Suffolk schools

[doornail]

Husband wants to move to Suffolk where he's originally from... we are currently in Scotland (where im from) and have 3 kids - primary school and nursery age.

If we could live anywhere in Suffolk, where would you recommend for good schools and a nice area (work from home mostly so that's not an issue)

And can someone please explain to me about how admissions work with schools in England - if we were to live near a good school (do you have catchment areas?) does that guarantee you a place? If not how does it work?

We have a lot to think about and it's all scaring me as I don't understand it at all!

Thanks

Suffolk is lovely, I grew up there!

We lived in Beccles but I think if you are looking for good schools, Framlingham is a very good place to live. As is Yoxford but I'm not too sure about schools there. Southwold is so lovely but expensive as a lot of Londoners have places there.

I think if you live in a catchment area, you get a place but I think someone else would be best to advise on that.

I would recommend Bury St Edmunds. A lovely market town. I went to sixth form there (quite a long time ago!) I don't have recent experience of the schools, but when I was there, all of the secondary schools were excellent. A quick search on the school performance comparison site shows that all of the very central primary and secondary schools are rated good or outstanding.

Compare School Performance - Bury St Edmunds

In terms of admissions rules, it can vary from area to area. I found this after looking for about 30 seconds online, which might be a good starting point:

Suffolk County Council: school places

I second Bury St Edmunds. Avoid Mildenhall like the plague.

I third Bury St Eds.

once you’ve decided on a place, you can look on the local authority website for how they run school allocation. Generally though; schools decide on their entry criteria (catchment area, religious criteria etc) and in January of the year before your child enters year one, you apply to the local authority for your preferred schools, and are allocated one. Occasionally there will be space for children in schools throughout the years, and you can apply directly to schools for these if you fit the criteria.

Yes, Bury is great for schools. They have catchment areas but I remember several kids from Newmarket getting places at the good/outstanding secondaries.

One last thing though: Avoid KEGS for secondary. They do not deal with bullying. At. All. They just coast on their academic rept the human cost.

I don’t know Suffolk.

(Your say your husband wants to move and that you’re Scottish. You don’t sound keen? You don’t have to move just because he wants to… Especially as England is generally more expensive for eg property than Scotland!)

Re English schools, places go first to any kids with specific disadvantages, like being adopted or having military parents. (Usually there won’t be any). Then after that, places go to the nearest kids first.

So if you apply to a school with 30 places, and there are 30 people nearer than you, or on the disadvantaged list, you won’t get a place even if you live close. But if you apply to a school that doesn’t have many people living near it, OR any school that gets fewer applicants than it has places, then you’ll get a place even if you live far away.

Usually people phone the school and ask ‘what is the usual distance from school of your furthest away pupil’ and the school office can tell you how close you’d need to live to be confident of getting a place.

(It can get tricky if a school has a fantastic reputation that parents of children on the disadvantaged list are willing to travel a long way for. My cousin lived super close to her great local school but couldn’t get in because half the class was disadvantaged children whose parents thought the schools worth travelling for.)

Every school publishes the admissions policy on their website but for England they should all be the same (except for religious schools).

Hello from Beccles! 👋

Every school publishes the admissions policy on their website but for England they should all be the same (except for religious schools).

The only thing that all schools are required to be the same as each other on is that Looked After / Previously Looked after applicants have to be given first priority. After that, there is quite a lot of freedom with regard to actual ranked criteria- very few if any, I suspect go just

1. LAC / PLAC

2.Distance,

but some do only have e.g 'Siblings' between those.
Some have a defined catchment area, but this is only a ranking criterion- you cannot be guaranteed a place just because you live in catchment.
RC school's are allowed to prioritise RC applicants over even LAC non-RC.
(Pupils with an Education, Health and Care Plan - EHCP - which names the school are admitted through a parallel system and will be admitted even if the year group is full).

So you absolutely have to look at each school's oversubscription criteria and for your nursery age DC at least, applying in the main admissions round, name as one of your preferences the school that you are most certain to get according to its ranked criteria. The admissions will cut off for a school at the point where the year group is filled, so e.g. if the admission number is 30 for my 'simple' school and the ranked applications go 2 LAC, 20 siblings of pupils already at the school, and 15 more (no sib, so just ranked on distance) the cut-off will fall after the 8th non-sibling and the rest allocated elsewhere.

For mid-year admissions, a set year group maximum will still apply, so it will be a question of where a place is available.

You can apply to any school, not just in Suffolk, so if you choose somewhere on the Norfolk or Essex border, for example, and there is a school in the other county which is suitable, you can apply.

As for suggestions as to where, exactly, in Suffolk, I'm afraid the only bits I know are the places through which my ageing sat nav sends me between home near the outer end of the Thames estuary and wherever in Norwich DS2 happens to be living. I would observe, however, that at least on that route, once off the A12, the county seems to have an obsession with 'open road' not being synonymous with 'national speed limit'. I'm sure I shouldn't really moan about that, though.

Personally would reccommend looking at North of Ipswich - lots of amazing villages in that area including fantastic Village schools. I send my kids to Ipswich High School (Independent School in Suffolk) and admissions for private schools obviously work very differently - I think for state schools you generally need to get your applications in between Oct-Jan of a school year, however, if the school isn't oversubcsribed for that year you'll have no issues getting a place.