Cathedral, St Mary Redcliffe, St Bede's

[WhatsThatDuckDoingThere]

Hi,

We're having to move our daughter from her current school. These are the schools we're trying for (yes, we know it's a long shot with Cathedral but we're going for a negotiated transfer so it's not dead in the water just yet.

I know a little about St Mary Redcliffe, but if anyone has recent knowledge of it I'd appreciate their thoughts.

I know nothing about St Bede's but I've read the OFSTED and it sounds very positive. Does anyone have a child there?

Thanks in advance

I have heard the religious requirements for both St Bede's (Catholic) and St Mary Redcliffe (CofE) are fairly strict - they are both very oversubscribed as far as I know, so can afford to stick to their admissions criteria. But maybe it's different if you are switching mid-year and they have a place?

I knew someone who had their child at St Bede's and she thought the school was utterly appalling (not sure of the specifics) and removed her DS after 1 year. This was a few years back, not sure if it is still the case.

Try and arrange a visit to the above schools (or telephone them) and find out more about whether they have places available in your dds year group. All the above schools are very oversubscribed and do have waiting lists so would be amazed if places are available.

I do know someone who transferred to St Mary Redcliffe mid-year but they had been on the waiting list for at least a year and still had to meet the faith criteria. You don't have to be C of E as they accept children from any denomination but you do need references from your minister or vicar.

For St Bedes you have to be a baptised Catholic.

The Cathedral school may have vacancies further up the school as the intake was smaller before they became an academy (year 10/11) but would expect the lower years to be full.

St Mary Recliffe & Temple is the name of the secondary school. It's a very thriving school, superb results, staff very caring, wide range of extra-curricular, lots of happy and successful students.

I don't think that Cathedral is supposed to take on more students in the 'less full' years (10 and 11), as part of the agreement when it became an academy was to keep these years small. But students do move sometimes so always worth a shot.
I know a girl in dd's year 7 class there is moving in a few weeks but I expect someone else on the waiting list is already poised to take her place...
Good luck

Which year are you trying to get your daughter into Frog Princess is right in that Cathedral won't take anyone into year 10 and above but will of course take people into the sixth form. I think if you are persistant and hang on on the waiting list you will eventually be sucessful as children do leave and about 1or 2 places come up each year that my daughter has been there.
You don't need me to tell you that it is an absolutely fantastic school and DD is happy to go every morning!