Moving from Canada looking at Salisbury

[Basinka]

Not sure if anyone can help but... we are looking at living in the Salisbury area and we have two young children. Other than a very brief holiday visit we have little knowledge of a) best academically driven primary/secondary schools b) how catchment areas work in Salisbury c) how possible it is to have my preschool son go to the same school as his reception stage sister d)and just how possible is it to find a home close to the city centre. Any information is really appreciated. Cheers.

Salisbury is lovely, best one is St Marks which is very central too. Not sure if it had a preschool though. Everywhere is walkable so don't need to worry about being v close to centre. Avoid bemerton Heath to the west- up the Wilton and Devizes roads :)

Best primary school that should have said!

Thanks for your advice Restrainedrabbit. Definitely agree with Salisbury as lovely. We loved the vibe and walking over the little bridges to the shops.
DO you happen to know if there is a very good mixed comprehensive in the St Marks area? We seem to be stymied by the independent vs publicly funded. Is it generally the case that a fairly large part of the population attends independent schools? Looking at the League tables you'd think 50% sent their children to private schools. We have mostly comprehensives in Canada and they are rated very high. A true conundrum.
Thanks for all of your help.

Salisbury has the grammar school system so it's either a mediocre mixed secondary, single sexed secondary or the single sex grammars. You are right in that there are a significant proportion of private schools in Salisbury.

What sex children do you have?

ive messsaged you.

Boy and girl. Your right, it really is a mixed bag.
Guess we'll have to save up our pennies:)
Thanks.

Um... new to MNet so not sure what you mean "ive messaged you"GretchenWeiner. Sorry, I'm thick when it comes to chatboards and such :)

Check your 'Inbox' at the top of the page :) Should be a yellow envelope with a red dot if you have a personal message.

There is a very good mixed secondary school in Downton, the Trafalgar School. Got an OFTSED 'Good' rating with some 'Outstanding' features. Not too far from Salisbury and bordering the New Forest which is lovely. Some good primary schools round there too.

Thanks for the additional info on mixed sec. schools. Didn't know about that one but agree that New Forest is very pretty. thank you again.