Best school in Bristol and South Gloucestershire

[genieN]

Hi all,
We are new to Bristol and looking for a place to settle. My DD is about 2 and going to nursery in BS16, probably will attend pre school here too. Would like to know how the catchment area works and how can i pick a good primary school for my DD?

Thanks.

Biggest challenge with BS16 is it is across 2 local authorities, Bristol and South Glos.
Ie my kids can't get into the nearest school as its in a different local authority area so last priority.
However lots of schools in this area aren't oversubscribed. You can look at information on the council websites which will tell you stats on whether schools filled all their places and furthest distance awarded a place.
A bigger problem is finding housing as there is high competition both to rent and buy.
I don't know anyone who is unhappy with their kid's school and I know parents at around 6 local primaries.

We moved away from Bristol (south Glos) purely for the fact that you really didn't get much say (in our area) on which school you would get as there just aren't enough spaces and schools to go around. Our daughter would have started the year after all our NCT friends as they were all July/August and she was September, and the year they started, only one got their preferred choice of school, and that was their preferred as they lived on the same road as the school. Most others got allocated schools based on distance, but a couple got some further away from any of their choices as others were closer/sibling links etc. Some of the schools were fine, some not so, and we didn't want to risk ending up being allocated a school we weren't happy with. The one closest to us (our garden backed onto school field) wouldn't have been one I wanted dc to go to, so we moved to a different area with better schooling and less competition for a space.

Take a look at Beacon Rise Primary School. It's in Kingswood (BS15) and you have to be very close to get in but it takes 90 per year. Kingswood area is the downside but it's a fab school with huge grounds.