Anyone in Reading??

[DooBeDooBe]

Thinking of moving to Reading because it has Grammar Schools. Anyone have any comments / advice? Would have to be North or West Reading for our work commitments.

Have heard that Kendrick is very pressurised.

I am in Tilehurst (West Reading).

DD went to an excellant mixed Comp (W. Berks school NOT a Reading school) having failed to get into Kendrick and is now at Cambridge.

DS is at Reading School (The Boys Grammar)and loving it.

The competition for the Grammars is VERY high, and IF you don't get in some of the Reading schools are TERRIBLE. The John Madejski Academy is on it's third re-name since mine have been at school (Original school got a whole 7% 5 A-C grades at GCSE).

However, if you live in the W.Berks council area you can go to some very good schools. DD's school is oversubscribed and last 2 Ofsteds were Ourstanding so you need to be in catchment (which covers a whole range of properties from 2 bed teraces to Mansions).

Theale Green is a good school if you go to Theale, and loads commute from Tilehurst/Calcot.

Primaries vary hugely from awful to excellant.

We like Tilehurst. Close to M4, Town Centre, great Bus service and also near to Woods and open countryside, the Thames at Pangbourne etc.

Wokingham borough is next to Reading and has some great schools.

I live in Wokingham, and had same experience as Milliways - DS got into Reading grammar, DD didn't get into Kendrick, but she knows several who did and she ended up with much better A levels than many of them (she went to a girls' comprehensive & then 6th form college, where she did 5 A levels, whereas Reading Grammar normally advises pupils to do only 3.

If you moved to Wokingham or West Berks, you would still have a chance at the grammars, but if your DC didn't get in, the alternatives would probably be better - though you might find house prices a bit higher, and Wokingham might prove to be a bit far for your work (though DH commuted to High ycombe for several years and now works in Marlow - both north of Reading.

Thanks. So I should probably check out W. Berks then. Is there a perticular area to aim for first??

Milliways - would it be easy to get out of Reading to go North in the mornings from Tilehurst??

The traffic is pretty ghastly around here come rush hour if you are going into town or up the motorway to London.

Getting to Caversham (North of Reading) is fairly easy though as you avoid the town.

Where would you be heading too?

Tilehurst is fairly large & sprawling, bordering Sulham (towards Pangbourne), Purley and Reading. It has some very exclusive areas and some real awful spots (like most large palces). The most notorious area is undergoing a regeneration scheme so that should hopefully improve things.

There is also Calcot, off the A4, to consider?

Caversham is North Reading - you get the Thames.

As Rusty said, Wokingham is great (I grew up there) if a little pricey.

What sort of house are you looking for?

I live in Reading (north) but grew up in the Buckinghamshire area where there is a much greater choice of grammar schools - do you have to be in Reading? As there are only a couple of grammar schools here (ie one boys and one girls) the competition is great and like with a lot of places, if your kids don't get in and you can afford it (and it's your preference of course), the private schools seem to prove quite popular. There are a couple of ok comps though north of Reading - I think Chiltern Edge and Highdown ? - a mixed bag but plenty of kids go there and do well and seem a nice bunch of kids from what I've seen

The choice of grammar school education is much better though in the buckinghamshire area so Marlow, High Wycombe, Beaconsfied, Amersham etc....and as others have said, Wokingham.

Depends where you need to be for work I suppose (you say north and west ?)

Work is London, Pangbourne, and Oxford, with Oxford the least. At the moment we are in Oxford, but really need to swap round.
I would love a village just N of Reading, but as ever, funds are limited.
We would want a 3/4 bed house with good size garden. Good schooling is important too of course.

Getting to Pangbourne is a breeze from Tilehust, you drive through Sulham Woods (narrow roads but scenic).

Houses [http://www.findaproperty.com/displayprop.aspx?edid=00&salerent=0&pid=4872530 here]] are on a popular estate (older semis with decent sized rooms) - although that one needs modernising??

80' garden near Station

newish build 4 bed

I live in Woodley, which i have to say i have found to be a very pleasant area. as per most toens it does have a small area that isn;t so good and a comprehensive that isn;t great. However my eldest goes to Waingels and we've found it to be excellent. ds1 is doing very well and acheving fantastic grades at present. He is 12 and in year 8.

Wokingham council definatley have better secondary schools than reading council areas. even in caversham the schools are not very good and there are plenty of areas where you would not want to live, but if you don;t know the area you could easily end up there.

the grammar schools are notoriously difficult to get into and there is fierce competition for the places, so don;t rely on your child gaining a place and look at other schools in the area to make sure you would be happy with them as well.

I lived in Early prior to moving to woodley about 18 months ago and again some of the schools have outstanding results but some have appalling results. Maiden Erlegh was seen to be the be all and end all of schools but a number of my friends with children attending are distinctly unhappy.

whereabouts would you be trying to commute to from reading? if you need the M$ most areas that access that are dreadful in the rush hours and the rush hours are similar to london ones, starting at 7a.m and going on until after 9a.m. there are plenty of local train stations that go to the main reading station though, including, earley (across the bridge from woodley so easy for woodley too), winnersh, wokingham, tilehurst.

Caversham is horrendous in the morning if you need to cross either of the two bridges, and there is not a local train station so if commmuting by train you would need to travel into Reading town centre.

aplologies for lack of caps and any spelling/grammar mistakes, typing one handed while b/f.

Thanks for the info. Morning journeys would be to Oxford and Pangbourne, and an evening commute into London for DH.
Oh, this is SCARY!!!

I would suggest you look at the Twyford area, it's in Wokingham LEA so excellent schools but can can still try for the Reading grammars.

Mainline station to Paddington (journey varies from 30mins to 60 mins) & reasonable journey to Oxford (don't know how long though). House prices are fairly high though :-(

I wouldn't agree that Kendrick is pressurised, I have a DD there & for her it is a very friendly, relaxed school. It is full of largely self motivated girls, so maybe there is little need for pressure, but DD does not have noticebly more work than her friends elsewhere & enjoys a very un-strict regime.

What about Goring - my favourite place in that area? Local primary schools were good when we were there. Great village atmosphere and on the railway (used to commute to City and West End from there). Good road links to Oxford and beyond and also cross country towards Henley.

Entry to Reading School/Kendrick isn't based on catchment, as far as I know, and children can get there by train/bus. The local secondary for Goring is Langtree and Theale Green for Streatley.

Lilymaid - agree with Goring.
Would look at houses from Goring southwards really I think.
Any catchment areas to avoid???

Don't know about Kendrick but Reading School does have a catchment - check their website and they list the postcodes that they will consider applications from.

I think it is probably more accurate to say that there are two grammar schools IN Reading, rather than that Reading HAS grammar schools. Their connection to the town is tenuous at best - Kendrick certainly has students who live as far away as Newbury coming in to it.

They have very good results. But then they cherrypick the best students not just from Reading but from West Berkshire, South Oxfordshire, Wokingham, and North Hampshire. So it is hard to know what value they add.

Last year (local hearsay has it) there were more than a thousand applicants at Reading Boys for 80 places. Don't count on it!

The Reading School catchment area is huge - though it does exclude Greater London!

Def go for a drive round the areas at rush hour though, the traffic is AWFUL in Reading, i go to uni classes two eve a week and spend just as long sitting stationary in Reading traffic as the journey from Maidenhead to Reading

There are normally 112 places at Reading School (it's not called Reading Boys, or Reading Grammar, incidentally, just Reading School, in fact when we applied, we were told the address was 'Reading School, Reading') of which a maximum of 12 are boarding places. One of the mums at the school I work at whose child sat the exam last month said she was told that there were about 630 candidates - it's gone up a lot in the last ten years - the year DS did it (1998) he was no 328 & was in the last room, so there were fewer than 350.

wow!
Well that's scuppered my plans!!!

My dd isn't at school yet so this isn't from personal experience.
I work in Burghfield which is a suburb in the direction of Tadley. I haven?t heard much positive feedback about the schools in this direction. The big primary school (Garland / Garlands) is criticised for its poor academic record and ??inner city?? feel. I think the other primary (St Mary?s) is more popular, but it?s also smaller, further out and possibly has church attendance criteria.
Willink (the comprehensive) is apparently pretty dire academically and has a fairly relaxed approach to dealing with bullying. Some of the pupils I?ve met are very polite but they are a minority in my experience. I?ve heard more than once of parents (including a friend of mine) whose dcs were encouraged to smoke at the bus stop in year 7 / 8 by older pupils. Obviously I don?t know how wide spread this is but it doesn?t seem to reflect well on the character of the school, as they seem to have been fairly apathetic to helping my friend prevent this. It seems like quite a high risk option considering the competition for places in the grammar schools, especially as a sizable % of people who don't get into the grammars go private so there is quite a competition for places there too.
If your dcs do get into the grammar schools there seems to be a fashion of doing up to GCSE at Kendrick (the girls) and then leaving to do IB in either Henley or Alton, both of which are hours of travelling every day by public transport. I'm not sure if the reason this is popular is to get away from the pressure, to mix with boys or for the benefits of doing IB instead of A levels. I would imagine this means there is a reasonable intake of new students for 6th form in the grammar schools though.

Sorry for loads of irrelevant information if you?re not looking in our direction. I don?t know how far this pattern is repeated in the other suburbs or if it is just Burghfield which was unlucky! If you?re looking at Berkshire in general though, maybe Newbury could be a good option. St Bart?s is actually a comprehensive now, but I hear it has maintained its grammar school character - very successful academically (I know of 4 possibly 5 ex Bart?s students who are now Oxbridge), they learn Latin... and play lacrosse. I think the other school on along the same road (possibly Park House)also has a pretty good reputation.

Haha sorry for writing so much, I hope some of it is helpful.

Thanks TB.
All info is good info in my book!
Little Heath and Downs schools anyone????......

LH is excellant - as confirmed by the last 2 Outstanding Ofted reports.

No experience of Downes - sorry.

I think Downs is good - small for a comp and the students I know who go there are lovely.

I taught at LH ages ago so anything I say will be out of date.

We live in Cholsey which is handy for Oxford or Pangbourne or London Paddington (and crucially Reading) via train - and I would imagine somewhat less expensive than Goring. It is also near Didcot (also on train line) which has Girls (Didcot Girls') and Boys (St Birinus) comprehensives if single sex education is your bag - they have a joint sixth form. Alternatively the catchment school is Wallingford which seemed pretty purposeful the last time I visited. Langtree is not that far away and I think it got an outstanding OFSTED last time round.

O so hard to choose...

just a quickie to say kids from streatley don't go to the Theale - they go to the Downs.

Which is nice.

And the primary school is very good (when open...)