Primary schools in Manchester

[chicaguapa]

I realise this is going to sound rather general but we're relocating next year to "Manchester". We can pretty much pick anywhere to live round there although DH will be working in Bury so we're kind of looking at Prestwich area but anywhere's great so long as it's a nice area and has good transport links into the centre of Manchester (where I'll eventually be working).

DD will be eligible for nursery place so would like to find her a good school with a nursery to put her in to avoid another change for her when she starts reception.

Looking through the league tables are one thing but reputations can often differ as to what the good schools are. Obviously in an ideal world we'd find the good schools first and pick a house in the catchment area.

Any help/advice would be appreciated. My friend is a reception year teacher and says that it's an important year for the child as it can form his/her opinion on school for the rest of her education. So I'd like to try and get it right.

Cheers!

don't know much about the primary school side of things I am afraid - but prestwich and whitefield state secondary schools have quite a good reputations - far better than the manchester ones. you might want to consider whitefield as well as prestwich. there is a very good tram system in manchester, (during peak time, trams ever six minutes between bury and manchester). both prestwich and whitefield have tram stations. parking in manchester city centre isn't brilliant so a lot of people use the tram who work in the city centre.

sorry can not help as I live in South Manchester... but I have some friends in north who might help....will see what I can find out for you...

That would be great. Thanks.

i live (and teach) in bolton but know little about Bury or prestwich

Brilliant! How lucky we are to find someone in Prestwich! What school does your children go to then?

I won't be working for a couple of years and to be honest the schools round here only do 1/2 day nursery places too so I didn't even realise there was an alternative.

We don't have a faith so aren't bothered about DD going to a faith school particularly. Although I have no problems with that if there's a good one locally. I'll have a look at the league tables though. Is there a lot of competition for places?

Have you considered South Manchester? We live in Altrincham which is on the metrolink so it's a doddle to get into town and it's in also Trafford - reknowned for it's good schools.

It means house prices are quite high due to the schools, proximity to M6, metrolink, airport 10 mins away etc.

It's one of few boroughs with state secondary schools - Altrincham Girls and Altrincham Boys are way up there in the national league tables. Pretty much all the primary schools are good too - in Altrincham, Hale, Sale.

I'm not well up on North Manchester but my Auntie lives in Whitefield and I know my cousins went to good schools.

We have considered south Manchester but keep getting caught up in the Didsbury hype

Ange8 - you say the league tables reflect the local standing of the schools... Park View seems to be a fair bit lower in the tables than St Mary's as their stats are a bit better. But the ofsted report (from 2002) says that Park View is over-subscribed and v.popular locally yet nothing is mentioned about this in the St Mary's report. What do YOU think?

I noticed that Park View had more of a mix of cultures. We've also been looking at Worsley and the 'good' school there that everyone seems to want to get their children into only has 1 minority which is Chinese (well in 2000 in the Ofsted report). I agree it's better to have a mix.

Ok, now a question about areas... We are initially looking for a 3-bed semi with at least a drive on a nice road but after a couple of years (when I go back to work) we plan to move up to a bigger house ie 4-bed detatched. The hardest thing for us at the moment is to try and work out what we could get now and whether there's anything around that would meet the 2nd criteria without having the move the children from school. 2nd child (due in 7 weeks) will be about to start nursery when we plan to move.

Without offending anyone else reading, are there any "areas" to avoid that are a bit grotty. We're hoping to get away with spending £150-£170k for the 3-bed. I've had a look on rightmove.co.uk but there's no point thinking we can get something decent for our money and turning up to find out all the houses are on the wrong side of town!

Your advice is really useful! Thanks!

Hi

I live in Heywood, which is a town next to Bury - 2 junctions up the M62 (junct 19). My child goes to Hopwood Primary and I can recommend it. There is good discipline and excellent results and my son likes it. If you want an award winning School try St Michaels, Bamford. They get 100% results on all the sats!

Happy house hunting.

Forget Altrincham/Sale etc then - you won't get a 3-bed semi for £150-170K (our 3-bed semi is up at the moment for £285K - mind you, it's not selling!!!).

I think stick to your original area.

Forget Altrincham/Sale etc then - you won't get a 3-bed semi for £150-170K (our 3-bed semi is up at the moment for £285K - mind you, it's not selling!!!).

I think stick to your original area.

Oops!

I think there are some parts of Prestwich where you might get a 3 bed semi for 150-170k - round the Butterstile Road area perhaps. The local school (Butterstile) seems reasonably good. We didn't look in that area because we preferred to live in the centre of Prestwich (known as Prestwich Village locally, but a far cry from a village really!) so that the kids did not need to change schools. We sold our 3 bed terraced (no garden, no drive, but large inside)for 150k. There are a few local estate agents with websites that you could have a look at to give you an idea of what's available. The main ones are: Alex Dines Michael Herwald and Melissa Berry . Happy hunting!

That doesn't sound too promising...

What roads cover Prestwich village and are the houses more expensive there then? I have an A-Z so can look them up.

Having looked at some estate agents' websites, I've spotted a house on Penrhyn Drive and would be interested to know if that's a nice area. I suspect the tram runs a bit close hence the price! There's one on Rectory Lane that is also on for under £170k but it's such a long road it could be anywhere along it - is there much variation in area from one end to the next?

DH is regularly in Bury and can drive around to take a look but men never seem to notice the same sort of thing, do they? Have DD(3) and 33 weeks pg so not really able to go down and have a look round until next year.

That's really useful information - thanks so much for taking the trouble to write it all down! We also like Victorian houses (we live in an end terrace one at the mo - no parking and tiny garden so know what you mean!) so it's good to know that kind of house is near the tram. In so many areas, the older houses tend to be in the more rundown areas unfortunately. Will now go and look for that house on Alex Dines!

You are most welcome! Hope you find the area/house/school of your dreams! By the way, I have no inside knowledge of the area, but Worsley is supposed to be very nice - proper posh! But think ahead to secondary school age, as Salford has some very unpopular secondary schools. I am sure there must be good ones around the Worsley area - but I would want to check.

Have a look at SchoolChoice website (www.schoolchoice.co.uk) to easily compare primary and secondary schools in the area on performance. Can also link to inspection reports.

Once you've narrowed down the schools you're interested in, there's no substitute for talking to other parents and visiting selected schools.

Good luck with the move.

Deirdre