Schools in East Oxford and Headington?

[SidandAndyssextoy]

We are contemplating a move out of London to Oxford, and East Oxford (Divinity Road area) and Headington fit our budget best. What are the state schools there, primary and secondary, like? From my quick look at Ofsteds, they don't seem great, but I'm very willing to look beyond Ofsted. Where would be the best places to look to buy to be near good schools? Thanks.

Well - IMO - Cherwell is the only senior school with a decent reputation (so long as you don't mind no uniform). But it is very over-subscribed and not all in catchment get in. They also move the catchment area around Headington, so be careful where you buy. Wolvercote addresses get priority for Cherwell.
Oxford Spires is supposed to be ok and on the up.

Primarys? Quite a few. St Andrews in Headington, Windmill also in Headington, St Joseph's (Catholic) Headington too.

Also worth checking out commutes as traffic and parking is bad.

Lovely place to live though!

As mentioned by Icancount, the Headington catchment area for Cherwell is fairly small and is some distance from the school which may mean you may not get in.

St Andrews is one of the better primarys, but it only has one form entry and can be massively oversubscribed, although a couple of out-of -catchment with siblings got in this year. Windmill is a well regarded school and has a 3 form entry, not sure about St josephs.

Thanks, both. This is rather confirming my impression that it's not exactly an area brimming with good schools. Is there any part of Oxford that has vaguely affordable housing and decent schools?

West of Oxford fairs better.

I think Cheney in Headington is reasonable. The pupils I know from there went on to Imperial, KCL, LSE and another is probably going to an Ivy League Uni.

I think there are good kids and not-so-good kids at all schools. I would look v v v carefully at what subjects they offer at what level. For e.g. some E Oxford schools no longer offer music at GCSE and/or A level. It depends on what sort of subjects you want a school to be bothered about. Also check out behaviour in class, and language used by pupils. Also try and work out if there is a gang culture rife.

Sorry to be so negative, but just look hard at East Oxford Comps.

Thanks. You've all also reminded me that the friends we have in Headington teach in local schools, so we should be mining them for these sort of details.

I would be interested to hear what your teacher friends reckon.
Can you report back? I would love to be proven wrong.

Yes! It may be a while though. This may well be a zombie thread as we won't see them till after Christmas.

Thanks. I can wait…….