Oxford schools

[KleineDracheKokosnuss]

We’re going to be moving to Oxford and need to know about the state schools. Which are good/bad for primary and secondary? Where do you need to live to get into them?

So far it seems we could afford a big enough house in Botley, Iffley, Crowley or Headington. What are those bits like?

Can anyone advise please?

Anyone? Aside from Aibu these threads fall away so fast!

Hi OP.
Oxford is a great city to live in, but houses are super expensive as I'm sure you've found out. Traffic in rush hours (3-6pm) is pretty bad.

State schools - I would go for Matthew Arnold in Botley, or the new Swan school in Marston. Wolvercote gets priority places into Cherwell, so look there too. Otherwise you may well be priced out of Cherwell catchment - most people are.

Bartholomew School in Eynsham gets good feedback, and not usually over subscribed.
Avoid Oxford Academy! Cheney is a bit marmite. Wheatley Park is doing well at the moment. Not too far out of the city.

It is worth looking at where you will be working, and thinking of the commutes for yourselves and DC.

hth.

Places you mentioned -
Botley - residential
Iffley - posh and dodgy parts, studenty.
Cowley - V studenty, the lively part of town!
Headington - residential, with a shark in a house roof. Quite studenty due to Brookes Uni.

Thank you! Is Oxford Academy the same as Oxford Spires?

No. two different schools.
Spires I would say gets better results. Spires is a complex school. It is HUGELY diverse. From refugees with no English, to bad kids, to middle class bright kids. I think it is a good school, in that what they achieve with the cohort they have is good. They have a poet in residence who helps pupils express themselves, and they published a book of poems.
I have taught A* pupils who went on to Oxbridge from Spires, and also pupils who were completely feral!!!

@KleineDracheKokosnuss

Anyone? Aside from Aibu these threads fall away so fast!

Hi there is more traffic on the specific level education boards such as Primary Education or Secondary Education so you may get more reponses posting there perhaps.

Friends in Oxford have had (and still do have) children at Oxford Spires and not one of them has had a good experience. I really wouldn’t recommend it. As others have mentioned, Cherwell is good but very much over sub-scribed. I’d settle in Botley and use the bus service to Bartholomew School in Eynsham.

With Oxford the traffic is appalling and in the city itself you need to think in terms of being close to the school. Being in the catchment for Cherwell is probably ideal but very expensive. Living in Botley and anticommuting out to Bartholemew is probably the best affordable option right now. Or live in Eynsham.

We have dc in private schools in Oxford, but only as DS1 who has ASD didn’t t cope in his quite large state primary, but there was nothing wrong with the school per se. I was happy for ds2 to go there but in the end we realised the logistics would be a nightmare and I had a wobble about childcare and went for sending him to the same school as his brother! DS1 will go to an independent for secondary, probably well outside oxford, but ds2 probably state comp, not sure where yet though.

There are lots of good primaries all over, in Headington/marston/botley/n.Oxford/iffley.

Secondaries - Cherwell, Matthew Arnold. Swan is brand new, so rather unknown but has worked hard on ‘selling’ a different ethos to the other local schools which has made people excited. Who knows!

I'd also advise people to take a long hard look at the curriculum that is on offer at these schools. There are major variations. The neglect of modern languages and computing at the Swan is quite shocking, for example.

Good point about curriculums.

Check what they offer for GCSE/A level too. Not all schools offer all subjects.