Moving to Oxford, Advice on private primary schools please?

[chollie]

DH just been told of a transfer to Oxford,( currently in France) and so we have missed the first lot of enrolment for local primary schools. We still need to pindown where we want to live but looks like north as DH working in Kidlington (urban girl myself is it very rural there?. So i am really worried about getting my 4 year old son into a primary anywhere and starting to look at the private option, although still in shock over prices.
Would you be able to send me your experiences of any around the North, North East Areas of Oxford?

Any advice would be invaluable. Thank you

Dragon is the obvious one in north oxford. Chandlings 2 miles to the west of oxford is fantastic, mixed, day, massive grounds swimming pools, riding on site etc etc.
Nearer Abingdon is Abingdon prep, boys only, rural, academic. If I were you I'd live more Abingdon way and make DH go up the ringroad to work or if you can get into the dragon live in Summertown (or Kidlington if you like)

If you are urban you'll want summertown

ps oxford a tremendously fantastic place to live with so much going on all the time, I'm sure you'll be happy. Look at chandlings - I think it is the nicest school around

thanks Freshmint - hadnt even come across Chandlings in my research - looks lovely. Would it be a long drive in the mornings from summertown?
Anyone else have some advice/experience please?

Thank you

Lots of people come from summertown. It can be a pain if you get stuck in traffic but there is a back way that avoids most of it. In the middle of the day - 10mins. In the morning - 20?
The nice thing about it is that you can do all your extras on site there - ballet, judo, swimming riding, golf, cross country, all the instruments, orchestra, all the main sports, things like survival club (bit like scouts)- so you don't have to trog around in the evenings doing all that stuff.
And it does very well for its pupils - gets them into their first choice school almost without exception - loads to magdalen, ox high, headington, abingdon, st helens. This year they got 13 academic scholarships for a year of about 50 without any discernible pressure. It is very low key. Does just as well for the less academic child. I'm a big fan.