Any advice on what St Bede's is like please?

[MumInCambs]

Hello,

Sorry for posting this in Education too, but, has anyone had any experience of St Bede's Interchurch School in Cambridge please?

I'm considering it for my DD, who has some emotional/behavioural difficulties which are as yet undiagnosed. I'm particularly interested in finding out other parent's opinion of St Bede's SEN support for this reason.

TIA.

My eldest daughter went there 2001 - 6, and I found it extremely good. She ended up as head girl . The discipline was vry strong and I felt the teaching was excellent too. I don't know for sure what it's like now - but I do believe there have been some anti social behaviour issues. However, I can't imagine it will have changed an awful lot. Still very popular and oversubscibed. I did some work there myself a few years back with some of the more challenging studetns and found the support team very positive.

We're about to apply to St Bedes for my DD. I have friends with kids with SEN who have recommended it (DS has Asperger Syndrome, and I plan for him to go there too, but thats a couple of years away)

As coolma says though, it is oversubscribed and popular.

We went to the Open Evening last night - was really impressed.

Ah, that's what all the noisy cars were doing We live along the road!!

Does that mean, if we put down your address as where we live, we stand a better chance of getting in? :o

Hoping it won't be a problem anyway, as we are applying under criterion 1 (Anglican application supported by our vicar)

No, it's not a catchment school as such. We got our eldest in as her grandfather is a cnon at Ely Cathedral! The criteria is much stricter now too! The flipside of course was having hundreds of her friends round at all times of the day as they got into year 10 and above!!

But they do say that within each criterion, whether there are siblings at the school AND distance also comes into play. Apparently last year though, the school admitted up to criterion 4...

No, R. He has retired now.

Was vicar in Methwold for a long time

No, don't think I know him then.

Probably too late to be very meaningful but my eldest is just finishing year 11 at St Bede's and we have applied for a place for DS2 in September.
We have found it a fabulous school, we have never experienced any anti-social behaviour issues and our son has done very well there. I have no personal experience of the SEN dept but have heard good reports from parents who have.
The discipline is excellent - in year 7 homework was forgotten on a couple of occasions and we were emailed before he got home. He has never forgotten it since

As it's relatively small for a secondary school the staff do know the pupils as individuals and it has always seemed to have a great community spirit.
They have some great school traditions such as the annual whole school sponsored walk and the Christmas Carol Concert. As parents we have always felt welcomed and comfortable whenever we have attended any school event.
I really hope our younger son gets a place there too - we have never had a moments regret about choosing it over closer secondary schools.

If there has been a downside it's that my son's school friends have been spread over a wide area of Cambridgeshire so meeting up out of school has meant sleepovers or a need for a parent taxi.
If you did apply OP then good luck I hope you get in - not long to wait now for the letter / email

Oo, assuming all goes well, my DD and your DS will be in the same year then AngelHMum :)

If you applied as criterion 1 (we did too) you should be ok. It's unusual that last year they went down to criterion 4.
Looking at the statistics on the LEA site though quite a few schools in Cambs that are usually also oversubscribed admitted all applicants so it must have been a small year group.
St Bedes is usually oversubscribed but it is popular because it is such a good school.
The facilities are excellent too - you probably saw their lovely sports hall and the new classrooms on the open evening.
Even though we knew the school already we were still impressed by the open evening - so organised and calm and, unlike some other schools we visited, free of vandalism and graffiti.
We'll have to post on 1st March and hopefully it'll be a yes for both of us

Yes, I saw all that too! I think our year is a large year group though, being the millennium year group. It is at the primary school anyway. We're applying under criterion 1, like you.

We were also impressed by the politeness of the pupils and their enthusiasm during the open evening

Our local comp is undersubscribed

ooh, yes i'd forgotten the annual walk - they all used to flop out in my front garden (I am coolma under a differnt name btw } Every October..

YAY! DD got in! :o

Us too - am delighted !!
Mary I will pm you

Well I was right about it being tougher. I see from the letter that it went up to criterion 2.

Had to laugh, there's a phone number to call the school, to confirm your place. The number thats on the letter is for the catchment school, NOT St Bede's!

Yes this year was much more typical of the admissions - still well oversubscribed though as usual.
Ours had the wrong phone number on too, but I'd already been in contact with the school to accept the place.

We applied online and I couldn't work out why they
didn't include the information about contacting the school there. Sending everyone the same info again by post seems a bit of a waste of money to me.

I'm going to start buying the uniform now a few pieces a month so it's not a huge bill on top of paying the transport fees in time for September.

The info pack arrived this morning. LOTS to read/fill out/take in! Also good to see that St Bede's has an outstanding Ofsted, following the recent inspection (last month). DD is looking forward to going.