East Sheen - Parkside or not?

[snackie]

I am currently looking to buy in East Sheen -I just can't decide whether to buy in East Sheen Primary catchment area (not parkside) or coughing up some extra money to try and get into Sheen Mount catchment. Aside from the schools - does anyone have an opinion on living closer to the park or closer to Barnes? Too confusing...

My thought process would really be practicality - does anyone need to use the station becasue some of the parkside places are really a LOOOONg walk from the station.

My personal opinion is that there really isn;t a bad primary in the area - even the two who were traditionally considered to be worse than the others (and not in the catchment you are talking about) really would be considered pretty good anywhere else.

Trying to buy into Sheen mount catchment is a bit hit and miss unless you're prepared to live close enough to virtually throw them over the fence to school as I gather some years the number of siblings have been so high you need to live really really close.

I've also heard that the majority of sheen mount pupils go on to private secondary education so if you want your DC's to have a chance to move to secondary with some of their friedns and you plan to continue state education you need to consider that.

We have been very happy with East Sheen as a school, and live closer to Barnes than the park. The advantages of that are you are closer to the Barnes stations and bus routes, river cycle routes and Barnes shops and restaurants. There is a nice cosy villagey feel to the area.

Children from East Sheen go on to both private and state schools; if you think you might want to go to Christ's though, you would need to be nearer Richmond as we are on the edge of the catchment here, and would only get in with a strong church connection. As Kewcumber points out, there isn't a bad primary in the area and I know parents who have been very happy with Barnes Primary School.

Your best bet is to try and see the schools as they have a very different feel about them. Also agree with Kewcumber that you can't bank on the catchment area to get in.

Unless you are actually buying a flat in a stationery cupboard inside Sheen Mount the notion of a catchment area is fairly nebulous -- you can live really very close and not get a place, depending on how many sibling places get allocated that year.

All the primary schools in East/North Sheen are pretty good, though.

Thanks guys! This is really helpful. We are looking at 2 locations right now. One is the borders of Barnes and East Sheen and the other is properly East Sheen. So tough! I am currently living in Barnes and I love it, but I have heard that parkside has a good community thing going on too! To add to this, one is fully done up and the other needs work - not sure if I can handle a project with a toddler too! hmmm

PS - i hadn't even thought of secondary schools! But, I had noticed that Shene is now Richmond Park Academy - not sure if that is supposed to mean it will be better now?

well I jusr went to a meting about Richmond park academy and signs are good altough as its about 2 weeks old its a bit premature to sya that. However the teams running it have a good track record of turning schools aorund and the local primary heads are evangelical about it!

Save a bit of money and move to Twickenham/Teddington instead, get into a primary school that is linked with Orleans/Teddington respectively and thus ensure you aren't running around like a headless chicken like the rest of us East Sheenites with kids currently in year six.

Yes, Sheen has great primaries but it has shite secondaries. As for those numpties who are going to turn Sheen International into Richmond Park Academy - God, I so wanted to believe it. I went to the meetings, I listened to the headteachers telling us we must all pull together - then I went to the open day. Having just been to Greycourt in Ham and come away buzzing as to how well that school is being turned around, I was ripe for being persuaded that RPA was the place to be. Believe me, I don't have the dosh for private education as so many of the parents round here do.

Anyhow, for anyone who hasn't done the secondary school rounds yet, usually at these things you are taken from classroom to classroom to meet the different teachers and students showing off their work. In this instance the first classroom we were taken to contained two people. The first was a lady who explained that she taught Kumon Maths and English -"wow" I thought, "that's pretty forward thinking". Then it dawned on me that she was actually an outside tutor plugging extracurricular classes at £50 a term. The fat chap in the corner was the school's police liaison officer, who's job it was to convince us that our kids aren't going to get mugged by the kids already there.

What numpties are the management of this school that they think parents are going to be enthused by that? I went there to meet the teachers and the students - all that said to me was a) we can't educate your kids properly but here's some outside help you can pay for that might make up the gap and b) we so completely don't have a clue as to what parents want around here, or how to market this school and the changes we are supposedly going to bring in, that you really should have no confidence in us at all.

By all means have the Kumon maths lady and police bloke there - but whack them at the end of the tour, alongside all the other extra bits and pieces like the karate club and the film club. To have them as the very first thing would-be parents saw was just stupid beyond belief. Oh, and don't even get me on to the God awful speeches from the academy blokes. One was so bad, so boring and so long that I completely lost track of whatever message it was the chap was trying to get across - as did my ten-year-old son, who leant over and whispered in my ear, "RUN".

Dissed by a ten-year-old - says it all really.

Oh have some years to go so I cn smugly wiat and see how RPA turns out But you can;t get away form teh fact that they do have a record of turning schools around and Greycourt to be fair is further down the road than RPA which is weeks old.

I do think the secondary schools are "on the up" now.
I thought Christ's and Grey Court were both good and I liked them for different reasons.
Christ's is smaller which I think would better suit DS1 and is in walking difference (what do you mean, I'm easily pleased?!) It's arts and humanities based which is better for my son (there...did think of an educational reason )
But over half the places are church allocated and it's over-subscribed.

Grey Court is nearly double the size and I was impressed by its curriculum and open spaces (they're even planning to have a mini-farm in the grounds) Thought the head was fab and there's been a dramatic improvement in exam results since she started there three years ago. sciences much stronger than arts - at present.

seems such a big decision, doesn't it? and, above all, you just want them to be happy, don't you? but i was happy with both schools.
good luck! and do let us know your thoughts when you've been to the schools

Kewcumber - not fair to say RPA is only weeks old. Headteacher there and headteacher at Greycourt have both been in job around same amount of time. That said, do think LK has a tough job on her hands - she has, apparently, been stopped from referring to any of her previous success at the school - a sort of clean slate attitude from RPA which I can understand, but makes it harder for LK to get across what she has already done. That said, am still reeling from the amateurish performance the other night - if they have so much experience why can't they even get an open night right? It's not rocket science - go round to the other schools and see how they do it. But don't, for a minute, think that parents are going to be impressed by the opportunity to pay an outside tutor to teach extra english and maths to our kids. Let's be honest here, vast majority of us have been paying one for at least past year to ensure our kids don't end up at this school.

I wish RPA well, i really do - I just wish we were already a few years down the line and not having to jump into the unknown - especially when what I have seen so far has given me no confidence that people behind the academy have a clue what they are dealing with here in Sheen.

Willow's right, although RPA is only a few weeks old they have been trying to effect change for quite a while now, and don't seem to be there yet. I think they'll be hoping the name change makes people think of it as a brand new slate, whereas it's not, really.

My bugbear has always been that none of the borough schools have a sixth form. However I've just heard from a fellow parent who visited Grey Court that they sent 10 (I think, I'm not exactly sure) pupils over to Tiffins to their sixth form, which I think is a very interesting initiative.

So snackie, sorry to digress a little, but all good information for you! Where you move to may well be down to personal preference rather than school at the end of the day. Now if you told us what streets you were thinking of then we could really help you (nosey, moi?)

"That said, am still reeling from the amateurish performance the other night - if they have so much experience why can't they even get an open night right?" - thats a fair point.

On the upside RPA is no undersubscribed that there will be very small classes for the first few years which will no doubt be a good thing.

As I say I'm glad I don't have to make a decision yet.

Talk is the RPA will be applying for a sixth form but obviously they need to prove themselves first. Much easier to get good teachers into a school with a sixth form (so I;m told by teachers)

Thanks all - MrsTweedy< I won't tell you the street names - as I feel like I shouldn't tempt things... but let's just say one is a stone's throw from East Sheen Primary and one is a stone's throw from Sheen Mount (and I know that it still won't necessarily mean we can get in!). I sort of ruled out central properties townside (like Church Avenue etc) and central Parkside properties (Sheen Lane/Richmond Park road/Gilpin) because I am too paranoid about primary schools. I can't seem to get an answer from anyone as to what catchment areas they fall into....any ideas?

Well, officially there are no catchment areas. (Falls off chair laughing, breaking both legs and requiring major surgery.) However, those middle distance areas are hard to call - you could end up at East Sheen from Church Ave - but you might not. You need to speak to the Richmond Education office or whatever it is called. They will tell you, down to the last millimetre, how far away people lived who got in this time around. That, at least, gives you something to go on - although siblings can thrown that in the air too. One year East Sheen had just four places left for 'commoners', as I understand it, because of siblings and influx of twins who lived on doorstep!

I know people who live in all those roads who are at East Sheen, apart from Sheen Lane. There are no guarantees. I also know people who live in Little Chelsea & Mortlake who got in, but not in the year there were only four places; thankfully that was the year before us. Also people who live in Roehampton are there. There is perhaps a wider social mix at East Sheen, and it is a very good school for special needs, if that affects your decision one way or the other.

Both schools are excellent, and they both have waiting lists, but it is perhaps easier to get into East Sheen (but don't quote me on that!)

What everyone has said about the Sheen Mount catchment area - we are talking same road and maybe the next one at a push. Seriously.

There are no bad primary schools in Sheen. They are all excellent, and as Kewcumber pointed out, even the ones who were not 'leading the way' in the past couple of years are really turning round now. Trust me, I wept when we were allocated our DDs school and now I wouldn't move her for the world. And not just because she's settled with friends etc, but because it is an excellent school with fab families, excellent teaching staff, strong PTA and huge ambition.

Buy the house you want / can afford and you will end up with a decent school :)

All Richmond Borough parents need to be aware that the council is looking to make some significant changes to Secondary Schools over the coming years, which could impact existing schools, so check out the thread: "New Secondaries for Richmond Borough" and join the debate. The council will hopefully listen to parents' views, but we can only engage in the process if we know what's going on.