Fulford v Huntington - wwyd?

[hannahsaunt]

First foray into school hunting for dc due to relocation. Need to work backwards from secondary as ds1 will be going in 2012. Main criteria at the moment are:

State (!)
Co-ed
Academic and good at engaging with v bright child
Must be run-through as this will be ds1's fourth school so don't want him to move for 6th year

Heart first went with Huntington due to IB option and location. Have delved deeper into Fulford and like what I see. Can't visit until July by which time we need to have made a decision as the LEA want us to choose primaries in May/June ...

Ofsteds both good.

Or should we be completely off the wall and go to Ripon for the selective grammar? (This would involve dh commuting to NE York for work - is this practical?).

TIA!

I really would try and visit if you can - what one person says might not fit in with how you feel IYSWIM.

Do you know where you will be living as York schools have catchments which I think are pretty strict when schools are oversubscribed. Although when we moved I worked out school then house which I found easier.

I don't have knowledge from a having children at the school point of view, but I do invigilating at one of the ones you have named and would feel happy sending DC there. If we do stay living where we are, they would go to the other one (assuming catchments stay the same). Am very happy with that possibility as well.

Where will your DH be working? Getting round the York ring road isn't a great experience although it is better in the part from south west to north east as there is dual carriageway there.

I'm sure there are more knowledgeable MNers in York who can help

Visiting would be ideal but we live a long way away with four children and dh working yet elsewhere; and although will be down in April it will (more than likely) be in the school hols. It's quite a complicated situation.

School needs to come first so we can then look at houses in catchment . (And then manage the headache of finding primaries with in year places for the 2 older ones).

Note to self: don't read Xenia's posts on FT top 1000 schools.

I should think both Fulford and Huntingdon are quite high up although not probably up to Xenia's standards .

The village where we live is in the catchment for Fulford although nearer to other schools which I really don't understand. And I think it may well change at some point.

By the way am Lois - have name changed :)

I did two lightning visits last year to look at schools - we were about 160 miles away. Was intense but v glad I did it.

Hope you are successful :)

I have the very many pages of street addresses for each catchment - think I need to get a street map and colour code them! We ~8 hour drive away so not really a weekend thing with 4 dc in tow...

Don't know much about secondaries yet, I'm afraid, although Huntington and Fulford are the two that everyone talks about, and the only two in York with their own sixth forms AFAIK.

wrt primaries in those areas, I have 1 ds in Park Grove, which is off Huntington Road towards the town end, and I think it's excellent. I don't want to name specific schools, but have heard mixed reports about some other primaries in the Huntington area.

If you wanted to apply to a Catholic School, both St Wilfrids (town end of Huntington Road) and St Georges (Fulford Road) have good reputations academically.

In the Fulford area, I have never spoken to a dissatisfied parent with children at Fishergate or St Oswalds, but having visited all of these schools I know they have quite differing educational philosophies, so it would depend on what style suits your dcs.

You would definitely need to live within catchment for Fulford or Huntington. Fulford's a very pleasant area to live, with a nice riverside walk into town... We used to live there, but are now in the Groves (on the way out to Huntington), which has slightly less green space on the doorstep but is very handy for town and within earshot of the Minster bells... Sorry, not helping much am I!

And Ripon to York commute would be do-able but a pain. I sometimes have to go out there for work, and it can take up to an hour in the mornings.

Have you considered King James in Knaresborough?

Fulford catchment is odd though - as I said we are in a village nearer to other schools and yet in Fulford's catchment. Our village begins with D and is just to the east of York - outside the ring road :) I think Elvington, another village a little further out is also in Fulford's catchment. While Murton which is v close to us is in Huntington catchment.

I was invigilating at Huntington today - they really are truely comprehensive I think and do seem to cater for all academic abilities.

Can see an 8 hour journey wouldn't be doable but if you could manage an April visit (would need to be at the beginning or end - term ends 8th April and starts back 27th here).

I went to Fulford. I left in 1995 so of course it will probably not be the same now. I couldnt wait to leave and went to Sixth Form College as apposed to staying on at the school, but that was cos I wanted to get away from certain bullies people. My mum said that the school is good, but they didnt really help me (although how much that was the school and not me I dont know, I kind of think my mum doesnt like to think Im not at bright as she thought I was. When I was 11 I think she expected me to be able to get lots of A's in my GCSE, I got 1B and 7C's). I have heard its meant to be good, but I would choose Huntington over Fulford.

Now if you choose Fulford you are better off at looking at the oustide villages like Dunnington (where I grew up), Elvington, Naburn, Wheldrake. I remember the 'rough' people from school tended to come from Fulford or heslington. Also these villages (I imagine and could be wrong) have fewer children so therefore be a better primary school.

If you choose Huntington I would really look at Huntington to live in. Im not sure where else people live to go there, Heworth perhaps?

I think that there are other schools with 6th form. I think Joseph Rowntree does and their catchment area of Wiggington and Haxby are lovely.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

What ages are your other children? Finding primary school places might be tricky. If any are year 2 at the moment, there are definitely spaces in our village beginning with a D that fartblossom grew up in :) Also a few reception spaces. Not sure about other years though. Is a very good school (IMO anyway).

Archbishop Holgate seems v good school but not so much Sixth Form. Think it is expanding though.

I'm not so keen on Joseph Rowntree (another school I invigilate at) but they do have sixth form.

We need a year 6 place and a year 4 place ... and some kind of preschool year for ds3 (will prob go Montessori for that as we have done here) and thence a reception place for him for 2012 ... oh the joys!

There's a newish Montessori nursery in Fulford - Home to Home on Hospital Fields Road

Fulford is a very good school.
There are not-so-nice people there like at any school, but the ethos is really focused on academia and developing the individual. The sixth form is fantastic and there's a real community atmosphere, lots of support etc.
And they do get all the children from the villages- yet they're the last to close for snow :)
There are two good (but v. large) primary schools, I think, very close to the secondary school.

Both Fulford and Huntington have very good reputations, but I think Huntington is the only York school to offer the IB. I know nothing about the Ripon one. I'm sure you would be able to visit on a non-open day day, if it were possible for you to take a trip during term time. I personally find it's the best way to decide about nursery/ school because you get a real feel for the day to day life, rather than the 'presented' image.

Out of all of the state schools, Fulford is considered the best I would say. My babysitter goes to Fulford. She got 8 A* and 2 As for GCSEs and is currently doing her A Levels there. If she's anything to go by, bright children can do very well there. She's also lovely, charming, delightful and wonderful with my children - a good thing as she's babysitting again for me this evening

Personally, if I had a 16 year old right now, I would strongly advise them against doing the IB anyway. But you're still years away from that and things will change between now and then. I don't think you ought to choose a school based on that now when they're 10/11. If they do suddenly absolutely require IB, they could move for sixth form. Quite frankly, a different school or the college might suit them for sixth form anyway.

All the primary schools are very different in feel though - visiting would be best very soon for that reason alone.

Good luck moving and relocating!

York is full of good primary and secondary schools, and as well as Huntington and Fulford Joseph Rowntree, All Saints' (RC) and Archbishop Holgate's (C of E) have 6th forms. There is also the 6th form college and a lot of pupils welcome the move at 16.

Jo Ro has recently moved into a brand new building and has a new (female) head who seems very go ahead. There are a lot of bright children from my dc's primary school who go there and it has a similarly middle class catchment area to Huntington and Fulford.

I think a bright child would do well at Huntington or Fulford - or indeed any of the others mentioned above. Personally I wouldn't waste the time and effort of sending them to Ripon Grammar.

Does anyone know whether Gate Helmsley falls into the catchment area of Fulford school. The catchment area shows that it falls on the cusp. York Council said it depended on where you live in Gate Helmsley.

I lived in Fulford, even if toward the Fishergate school end & I was pleased my 7 yo son did not go to Fishergate school but dear St Ozwalds primary school was very suitable, luvved the church being nearby & best traditional school nativity ever on the chancel steps (of course my son was a shepherd) he would have gone to Fulford Comprehensive school along with his friends & done well there but my family of 3 split up before my son had the chance to shine & he did not do well in interim, heavy Water Street in Skipton, but excelled at Upper Wharfedale School, Threshfield, near Grassington = it was the change of teachers & classroom which was the stimulus for him - his GCSE o level work for Geography was left as an example of what a child can do with good IT knowledge, Ripon was subject of project - he has been a professional CADman in lst Wetherby, now a nice part of Leeds has a lovely lady partner in a very nice apartment development in Morley, near to the train station as his partner is a 4th year pharmacy student at Huddersfield uni - he wants to study more when his partner is qualified - he did not know what he wanted to do when he left school, but his dad helped (divorced, with female partner & worked in Wetherby) ..... schooling is so so important & who knew my son could achieve this = his secondary education as a right peg in a right hole was vital, btw he was bullied as he was a shy, quiet nice lad = he still is