Schools in Herefordshire; help needed..

[Titogovi]

Hi

We're moving as a family to Herefordshire this year and are looking at schools currently, both our children being primary aged. Hereford, Ledbury, Ross or Bromyard preferred locations at mo.

Anyone out there with any knowledge or advice about the area, in both sectors as we are looking at secondaries too.

I am aware that the county has a very low and static population (a bit like Shropshire or Cumbria) so am not expecting many responses, but never know till you try eh!

Many thanks in advance of any help.

Hi,

I am in Bromyard so ask away!! I know about schools in Hereford, Ledbury, Bromyard. But i know nothing of Ross on Wye.

Most popular state secondaries in Hereford are St Mary's, Lugwardine (catholic secondary) and Bishop's Bluecoat School (c of e). Very good results and they are extremely popular with pupils all over the county.
Private Sector (i'm not an expert!), there is Hereford Cathedral School, both junior and senior. There is also St Richard's at Bredenbury near Bromyard which is a nursery through to prep. If you are looking at the Bromyard/Ledbury area then there is an excellent selection of private schools in Worcester and Malvern which is not too far away.

Ledbury - John Masefield is good and has sixth form. Lovely primaries at Bosbury, Ashperton etc.

Bromyard - Queen Elizabeth high school, satisfactory ofsted, not so great results, but it is a friendly and small high school. If you are looking at the Bromyard area,then look just over the border into Worcestershire. Martley has a fantastic 'ofsted outstanding' high school 'The Chantry' which has really good results.

Bromyard primaries, Bredenbury and Pencombe are most popular. St Peter's is the main very popular primary and Brockhampton which is located on the Bromyard Downs with lovely views.

I moved to Herefordshire when i met my husband, it is such a lovely part of the country. I really don't mind answering any other questions, as i'm aware this may be your only response!

That's a very wide area!

Hereford city is good if you are in the right part-Bishops has a catchment and if you're in that faith doesn't matter (unless you object to faith schools full stop) and the associated primaries are good (St Paul's, Hampton Dene). St Mary's has something like 40% non RC intake but is very oversubscribed and the RC primaries are overflowing so that's unlikely to change, but is a great school. Would avoid Wye and Aylestone like the plague though.

John Kyrle is a good school (my dbro moved there from St Mary's as he didn't want to do the commute and is currently in Y10)but it takes from a huge area and really is a "good comp". Peopple in the Ross area also use Monmouth comp and the excellent Haberdashers' schools there. HCS is a bit of a default private choice. I did 2 years there before going to the state sixth form college. I wouldn't send DD there (and many of the staff that taught me are still in post!)and none of my younger siblings went there either.

I know it's not your preferred area, but Fairfield in Peterchurch is rather brilliant (but right in the sticks!). For various reasons my family have lived in just about every corner of Herefordshire and due to number of siblings have been in most of the schools (or so it feels!) so if you have any queries I'll do my best. It's worth remembering that the attempt to close and merge lots of the smaller schools has only gone away temporarily as well.

I grew up in Herefordshire.
My knowledge is therefore not very recent but have happy memories of the area.

Of the places you'd mention I'd look at Ledbury and Bromyard.

Bromyard has good primary schools. Definitely look at St Peters and Brockhampton. It used to be a thriving market town - but is maybe not doing as well now as Ledbury. I expect properties are cheaper than Ledbury though. There used to be a bus from Bromyard area to the private schools in Worcester. The private secondaries in Worcester are very good and lots of people travel to them from miles around. The drawback of the Bromyard area is that there is no rail transport and buses are not that frequent so expect to drive your DCs around a lot by the time they are teenagers.

Don't know about the primaries in Ledbury. There is a good village school in Colwall (between Ledbury and Malvern). There is a bus from Colwall to the John Masefield High in Ledbury and Ledbury and Colwall both have stations which could be used to travel to the private schools in Malvern and Worcester.
The Chase High School (state) in Malvern has a very good reputation but you probably need to live the Malvern side of the hills to access it.

Ross is near nice scenery but I find it a rather depressing town. Hereford has a reasonable range of shops and the pro of being a Cathedral city.

I think you need to work out if you want to live in a rural area or near amenities.

marialuisa - yes i agree, fairfield in peterchurch is a fab school with a great reputation.

Also there is the Steiner Academy in Much Dewchurch, which is as far as i'm aware now a 'state' school.

I agree that i prefer Bromyard/Ledbury areas. Bromyard doesn't have a rail link, but it has several buses that transport children to and from St Mary's, Bishop's and John Masefield High Schools everyday.

I also like the fact i can easily get to Worcester and onto Birmingham if need be.

Titogovi - where are you moving from?? have you visited many parts of herefordshire?

are you SURE about moving there TItogovi?
its an od place

Hi

Thanks for all your advice.

We are probably going to rent for a year before buying so are thinking of living in either Hereford, Ledbury or Ross so that the children can walk or cycle to school.

Hefeford Cathedral School looks good and would be ideal, and I note that the sixth form college in the city is one of the best in the country.

Looking more and more as though we will live/school in Hereford city for year before perhaps moving to the countryside. I really am fed up with the commute we've been doing these past 7 years so should be nice to not to rely on cars for everything, at least for a year or two.

It is a lovely county, so unspoilt and unpretentious compared to many other places. We really are looking forward to the move, but want to make sure we get it right.

Marialuisa - what was wrong, in your op, with HCS? How long ago were you there?

I left 10 years ago but due to age of siblings still know kids going through or considering it. I attended other private schools and TBH it's just very poor value for money compared with what's around in Monmouth or Worcester (interestingly the head was promoting it as somewhere parents would choose when they found they couldn't afford fees at "top-rank" schools). They have invested in some new facilities though which were long overdue. My biggest problem would be with the staff who were there when i was there though...not who I'd want teaching DD for many reasons. That said, they used to be very good at Oxbridge coaching. It used to rely heavily on the assisted places scheme and the loss of that has meant it's had to lower its entry standards. It's music is not all that for a choir school although sport is ok. I'm not remotely anti-private (DD goes to a private primary), just genuinely think that if you're in the right place in Herefordshire you can get a great education for free. I freely admit to being stupidly picky about schools though! The state sixth form is excellent and has a big intake from private schools (dsis finished there 2 years ago) as well as the city schools and a few transferring from Ross.

I'd seriously look at buying in Bishop's catchment if you want to be in Hereford-it stretches out to Fownhope if you fancy village/country later. The county orchestras run from there, their sports teams are strong and if you're considering HCS the faith bit won't bother you. You'll always be able to get into HCS later if it doesn't work out.

Glee - tell us more! I live in north Herefordshire and although others may consider me odd I don't - educate me!!!

oh god oyu have to go MILES to get to any amenity.
its cold all the time
there are NO decent shops if you did want to buy anything
hereford is a shit hole.
the whole place is depressing

watching this thread. We are in a position to move to Abergavenny in a year or two and was considering HCS ( did not know anyone who went there but looked ok from their website and their results) .DH has a friend in Hereford, they are very happy with school I think their DS goes to a private(primary) school in Hereford although not sure where exactly. Can find out if you need.But they are more than happy with the school and dont want to move out of Hereford.Mariluisa- thanks for giving a firsthand account of HCS. Are you by anychance in South Wales?

Not any more, used to be and lots of close friends and family still there. The only private primary in Hereford itself now is HCS junior, run separately from the seniors (although more closely linked than before) but kids still have to do the transfer exam and a fair few go to other schools. The forces factor probably influences that though to be fair, so friend of family sent their kids to HCS junior but then moved them to Monmouth for senior as they wanted the boarding option at senior school "just in case".

Abergavenny is nice (my gran lives in a village nearby) and there used to be quite a number who "trained it" from there to go to HCS.

Bromyard - depending how far you are prepared to go - private sector - prep school a few miles into Worcestershire (Abberley Hall) and I think there are buses into Worcester for secondary schools (Kings and RGSAO - both have pretty good reputations) - from Great Witley if not closer. Although come to think of it, although the distance is not huge the roads are quite slow.

I like Bromyard. It's a nice old-fashioned town, but a bit of a nightmare to get anywhere else from, IYSWIM.

Can't help with the other options, I'm afraid.

Glee - we're a farming/country family born and bred;having good shops or varied cultural stuff is very low down on our list of priorities.

We don't envisage living there more than a year or two, the aim being to buy some land in the country and build our own house or buy a wreck and do it up; you seem to get more land for your £ in Herefordshire than anywhere else in the UK south of Chester!

Anyway Glee, you should have seen it years ago...the excitement of Pizza Express opening was quite something!

Titogovi-if you're a farming family St Richard's prep in Bredenbury (near bromyeard) might be right up your street. Very sweet, traditional place lots of outdoor play and riding lessons in school!

Ledbury has become quite a big town since the building of the New Mills development but there is still only one primary school.

I know this was a problem at one point as lots of children from Ledbury were having to attend schools in the villages around it (eg. Eastnor, Colwall, Bosbury etc) -in some cases these schools, although small, had good reputations so not all bad.

It might be worth checking the situation now as there may even be waiting lists for Ledbury Primary??

Bromyard is a strange place IMO, although I have only been there a couple of times so can hardly comment other than the vibes I got.

Ledbury has good transport links (train line to Birmingham, London etc), lovely selection of shops, near Hereford/Worcester/Cheltenham/Glouc for bigger shopping trips, near Malvern for cinema/theatre.

Thanks for all your help.

It does strike me that Herefordshire is a bit like the county that time forgot - a good thing imo. The A38 and A49 seem to be the only main roads in a county about the size of Warwickshire (which has the M6, M1, M40, M42, M69, A5, A45, A46, A449, A38, A40).

Sod your designer shops and theatres. I look forward to being able to see starry skyes at night and not have the incessant drone of traffic wherever I am.

And, if my intellect does need nourishing, then Haye-on-Wye is a short drive away.

Enjoy Morrisons in Ross on Wye and going round in circles on the one way system there.

oh god dont get me onto hay - the biggest anti climax in the world.

Glee - the reason we live here is because it's a bit remote, lived in London for 8 years and although it was great for a while began to hate it 'cos it was so crowded, so went to the other extreme! Yes some things are miles away, but you get used to it, and the internet is a wonderful thing - lots of courier vans know where we live as they are forever traipsing down here with stuff. I hate town shopping so it doesn't bother me!

Ludlow is my nearest place and it has a good theatre, leisure centre, lots of yummy places to eat (and a supermarket, gulp) so really don't find it a problem. It worries me when people start raving about the area - we don't need any more incomers!!!

On the other hand I can see why being further away from things would drive some people mad!

Can I add Christ College Brecon into the mix for independent senior school from age 11. My son is a pupil there and loves it. There are only 11 children in his maths and English classes and academic results are very good. Pastoral care is excellent. There is boarding and flexi-boarding as well as a good proportion of day pupils. There are no hidden extras: meals and activities are inclusive (for day pupils too). Horse riding, golf, fencing, shooting etc. Sporting facilities are wonderful too!

I think buses run from Abergavenny & Hay but not sure about Hereford.