Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Education

Join the discussion on our Education forum.

Schools in Camberley

5 replies

Lahossy · 25/01/2025 14:06

Hi, We're looking to move to Camberley ( close to the town centre). I have no idea about schools for my daughter. ( 3 years old)
Are the state schools ( both primary and secondary) around this area any good?
I would like your recommendations.
Thanks.

OP posts:
DeWe · 26/01/2025 15:58

As with anywhere there are some good ones, but tend to be over subscribed, and some not so good ones.

A lot are infant/junior split as well.

If you're town centre, you're unlikely to get into Heather Ridge, for example. You may have a chance at Prior Heath, if you're that side of the town. They're both good schools, that lead into Ravenscote Juniors - which is 5 form entry with the advantages and disadvantages that big schools have.
Depending on where you live, you may have a chance for Crawley Ridge Infants, which not unsurprisingly leads into Crawley Ridge Juniors. They used to be heavily oversubscribed, but now aren't, mostly I think because the juniors isn't as good as it was.

If you're the other side of the A30 then you may well be looking at Lorraine/Pine Ridge Infants and Cordwallace Juniors. Their reputation hasn't been brilliant, but some children have thrived there.

Primary wise, The Grove is better than it's reputation, and often is undersubscribed. But is near the hospital so traffic is a bit of a nightmare at school drop off/pick up.
There's also the new school on the renamed Deepcut estate. Mindenhurst School or something like that. They've only been in operation for a year, but the building is nice and new. Again, they might well be undersubscribed so you may get in.
if you're Catholic, there's St Augustine's too. One where I think the reputation is better than the reality for some if that makes sense.

Secondary: Choice of 3 unless you're Catholic.
Kings. Small, generally considered good for SEN, does have ongoing issues, although far better than it used to be.
Other two are both large, and both have people saying "no way" or "Best ever" about them.
Tomlinscote tends to be a bit pretentious, and rubbish at dealing with bullying ("what," they say, "we aren't. We just don't have bullying"). Used to be oversubscribed, but I think hasn't been the last few years. Avoid if your dc has SEN; not sure if they believe in that either.
They're a language specialism or were when it was fashionable to have a specialism, so offer things like 8 weeks of Mandarin to year 7s, which is brilliant if your dc is interested in that sort of thing. They're quite strict, which suits some dc, and they work on tablets/laptops that you get through the school.
Collingwood is the only one with a 6th form, although that's much smaller than the rest of the school. They're much more laid back, for better or for worse. They are more technology based - they have a racing car for something called Status Racing, or F7 (I think) which is a school competition, and they had a team in Robot Wars and still have a Robot Wars Club I think. I think (on FB) I saw they have an active debating team too, and were the only state school to get through to the debating finals last year, but I might be misremembering.
No idea if they're oversubscribed, but they're close to the town centre so you should get in.

Lightuptheroom · 26/01/2025 19:40

Pretty much as. PP has said, would add that Collingwood has a massive catchment area, Tomlinscotes is smaller in that respect. Kings is smaller pupil numbers and has in the past suffered from a reputation that they have to take the pupils that get permanently excluded from the other 2!
Infant/junior, really depends where your address is as the A30 pretty much divides catchment areas, as PP said used to be impossible to get into Crawley Ridge from the 'other side' of the A30. Avoid Cordwalles if at all possible, they do a brilliant job but have suffered over the years from terrible mismanagement in the senior management side.
Prior Heath has a very high reputation and they work the children quite hard with lots of homework. You can also look at schools out towards Frimley depending on what the birth rate is for the year and how far you're prepared to travel, or also look at Bagshot and Heather Ridge or Lakeside.

DeWe · 26/01/2025 19:45

Lakeside has moved into the new school on the Deepcut development.
They're meant to be developing the site into a new special school, but don't hold your breath.

Bertielong3 · 26/01/2025 19:53

This reply has been withdrawn

This message has been withdrawn at the poster's request

Lahossy · 30/01/2025 17:54

Thank you very much for the very helpful information.
We do not know the area, as we are in Woking right now and houses we can afford are bigger in Camberley, so we are looking into move in.
We are thinking about the area near the theatre. According to the map, Lorraine is the closest, then Crawley Ridge but thinking about Junior school, Crawley Ridge is closer.
We like to live close to the town centre, but in Camberley it sounds difficult to be in a good catchment area...

OP posts:
New posts on this thread. Refresh page