New to Bristol. Is it even worth moving to Horfield/Bishopston

[BambinoBoo]

Hi Bristol MNetters. I am after a wee bit of advice please. DH and I moved to Bristol from London late last year. DH was made redundant in London, so I relocated with work and here we are and absolutely loving it. DH starts a new job on Monday so finally we can think about moving into a new house (in rented at the mo) and putting down roots for DS. Yippee.

My reason for starting this thread, however, is that I really like the Horfield/Bishopston area and ideally, once settled, would like to get DS (who is 2) baptised at St Bonaventure?s with a view to him going to that school. The problem is that everything I hear and read tells me not to bother going near there as the schools are so oversubscribed. DH and I both work in Filton and he will need to be within walking distance in all weathers as will be on call, but we don?t like Filton itself or some of the surrounding areas as not really into new build properties. I guess my question is: is the school situation as bad as I hear, and are we mad to even bother?

Many thanks.

It's a nice area but choose your house carefully, get as close as you possibly can to your preferred school to maximise chances of getting in.

We decided that the high house prices, dreadful parking and competition for school places to be too high a price to pay. We went against the grain and moved to St George and absolutely love it.

Primaries admit on distance rather than catchment area, so it changes every year depending on how many children apply. To be absolutely sure of getting in to a many schools you need to be within a couple of hundred metres of it really.

Saying that though, I don't know anything about St. Bonaventure's and whether it is over-subscribed or what their admissions policy is.

From their website it looks like if you're a practising Catholic living within the parish you should get a place - just make sure you check the parish boundaries when you buy somewhere.

Sorry for not replying sooner, been at work. Thank you so much for your responses. I did a bit of digging and found the doc at link (if it works). It says that no St Bons applications as first preference have been refused over the past 2 years so we live in hope. It's frightening reading for North Bristol as Ashley Down, Henleaze etc are madly oversubscribed. Funnily enough, we saw a house for sale right opposite Ashley Down school, but I would like DS to go to a Catholic School. I have now looked on the website too ritamorgan and the policy sounds promising. Don't know why I didn't think of that to begin with actually

I also recently read in the local paper that the council is going to increase reception classes over the next 2 years in North Bristol but didn't say exactly where.

www.bristol-cyps.org.uk/schools/pdf/primary-guide-11-12.pdf

Don't count on the council doing ANYTHING, they are singularly useless.

I have to agree, the Council have got their heads in the sand about this, all of 'em.

Their response to demand for primary places was to add extra classes to existing schools. The Ashley Down 'extension' at Brunel Fields only opened September 2010 and that had been on the cards for years.

They have done absolutely nothing about all these extra kids now coming through for secondary. In three to five years time, there will be a massive squeeze on secondary schools everywhere, not just the popular schools. These will seem like the goold old days.

Are you so keen on St Bon's beacuse it's catholic? Most people, including myself, would prefer not to send their kids to faith schools so you may be OK. But there are plenty of good schools in Horfield - Ashley Down, Filton Avenue, Horfield CofE.

If you want to live in Bishopston, you will straight away be paying about £100k more than you would in Horfield. It's a personal choice. I find the schools down there very white, very middle class, very 'professional'. My DD (6) goes to Ashley Down which I'm happy with, bit Bodeny in the playground at times.

Lots of parents actually drive out of N.Bristol to the surrounding countryside so that their children can go to smaller classes in S. Gloucs and they are better quality as well.
Horfield secondary schools used to have a bad reputation, not sure if it's changed, but anyway, that is years away until he has to go to secondary.

Also remember if you get a house right next to a school you will have all the parking problems associated with it as well