Help!!! Is Greenvale in Selsdon a good school?

[farfromhawaii]

Hello,

Im new to mumsnet and hope I am doing this right...

I desperately need some advice.

We have put an offer in on a 3 bed semi in Selsdon Vale and hope to be moving from our 1 bed flat in East Croydon by school application deadlines!!

Our ds starts school next Sept and this move is all about catchment areas!

We cant afford a house in any catchment area for Gresham, Atwood, Ridgeway etc. Greenvale was outstanding until last ofsted and it is now slipped to good... I am also unsure about Selsdon as an area in general, and Selsdon Vale in particular (I believe it was nicknamed the bird estate)

Despite my dh having a good job and salary we just cant afford anything like a home in the areas we would choose to live. Either that or the schools are not good. So this feels like its our only choice and is a good one on paper...

The property we have offered on is right near selsdon nature reserve and is right near Greenvale School so all seems good. But is it? I can find very few people with an opinion one way or another about living in Selsdon and Greenvale is also often absent from school discussion forums which is odd since it was one of the few outstanding schools in Croydon.

I want to feel good about this move and the choice of school but I know nothing about the area despite living in east croydon for 15 years.

Your opinions and thoughts would be really appreciated, thanks guys

Ps. Sorry for any typos my phone's keypad drives me mad

Hi, I visited it when we were thinking about schools a few years ago when it was 'outstanding'. We were out of catchment for it but did put it down as one of our 6 choices behind those we had more of a chance with.

I was really impressed with the school site and with the headteacher - I found her quite inspiring.

I understand that you have to live on one of the 'bird roads' to get in. Don't be put off by the fall from Outstanding to Good. This has been very typical and some Outstanding schools have fallen further. The way that schools are assessed has been changed over recent years so it is truly exceptional to be Outstanding.

I'd recommend visiting - most schools do tours around this time.

Thankyou SandersteadMum,
We are going to visit next week actually. We will be moving onto a bird road, so that puts my mind at rest on that score. I understand just a little about how schools are Ofsted assessed - that even how they spend their budgets is part of it, and I also figured a school that has just lost its outstanding status will be working hard to regain it - or is that naive thinking?! I will still put down Atwood, Gresham and other outstandig schools in the area even though we must be way out of their catchment areas - but I haven't heard good things about Selsdon Primary so I would prefer to avoid that one. However as you said, if we are on a bird road I guess Greenvale is almost a dead cert (as much as these things can be...)

Make sure you use all of your 6 choices (is it still 6?). Best to use choices 4,5,and 6 or you may be allocated Selsdon when you could have got a choice your preferred.

How is the house move going? Was you offer accepted?

And how was the visit to Greenvale?

Hi Sanderstead Mum,
Sorry for the delayed reply. Notbeen on here for a while.
Yes offer on the house was accepted, thanks for asking, and we are quite far down the line re reaching exchange of contracts. But Im a bit wobbly about Greenvale after visiting. Very dark rooms, low ceilings and not great facilities. New (very young) headmaster who seemed unconfident and wishy washy if you get my drift! Not sure, not sure... Considering withdrawing the offer on house and looking elsewhere, but getting so close to application deadline and very little for sale esp in ourprice range near the good schools....confused and panicked!

So, did you move to Selsdon and is it this September that you DS is starting school?

hi
We are also looking to move to one of these roads.Did you move there was it ok?
any thoughts appreciated