Moving to Plymouth - neighbourhood/schools advice..

[lazyd]

We are relocating to Plymouth sometime next year, but I have to apply by the end of October for daughters Secondary School place. I am living 300 miles away and know nothing about what schools/neighbourhoods etc are nice to live in in Plymouth.

I've been googling around, and have looked at Coombe Dean and Plymstock Academy around Plymstock, and Saltash.net over the river. Can anyone shed any light on these??

There's no substitute for word of mouth, so hence my post!

I'm not keen on her attending a single sex, selective school, so have discounted the grammar schools but any advice gratefully received.

I have younger kids too, who will need places in Y5 and Y2 primary schools, so again any recommendations on these would be really helpful too!!

Thanks in advance for your help.

Plymstock is a good bet. There are some rougher estates but generally it's a nice area with good schools. Coombe Dean is extremely good and people send their kids there from all over.
Elburton in plymstock is really pretty as are the beach areas, staddiscombe, bovid and and Jennycliff - you go through hope and tirnchapel to get up there I think both districts are ok.

Plympton is also local to those schools and has some fan houses in boring don and st Maurice.

If you like more rural, from plymstock you could look along the kings bridge road at Brixton, wen bury, yealpton, and so on down to Newton ferrers and Noss Mayo though they are spendy with minuscule roads
Good luck

Hi,

I am a secondary school Maths supply teacher. And for what its worth I think Saltash is a great school!

I spend two weeks there covering for a new daddy, and the children were well behaved, motivated and mostly happy!

And the fully employed teachers were all very friendly and helpful. It is the only school were all SEN information was not just disclosed on the paper register but also discussed before the school day started! Names of Teaching assistants I could expect, fully detailed tasks for the first two days!! (Usually SEN is not adressed at all in infopacks! and the task for first lesson consists of the head of department quickly picking a page in textbook)

Would be very happy to have my child in that environment!

Plympton and Plymstock are both nice suburban areas. The latter however can be a pain to travel to and from the city centre as the main route is over the Laira Bridge. The traffic at rush hour can be ridiculous! Heles School in Plympton has a good reputation too.

Good primaries in Plymouth include Hyde Park, Salisbury Road and Compton. Hyde Park Primary is in Peverell which is a nice area close to the city centre. Compton is also fairly central.

St Maurice area of Plympton is the rougher area. Otherwise Plymstock and Plympton nice areas. Would live in either but can't afford it. Coombe Dean would be one of my secondary schools of choice and we live no where near it. I know of a few children who don't live near there but bus it over. Secondaries are not great in Plymouth. I am going to encourage mine to do their 11+ because I don't want them to end up at the same shit hole I went to (Marine Academy which was Tamarside at the time, had quite a reputation). Don't recommend All Saints either, my friend recently finished working there and she said that wasn't a chance in hell she would send her kids there.

Good primarys, the above as mentioned, as is Mont Pelier although masively oversubscribed, Drake but in Keyham which is okish but not great area, College Road, St Peters RC, Holy Cross, St Joesphs, Keyham Barton, Oakwood, Yealmpstone which is in Plympton. Loads of others but can't think of them all. A fair few to avoid as well though!

I teach in the area so can help with secondary. Saltash.net is a great school and so is Coombe Dean. WHat kind of place are you looking for? Right in the city centre of something more rural. There is a great school at Ivybridge and Ashburton, both of which are commutable to Plymouth.