Terrible schools in Letchworth

[chicletteeth]

Hello,

my husband and I have found a house that suits our needs in Letchworth, but we are put right off of it because all the primaries/junior nearby have suddenly in the last round been put on notice to improve (i.e. an Ofsted rating 4 of inadequate).

The closest school to the property is Lordship Farm so my younger two will be ok since we can just apply through the system and they should get selected by I'm worried about my eldest who is currently in year 1 since it's not likely that they'll have spots and I won't send him to a failing school.

Can anyone advise which school are decent around there, and if none, where on earth do all the children go (assuming not fee paying).

Any advice or information would be greatly appreciated.

many thanks

Thanks for your feedback. I notice that so many of the schools are ofsted 3 and 4. Whilst I appreciate it's just not down the report, I'm just wondering why there are so many bad (or rather not very good schools) in the area.

Any insight?

down to the report

Here are the scores for the schools near the house we're considering buying (number in brackets is the ofsted rating)

Radburn primary (4), Pixmore Junior (3), Hillshot (2) purwell (2), Icnknield (3),

For secondaries, Fernhill (4), The Highfield School (3)

Obvioulsy Hillshot and Purwell seem to be fine but why are the others all in such a small area near to each other so bad? I just wonder that's all.

The Knights Templar has an ofsted of 1, but is 1.9 miles away so I don't know if that is too far for a secondary school.

Just overall they are on the side of being unacceptable rather than acceptable and so it really puts me off the house.

AArgh, the stress.

I agree with the OP's sentiment. It is a concern to us too. We moved to Letchworth to be nearer DH's family in 2005 when we weren't married and didn't have kids. Now we have a boy of 8 months we are starting to look closely at the schools and seriously consider moving to Baldock or Hitchin or the Lordship estate in south west Letchworth in the next couple of years. In those areas, the schools are better, consistently so (which is key), over a number of OFSTED inspections, and because there are a few in those areas that are good, we stand more of a chance of getting in to one of them. Our closest primaries currently are towards the north of the town (inc. on the Grange estate) and they are not great. Not terrible but not great.

I would also note here that the primary in Ickleford between Hitchin and Letchworth is excellent and has maintained that standard for years (my DH went there!) and that the village is worth considering as a place to live.

If, despite best efforts and moving to a better location, we STILL don't get DS into a good or outstanding primary school we may have to bite the bullet and put him in private school in Letchworth or Welwyn, eating beans on toast every night to be able to do so. If I am a snob for saying that a "satisfactory" state school is not good enough for our son, who is likely to be of above average ability, then fine, I'm a snob.

Re secondaries, yes, Knights Templar in Baldock is fabulous apparently but very oversubscribed so I think you would have to be living in the school field to get a place! But we have decided not to worry too much about secondaries yet as it is over ten years until our son will need one and schools' performance can go up and down dramatically over that time. We will review the situation again nearer the time.

Hi chicletteeth,

I moved from London to Letchworth 5.5 years ago and now live in Baldock.
My two youngest attended Hillshott Infants for around two years before we moved and my eldest attended Pixmore Juniors. I have to say that I found Hillshott to be a lovely school for the short time they were there and my boys came on nicely.
I wasn't as keen on pixmore unfortunately.
I have a few friends with children at Lordship and they are all very happy with the school.

My eldest now attends Knights Templar and it is a very good school. He starts his GCSEs next year and is doing great there. He does have some school friends who live in Letchworth and commute to school so it is possible.

Good luck

A friend of ours sold her home in London and moved to Hitchin two years ago. She still didn't get her child into one of the "good" schools as there were just not enough places available in Hitchin for many children. All bad planning on the part of Herts Council. We live in the catchment for four of the best schools (OFSTED Excellent) but were not allocated ONE of them! We decided to go private and went with St Francis, in Letchworth. We only have the one child though, cannot have another, and do concede that it may be difficult to go private if one has two to three children as the costs would be prohibitive. If you do decide to move to Hitchin, you may be disappointed if you cannot get your children into the schools with the better Ofsed ratings due to their already being oversubscribed.

@auburnlizzy 78. No, you are not a snob for saying that. We are now eating beanz on toast and I cannot tell you how happy we are for choosing a private school for our child. It's like night and day when we compare the education she is receiving to our friends' children in various State schools in and around Hitchin, regardless of their Excellent Ofsted ratings. Best "suffering" I've ever had to subject myself to. My husband keeps saying it's all about "one's priorities" and if it means we will "struggle" financially, but our child receives a top notch education, then so be it.

Thank you for posting MellyMunster. It's weighing on my mind a lot still, as I believe you have to register your child at two for primary schools here (so says my DS's redbook). I guess you are right to caution against a move to get into a good school. I have heard this sort of story on more than one occasion. Plus, I like Letchworth and don't really like the housing stock in most of Hitchin or Baldock, if I'm honest. I have great friends here now and the commute to London is excellent.

So I suppose, all things staying the same, we will try for Lordship, or Ickleford primary then the Hitchin primaries and hope for the best. And I will be going all out to get that long overdue payrise, so I can start saving NOW, and hope I don't need the money at primary stage. DH doesn't work (studying for masters and doing a lot of the childcare) so the financial responsibility all falls on me!

Hillshot is a lovely school. My 2 went to Stonehill but Hillshott was my second choice. I have heard nothing but good about it and it has continued to sustain a good reputation over the years. I recently met the Head Teacher at Icknield Infants and was very impressed by her passion for the school and the children in it. Its a difficult one because Offsted take a snapshot and sometimes its not the real picture. Lordship Farm seem to leave with excellent results. Hope this helps.

Can't recommend Purwell highly enough- smallish school so everyone in Year 6 knows everyone else, supportive teachers... All the pupils there just seem to want to learn and do better and live life:D I went there and it was AWESOME... There's quite a lot of clubs but not too many because of the size, but the choir sang at the Albert Hall (08) XD All the pupils come across as polite, well mannered, and they just generally want to succeed, but they also want their fellow classmates to succeed as well... Honestly, I just loved it there

I really hope you have moved and settled now. But if you haven't do seriously look at Hitchin and Baldock. Lots of very good schools including the local village ones to suit your children. My children went to a fabulous nursery in Baldock and the onto the local outstanding ofsted school. It didn't suit my eldest and I now drive all 3 to a local small village school which suits us all much better. Do look around and talk to lots of parents.