North Cotswolds Primary Schools

[Onlybearshere]

Hi mums, looking for some advice on primary schools!

We recently moved back to the country and are looking at where we want to base ourselves for good schools. Our DD is due to start school next September so we have till early Jan to move into the area to put us in the best position for the school we want her to attend. We love the north Cotswolds, specifically Chipping Camden to Moreton-In-Marsh. The schools we have found that have good ofsted and good results include Blockley, Temple Guiting and Kingham. Also potentially Stow and Bourton primary.

Each have their pros and cons, and so I’m hoping for some first hand experience on these three schools, or any other experiences from local schools in the area. Kingham looks great, but is a bit further south than we wanted to go. Blockley is a lovely school but seems it may be a tad religious for us, and Temple Guiting looks great but is quite small (90ish pupils) and I worry it would be a shock going up a secondary with 1500+ pupils.

it would be great to hear of any experiences at these schools, or any others in the local area that you’d recommend!

Surely where you end up living will have some bearing on this question. It's so nice for kids to be living close to their school mates. And if you end up living up near Blockley you definitely do not want to be doing the school run to Kingham or Bourton every day!

Housing is your easy to come by in the north Cotswolds so this may dictate.

I am in Little Rissington but mine is 13 and boards in Cheltenham so no specific help on the med primaries. Most of our local kids go to the Rissington school and then on to The Cotswold School for secondary (which is excellent). I do think you are a bit spoiled for choice in the North Cotswolds.

Housing ISNT easy to come by...

Thanks @DilettanteMum . Ideally we would know where we would be living, but as we will initially be renting the idea was to rent as close to the chosen school, and then keep eyes peeled for a house once we have confirmation of the school. I personally prefer broadway/moreton as opposed to stow/bourton, so I suppose it’s whether the commute would be worth it if anyone had a particular good experience with a primary school (e.g. Kingham has amazing end of year results). But it’s a good point, driving there and back is definitely going to become a lot if it’s too far, especially with the traffic around that area!

Hi, we are also looking at which schools in the area to attend next year. We live locally to Temple Guiting and although I don’t have direct experiences I have asked many parents who have children there and most rave about it. We are looking to move house and it’s sadly unlikely we will stay within catchment area of it.

if I was to choose a school/s to be placed near then it would be temple guiting, kingham and top of the list Sherborne.

Check when the last OFSTED actually took place. Also in affluent area the results should be good bearing in mind the intakes. I'd concentrate on the amount of progress the children make. Don't make journey too difficult for your family. Bad weather in the Cotswolds can make a slightly longer journey positively treacherous.

I’ve had multiple children go through Temple Guiting and I can’t recommend it highly enough. The transition to secondary was smooth, most go on to either Cotswold or Chipping Camden or sometimes Grammar.

We have many happy memories of our years there.

Thanks @Loulou377, can I ask why Sherborne top of the list? Not looked at it as it’s a bit south for us (and don’t won’t to go through the stow/bourton traffic every morning), but is there a particular reason you like it so much? Ofsted and results look pretty average compared to the others (but I know the feeling you get when you go to the school is the most important thing).

@Madmoomoo temple was lovely when I looked round, and the latest ofsted report is fantastic. I know temple has a relatively large catchment, but I have two main concerns. First that those lanes are pretty ropey…I’m thinking when it’s dark in the winter they will be a nightmare like @Wednesdaylurker mentioned. And second that it’s a really small school, are the children going to be bamboozled when they go to secondary? Someone said as well that when they are so small (I think it has around 70 kids), that they struggle to make up sports teams to compete. I know Blockley has the same head teacher as temple, so I imagine they are run similarly, but with Blockley being slightly bigger and easier access. Also, the secondary school seems to split a lot of the children, and I know you only qualify for the free school bus for the secondary that’s closest to your house…which then brings into the Cotswolds school vs CC school 🙈 did your children go to one of these @Madmoomoo? What was your opinion? I’ve head the Cotswolds is very academic, whilst CC a bit more sporty/arty?

we are going to look around broadway first school soon, but I still love Kingham and can’t seem to shift that feeling, but the area just isn’t where we want to be…unless the catchment would extend to Moreton but I think it depends on the applications that year, then we risk moving to an area where we miss out on Kingham and are too far out for Blockley/Temple.

this school thing is much harder than I thought it would be 🙈

Also @Loulou377 his do you find living in temple? I need to be close to Morton for the train to London so I wonder if it’s a little far? Is there a nice community there?

We love living here (although we are GP not Temple Guiting). I have an office in Moreton - not too far at all (IMO). Naunton has a nice community.

Sherbourne just has that super lovely feel about it, everyone recommends it and apparently the SEN support is excellent.

I also worry about the jump in size to the secondary schools but having talked to parents of older children they tell me the Cotswold school is great for settling children. They buddy children up (in advance) if they are coming to the school without a friendship group. I've not found a family who has said their child has struggled (hugely) with adapting to the size difference.
Also, Temple Guiting is slightly bigger than other schools in our area which is I think why families have a preference for it.

Be aware that Broadway first school only goes up to year 5. Worcestershire is in a 3 tier system, so most kids would go to Bredon Hill middle school years 6-8 then Prince Henrys in evesham. There is St Mary’s in Broadway which goes up to year 6. if you would like them to go to chipping campden for secondary, may be a better option, although I did read in your previous post you don’t want anything too religious.

My Children have all gone to Cotswold and it has been/ is excellent. Most of the feeder schools are little village schools and I think by the end of year 6 the children are ready to move on. I think Bourton is probably the largest feeder school.
Consider Kingham Station for getting to London. Guiting Power is lovely and has an amenity trust that rent out local properties.

@Onlybearshere Hi! My husband and I are going through the same dilemma and are thinking of living in Moreton as we need that link to London for work but would also like our kids to have access to good schools in the Cotswolds. What did you end up choosing to do?