Secondary schools in Oxford

[Catswhiskers22]

Hi! We are moving to Oxford next year when my daughter starts secondary school. We would like to find a family friendly area easly commutable from Brookes and with a good secondary school for her. Any recommendations?

Hi OP, is it state or private schools you're interested in? If state, have a look at the Cherwell school and the newly opened Swan school. Both are less than 10 minutes from Brookes (by car) and Summertown is the most family friendly area (IMHO) in Oxford.

Thanks. We are looking for state schools.

Look into current geography for Cherwell school catchment carefully. Summertown is lovely but very expensive. I’d keep well away from Swan. They are imposing a veggie only lunch menu and it is still a combo of temporary accommodation and a building site. Cherwell is very good academically and popular with the local academic families.

Catchment for Cherwell is v v expensive. Maybe look into Wolvercote area if £££ is an issue.
Matthew Arnold school and Bartholomew are in cheaper areas. Mind you, there's no cheap areas in Oxford!
Rush hour traffic in Oxford is bad too.

How are you getting on OP? Have you had a chance to look into any of the schools/areas mentioned? My DC are doing great at Cherwell but we've got friends whose dd (year 7) is really happy at Swan and they think that she'd be overwhelmed by a big school like Cherwell. Agree re Matthew Arnold and Bartholomew, both are meant to be very good. What is your budget roughly OP, if you don't mind me asking?

Agree with above posters.
We can't afford Cherwell catchment area! Would send my dc there if could.
At present our dc at private school, but our other option was to downsize enormously and move into north oxford for better primary/secondary schools. Decided not too do that as house already not big enough!
Since discovered ds1 has SEN so probably wouldn't cope in large school, but not aware of that at the time.

Hi, I am moving back to Oxford with DS v.bright with dyslexia. Privately educated but looking at state schools, Y8. Any feed back on Cherwell or MAS. Private keen on his abilities but his dyslexia requires laptop and no languages. His previous school was very small and I keen for there to be a good mix of children and sports/lab facilities. Willing to move house. When he is happy he can do so much. Any feedback for Y8 both for atmosphere. The SEN support is mostly the same:)