primary schools

[needssleepmummy]

Looking into schools for my son to start at next sep bellow is a list:
keston C of E primary school-keston village
Wickham Common primary school-west wickham
Pickhurst infant school-west wickham
Oak Lodge primary school-west wickham
Hawes down infant school-west wickham
Oaklands primary school-biggin hill
Can anyone tell me want they are like?

sorry mean below

I can only comment on two of those (which I looked at for my son and know by reputation).

Keston is a lovely little school, high performing and good reputation. Fairly small school so depending how close you are and how many children that year, may be difficult to get in.

Oaklands doesn't have a very good reputation locally. It used to be separate infant and junior, the infant was oustanding but the juniors was failing. They are now merged (with the head of the infants taking over as head) and it is doing ok as a whole, but I think the juniors is still being carried by the infants results-wise. Haven't looked myself but you would probably find KS1 noticeably outperforming KS2).

You have wuite an array of locations in the school list. Where exactly are you located? There may be others I can suggest you look at but difficult not knowing where you are.

we live on layhams rd keston, where did you send your children in the end?

I sent my children to Tatsfield, it's a lovely little one form entry village school, but you would never get in as far out as Keston even if you were interested.

Down has a fabulous reputation too, but I hear it's difficult to get in so Keston might be a little too far away, plus it is TINY and people have different feelings about very small schools.

To be honest, if Keston was my local school I wouldn't be looking too much further afield, I would send my kids there in a heartbeat (we were too far out in the end - Biggin Hill).

Thanks so much for your help oggy! The thing is even though we live in Keston, mile wise we are nearer to Biggin hill too! If we we're a little nearer it would be Keston and that would be that! But we are a little out, so just wanted to know what order to put the other schools in if we don't get Keston?

I will also be applying next September and we are in West Wickham. Oak Lodge, Pickhurst and Hawes Down all have a very good reputation and I have met plenty of people who send their children to these schools with no complaints. We will be going for Oak Lodge as this is our nearest. Hawes Down has a v small catchment so I think it very unlikely you would get in there living in Keston. Oak lodge and Pickhurst are larger schools and also Hayes may be an opton for you which is also meant to be good.

Hi everyone

We have just got married and wanting to start a family soon . We want to leave London and are trying to find a home in Beckenham or Chislehurst . We are trying to find a house near to a station (we both still work in London) . We also need to be near a good nursery (as i need to go back to work for financial reasons) and then primary. Reading about the nightmares of catchment areas and we can not afford a private school please can anyone advise which areas or roads we should live in. Its the biggest financial spend we are making but although we dont have bambino on board, we dont want the stress of being on the wrong catchment area later as we are hoping to stay here for a few years. Any tips would be appreciated.

Thanks !

SBarrett

Beckenham is probably better than chislehurst. Not many schools to choose from there. How about looking around Hayes?

don't know if you'd consider westerham - churchill primary

Both my kids go to Hawes Down and we are very pleased with everything about the school.