Advice on primary schools in Reigate & Redhill pls!

[Gracelimsh]

We live in London at the moment but have bought a house in Redhill/Merstham (Watercolour development). We are looking to move only in spring next year due to existing work commitments but are mindful that we have to apply for a place in reception for my son who turns 4 in April by mid January. I have been told by Surrey County Council that we have to be resident at our house in Redhill at the time of application. I wondered if this is correct (I'm seeking written confirmation from Surrey County Council at the moment)? We can prove that we own the house in Redhill.

Also, I wondered if anyone has any views on these schools - Merstham Primary, Furzefield and St Matthews CofE. Merstham has a good Ofsted report but is oversubscribed and I think we may be just outside the nearest school distance as per last year's Published Allocation Numbers. Furzefield and St Matthew's Ofsted ratings are only satisfactory, but the inspections were carried out a while back, so I wondered if anyone has a view on them?

The last thing is, does anyone live in the Watercolour development in Redhill and if so, which school do your kids go to?

Many thanks!

Hi
I live on the watercolour and I am having the same concerns. My daughter is just 2 but I am starting to get knowledge on the local schools so that when it comes to the time I am prepared.

It's so nerve wracking, as you want the best for your children. I can't afford to go private. I have my heart set on Merstham primary but I just know we won't get in. I think wrap common is the only decen one in the catchment area for us, there is NO WAY my daughter is going to fury field, I've heard it's the only school that accepts gypsy children.. Not sure how true that is?

What would happen if the choices are all out of the catchment area that we put down ?!???

There are apparently plans to build a new school close to Watercolour, along Battlebridge Lane, to open around 2014. Furzefield is definitely not the only local school taking the children of travellers (assuming that is what you mean by "gypsy" ). There is no such thing as a catchment around there, distance is just one of the admissions criteria and what is accepted one year may not be another.

Story here

oh that's good, lets hope it goes ahead. I'm assuming it'll take the pressure off all the other schools in the area... Apparently St John's isn't the only one taking a bulge class this year, Wray Common is too!

Hello everyone, I know the area well, and Watercolour is indeed in one of those areas that isn't right next to any particular school. Merstham Primary is good but has been oversubscribed of late - Watercolour is too far; their last admission was about somewhere halfway up Nutfield Road, near Bourne and Deans Road (or in the opposite direction, but just giving you some idea of the distance).

Furzefield is not "undesirable" whether in terms of teaching or intake (to put it nicely!) - it has a lot of local children in the same area that you are living in, eg all the way down Nutfield Road and Watercolour, so they do mix with a lovely bunch of kids and families. LIZS is right- children from traveller families are admitted to a lot of the schools and not just Furzefield. The only drawback to Furzefield I would say is that it is a very large intake school and the school is run as a large, tight ship - everyone has to follow the same programme and rules, no exceptions or leeway. You could put down schools in Tandridge eg Nutfield (that is C of E, just check the entry criteria), Godstone Village, St Catherine's, but you could well find that Watercolour is still too far away and end up on a waiting list. Wray Common and St Matthews have both been very oversubscribed last year - a large part of Reigate will be closer than Watercolour to Wray Common such that even families off Gatton Park Road didn't get in- this was even after they had a bulge class. The only other option is to see if you might eligible for Catholic or C of E schools, which though good, I wouldn't say (IMHO) are tons and tons better than any of the state schools mentioned here, might be another choice that you are likely to get into. (St Josephs emphasises regular church attendance and early completion of the paperwork for the priest, so don't leave it till April if that is a possibility you are considering).

You can check the catchments on Surrey council's school admission website which calculates the distance - the general word from the headteachers is that any address more than a mile from the school would have only a very slim chance. You can also get a rough idea of the chances by looking at the furthest distance that they admitted a pupil from, which is on the chart too. (you'll be under Reigate and Banstead council).

Just managed to read some more of the thread, sorry to do it backwards! Befuzzled, I'm afraid Surrey council definitely operate a case of "allocate the school their nearest families", and not "allocate the family their nearest school". So if you live somewhere like Radstock Way or Worsted Green you can pick or choose whether you want Merstham Primary or Furzefield, and you'll get it pretty much for certain. And a lot of places get filled by sibilngs - they do operate the criteria of existing siblings get in, even if the family have moved further away since (some state schools are now giving priority to siblings only if they still live in the area - although I'm not sure how far "in the area" applies to!).

Gracelimsh - Micklefield is v good. You also have the option of moving back into the state system later at any stage (eg Year 3), quite a few families do that and there is no class size limit when they are older, so there's a good chance then. Also there will be some junior schools whose intake start at Year 3 for you to choose from too.

NB Traffic going from Merstham to Reigate is indeed a nightmare in the mornings but if you go before 8.00am you will be fine. MIcklefield says it is ok for parents to drop off earlier than start times as they already have children in taking music lessons at eight so they will have staff on hand, as there is a lot of traffic on the road in front around 8.30 anyway.

Another point for parents who commute dropping off at state primaries - many state schools will absolutely NOT allow you to drop off your kids early; most have only a short window ,eg 8.45 is ok, 8.40 is not. (No staff on duty to look after the children). Anytime after 8.55am you will be marked late. (The times vary between each school, but the window is always about 10 minutes, definitely no more than 15 minutes.) Cue a lot of traffic pile ups as parents sit in the car with DCs till the dropping off time is reached and they can get out of the car. And if the start time is 8.45am, that means the school run will be impossible for a commuting parent, unless they can start work late every day. Or they will have to get a childminder or someone else to do the school run. Independent schools usually have a longer window period of about 30 minutes or more.

Hi kipperandtiger, thanks for the information! We were at Micklefield's open day on Sat and we were really impressed with all it has to offer, so I think we will go with Micklefield even if we do get a place in one of the other state schools that we put down on our list and we will just have to work until we are 80!

How long do you think it will take to get from Redhill to Reigate in the morning? We need to get to school by 8.45am, but I know that we can arrive a bit earlier. Just need to work out what time we need to leave the house!

Pinklady14, hopefully the new school will open by the time you need to apply for schools for your daughter! I will let you know what school we get allocated. I'm afraid you are right re Merstham Primary - when we went to visit, the headmistress said that none of the kids there live at Watercolour! But maybe you may get lucky and they may take a bulge year when your daughter goes to reception!

Btw, does anyone have a good, reliable and trustworthy cleaner they can recommend??

Leaving by 8am will guarantee you no traffic hassles. You could probably manage it from Watercolour to the school by 8.15am, but no guarantees. The crowded bit is around Reigate station or Reigate Hill, depending on which route you take (both are busy) - as all the cars have to wait for the railway crossing to give a clear signal. But try various routes (there are about 3) as there may be some things - like parked cars or small lanes - you find easier than others. Again, if the person dropping off has to do the commute into south London, just bear in mind that state school schedules in Merstham/Redhill/Reigate won't allow an early drop off.

Oooooh grace, I'm interested in finding a decent cleaner too.... Our current one is shocking.

Ladies, we got into Furzefield, as expected, so will decline the place and go private. What about everyone else?

Sorry, don't know any good cleaners - one or two companies do it as a team, may be worth trying that. So that you always get someone even if one person is off sick. Forgot the name, but they should be online.

Gracelimsh - not surprised, to be honest, but I guess you are happy with your choice of private? PS make sure you have your radio turned on to BBC Surrey for the traffic news - sometimes the stretch between Wray Common and Reigate Hill gets jammed as a result of some accident on the M25 coming in that direction.....so you'll need to know some alternative routes. (If you are near enough you could actually park somewhere and walk though. Print out a big copy of the street map or google maps for the car...)

Yes, we are happy with Micklefield and will just have to work harder to pay the fees. Thanks for the tip re BBC Surrey. Do you think it's easier to park on the Wray Common side and cross the road to Micklefield or to park on the Micklefield side?

Also, do you know of any good toddler groups in the area? We have discovered Heaven in Nutfield, thanks to another Mumsnetter and attended the rhyme time at Reigate library on Tues, but would like to find some other groups to go to. Our nanny will take my 2 year old since I work full time. We don't know any other families in the area, so still trying to find out feet! We only moved in on Sat!

Happy Housewarming then! Hope you are enjoying the area. Toddler groups - St Josephs (the Catholic church on Ladbroke Road, Redhill) has one most Monday mornings according to school term times which is the cheapest I know £1 (could have gone up but shouldn't be much) which also gets the parent a cup of tea/coffee. You don't have to be attending the church to go. Lots of toys laid out - boisterous but interesting. Volunteer mums who do the nursery rhymes very sweet and enthusiastic. Only problem is that to get info - like they might not open one week if someone is away or something - you either have to attend every single week and get someone's phone number (someone in charge) as it's not published online or in the church office.

There are toddler groups run by Micklefield on Tue, Wed, Thur (you can get the info online and ring the school office to check on cancellations) afternoons which are £2. Hawthorns School has theirs Mon and Thur afternoon and is either £2.50 or £3 (can't remember). The school ones have a bit more laid on - eg painting, sometimes playdough or a sand tray or water tray (M always lays out their water tray), maybe a craft with glitter or something. M doesn't do nursery rhymes, but Hawthorns do at the end, but M will have some activity on so it can last the whole session - 90 minutes if I remember rightly, for both. Prices might have changed this year, just ring their school offices. I suppose if she brings her to either school Mon to Thur, that gives her something to do every day apart from Fri (Redhill library used to have rhyme time on Fri morning, not sure if that is still on). Merstham library also has a rhyme time like Redhill (just check online or visit the library to ask). - I think Redhill might have two a week. If you ring the library, they tend to divert you to a central helpline who do not actually know. I think those are the best for her age. There's a story time at Reigate's Priory Park (in the cafe) - I forget which day - I've never been but someone else did and said it was not bad.

For the school run, you should really park along Somers Road and walk down; Wray Common can get v jammed and busy, so it isn't really safe (it's also quite far for a child to walk if it rains!). I was just suggesting that if there was a jam maybe stopping at one of the side roads like Raglan Road might be ok, before you reach the part where Reigate Hill joins the suburban traffic. But on a normal day, you should be able to stop on/near Somers Road. For the actual parking/drop off you might be best to ask the school or other parents, as some schools have rules about this.

We got Earlswood school, my 2nd choice.

Thanks, Kipper and Tiger! All very useful information!

Glad you got your second choice, Dawnpreview!

Hello all, we got St John's, our first choice, so I'm very happy. I took a real risk in putting it down as last year we wouldn't have got in, but they announced the bulge class officially about four weeks ago and that is what swung it for us.

Really pleased for you, Headfairy! Hope it goes well!

Thank you, you too. I'm afraid I can't better Kipper's knowledge of toddler groups. My nanny takes my dd to one in Redhill Baptist church every monday morning and to the playgroup session (one hour only) at St John's nursery every Friday. I tend to not go to playgroups myself because I organise other stuff for us to do on my days off. But I do know there are loads around... Can't help you with school run either as at that time of day I'm on the other side of Redhill common :o

There is a lovely toddler group at Reigate park church on a Thursday morning, starts at 9.30.

I don't know any other church toddler groups as haven't been and don't know anyone who goes to them. There should be quite a lot of good ones about. The free publication "Grapevine" (and there are a few others that are similar) give listings alongside local ads and stuff. The local libraries should have plenty of copies. (thanks for the compliment though, headfairy )

Thanks for all the helpful suggestions, ladies. Will definitely get our nanny to check them out.

Headfairy, if it's not too bizarre a request, would your nanny mind meeting up with ours as our nanny doesn't know anyone here and is used to meeting up with other nannies and mums when we were in London. The poor girl is looking for her own flat and in the meantime is living with us during the week! I think she is going a bit stir crazy with no adult conversations during the day!

Hi Gracelimsh... I'll certainly ask her. She's Polish but her English is excellent. She doesn't drive at the moment so she's limited a bit in where he can get to.

Apart from your ds, how old is/are your other dc/s? I've got a two year old dd, and our nanny also has a 2 year old dd she brings to work with her. They could always meet at one of the play groups our nanny goes to with the girls while ds is at nursery. She usually goes to one on Monday mornings (not sure where that one is, I'll double check with her) and one on Friday mornings 9-10 at St Johns Primary school. She only works Monday, Thursday and Fridays for us.

Let me know what you think and I'll mention it to her.

Hi Headfairy, many thanks for your kind offer. My other ds is 2. If your nanny wouldn't mind, I know our nanny, Camelia (who's Romanian) would love to meet some other nannies in the area. Thanks again!