and not be closer to any other suitable school.

I imagine, though dont know, that the distances must be breather for secondary schools and more cat 5s get I. as they are so much bigger?

[mummytime]

We have only been talking about schools you name as a preference for the main intakes. If you don't name a school you will only be offered it if there are places after everyones preferences have been allocated.
If you apply in year you will only get a place if a) there is a place available and you are the highest preference to apply for it, b) you win an appeal, c) if the LA applies the fair access protocol.

[LIZS]

I believe the recommendation is to put the nearest school as one of your preferences so I don't think you would automatically get allocated your nearest school over someone who named it if you didn't. However you might if all your preferences were full before they got to your dc's name on the priority list and it had still had space.

[LIZS]

ah, has changed since we applied , so op may be correct. See here If I read this correctly it means that 4th priority is for those who name the school as a preference and for whom it is nearest to home. 5th are those who name it, with places allocated in order of distance.

[mummytime]

Sorry, however OP. Not everyone in category 4 necessarily gets into their chosen school, it depends on just how oversubscribed.

[mummytime]

"Fourth priority: Children for whom the school is the nearest to their home address"
This is the distance criteria in Surrey, it doesn't matter if you live 300m from school A, if you also live 200m from school B (and it isn't a faith school on Surrey's list of excluded faith schools or out of county schools, because "normal" applicants do not generally get admitted) you will fall into the fifth priority category.

[flatmum]

I thought there was a child's nearest school category above any other child on distance? there was a few years ago but my knowledge is a few years out of date. this is why in the year that my ds1 got none of his 3 reception "choices" in Reigate even though we were 0.9 miles from our first choice, because we were 0.8 miles away from a school we didnt put down. (and neighbours behind us did get in because they were equidistant to both)

they can change it annually with consultation though so I guess this may have all changed.

[LIZS]

in normal admissions process if a school is our closest but we're further away than the published furthest admitted figure, we'd still get in assuming no other school was closer to us. Is that right? The published distance is for those allocated after the nearest school kids have been allocated?

No I don't think so necessarily. You apply and applications re put into priority order ie. looked after, siblings , distance (can vary so check each school). There is no "nearest school" criteria in Surrey afaik. So whatever spaces are left after the first two categories are allocated in order of distance, those nearest first. You could however express a preference for a school further away and still be allocated a space there if you met the criteria .

[Beccadugs]

There is usually quite a lot of movement, so don't worry too much. I think you are right about the published distance thing.

[flatmum]

I wouldn't rely on being anything other than "nearest school kids" - many classes are taken up entirely with siblings and them. I have never heard o anyone getting in on a waiting list unless they were top three - this is for primary though, may be easier at secondary?