Secondary education Cornwall - opinions please

[Goosegettingfat]

We live in a fairly rubbish area as far as secondary education attainment goes. Dh has the possibility (vague, a couple of years into the future) to relocate to Cornwall. Our eldest dc will be approaching secondary school age by then, so I would love opinions on secondary education in Cornwall as I like daydreaming planning our future life. Is there anything I should be aware of? Do you love your dc's secondary school in Cornwall? (Or not). Thanks!

Watching with interest

Whereabouts in Cornwall were you thinking? There's a lot of variation.

Cornwall is a big place! you'd better narrow it down a bit.

The Roseland Academy and Penrice have good reputations - the Roseland is beautiful and close to some great beaches, St Mawes etc. That would be my choice if I moved back. Mullion School just won Tatler best secondary school if that floats your boat and also a great location although slightly more cut off. If you want private, there's only really Truro (co-ed) or Truro High (girls). Both good I think. Good luck!

We are in South East Cornwall, and I certainly wouldn’t recommend our local schools. Most people I know either went private or to the grammar schools in Plymouth. Truro has good schools, but there is so much talk of the huge amount of development there, there could be a lot of disadvantages brewing over the next few years.

I do wonder how much thought you have put into this. I love Cornwall, have spent time here all my life, and lived here for twenty years, but I have to say that if I had DCs about to enter secondary school, it would be the last place I would be relocating to.

Thanks for all replies, and especially the frankness. Apologies for dreadful geographical knowledge no, I didn't realize it was really big. Nearish fowey.

The thing is that you tend to go to your local school, so you may be limited to the secondary in Fowey. If you're not used to rural life, I would take a long hard look at what living in Cornwall actually involves before uprooting yourself. It's not the easiest place to find work, so check out how muchnincome you would have as well.

If you are looking for a rural area in the south west with great state schools then look around East Devon/south Somerset - depending on which part you're in there's the King's School Ottery St Mary, Uffculme, Woodroffe... all ofsted outstanding. And Stockland Academy is great for primary. I have family in that area and think it's beautiful. You also have Colyton Grammar school if your children are that way inclined. It's an area of really good schools - both independent and state - and still rural and pretty with the sea not far away. I'd look around the Honiton area.

Sticker -no worries on that front thanks- very used to rural living and I can work from home. DH however would have to be near fowey though, so just off to google those interesting suggestions, thanks akh, but I suspect they will be too far away sadly

Fowey River Academy is ofsted 'requires improvement' but from what I've heard of it over the past year (I have a friend who is SMT at Penrice in St Austell), the Head is doing a really good job of trying to recruit passionate and dedicated staff who will raise standards. So don't be put off by the ofsted - go along and see it. If you're looking for Fowey then that might be your only option but look at that and Penrice, I'd say. Fowey and surrounding areas are beautiful.

When I was young we lived on Bodmin Moor. I travelled the 25 miles into Plymouth in order to attend a decent school. This was 25 years ago so don't know if it's still necessary but I was ok with it and a number of other local kids did it.

I get up between St Austell and Truro and went to Truro High (private, girls only). It was great, I don't have a DD yet but if I ever do I would love to send her there. Small school, great sense of community and fantastic teaching. I knew lots of people at Truro School (private, co-ed) and all good reviews from there too. It's a bigger school and I'd say their facilities are better than at the high school. A couple of years ago the high school considered going co-ed, but i think there was a fair bit of outrage and that idea has been ditched now.

My nieces are at a Penrice (state, co-ed) in St Austell and they are thriving. Roseland (state, co-ed) is also popular. I don't hear fantastic things about Fowey to be honest.

I'm in South-East Cornwall now because DH's business is here. The secondary schools aren't great! I'm crossing all my fingers we'll be able to send DS to one of the private schools in Plymouth or Mount Kelly in Tavistock. He's only 7 months so we probably need to start saving now!

Like other posters have said, you basically go to the locally secondary as there only tends to be one in each town, although there are 2 in St Austell and Penrice is far better than Poltair. Thinking about it, Fowey and St Austell are fairly close, could you live somewhere between and go to Penrice which is really good? There are a few villages between (Par, St Blazey, Tywardreth) which you could look at. My nieces are doing really well at Penrice, it's a big school but great facilities.

Another one who can vouch for Penrice. Ds left a few years ago and dd is in year 11 there now and doing great.
Carlyon Bay, Duporth and Charlestown are areas close to Penrice that are nice to live in. All within easy reach of Fowey.

Brilliant, this sounds very positive! Off to scour mentioned areas now! Thanks loads

Penrice is far better than Poltair

Depends on child. Having already seen what Penrice is like there is no way my child who isn't particularly high flying academically will go to Penrice. They are more interested in the achievers than those who need extra help. Penrice also rules by fear rather than promoting self thinking. Sending year 7 children home in few couple of weeks if they don't wear exact uniform eg completely plain black socks is ridiculous. My friends daughter was all black on show but coloured on toes. Shoes made to be removed and sent home.

Personally, I would back Penrice on this. How hard can it be to wear fully black socks? Part of educating children is teaching them how to follow basic rules. The coloured toes is slightly ridiculous though as you can't see the toes so I feel for your friends dd there. But still, I agree with the idea behind it and this makes it a stronger school, to me.

I agree AKH.
Uniform is an important thing for Penrice and to me this reflects the high standards throughout the whole of the school.
I agree that removing shoes to check the whole sock is ridiculous but my dcs have never been asked to do this.

For some children having clean uniform and getting to school is an achievement. Not all children have the same stable home life as their peers. Why can't the school just focus on making school a place where children want to learn rather than focusing on the things that don't actually affect their learning?

Penrice has always had a thing for uniform. In my royal blue & banana yellow uniform days, they used to measure the bottom of our triangular skirts to check that they were A line enough and hadn't been taken in.

Andbabymakesthree - this is exactly why uniform is important. If children aren't being taught how to follow basic rules at home, it becomes even more important to teach them at school. You can't just opt out. Also I'm sure there are studies about how children learn better in an environment which uses a uniform as it takes away the ability for people to be singled out by their expensive or inexpensive clothing. Everyone looks the same and that takes away any social pressure. It's just not that hard to wear black socks, whatever your background.

With state schools in Cornwall, it's usual for children to go their nearest school, as others have said, due to the distances involved. Most state schools tend to have a very mixed catchment in all sorts of ways, and the associated problems that come with this. Some pupils will have very low or limited aspirations for themselves, and this can lead to a culture of low aspiration in some cases.

If you were happy for both your DH and your child to have a bit of a commute, you could live somewhere with a train station (e.g. Lostwithiel?) and then commuting to one of the Grammar Schools in Plymouth might be an option. Obviously these are competitive to get into, and you couldn't assume your child would get a place. Living a long way from school might also be difficult socially, and if you have more than one child, it might be an issue that this would not suit all of them.

I know a few pupils at Fowey school who have had issues with bullying. It is an improving school, apparently, but I don't think it would be a very attractive choice.

When looking at where to move for particular schools, it's worth bearing in mind that Cornwall Council has "priority admission areas" for each school. This is where they supply buses etc for each school, and they're designed so that every child has an accessible school, but not every child would necessarily go to their closest school. This might also be relevant to school admissions.