Primary schools advice for novice!!

[Haarlem]

Hello All

I hope that some of you can take the time to reply & help me out.

I am looking into the process of application for a primary school place for my daughter for Sept 2015. I'm planning to go to open days at the schools in my area & I wanted to check whether I'm missing anywhere obvious.

We live in Chapel Allerton, very close to the Mustard Pot pub. On my list I have Chapel Allerton Primary, Carr Manor Primary, Kerr Mackie Primary, Weetwood Primary & Moortown Primary.

Am I missing anywhere? Or going to far afield?

I haven't read any ofsted reports yet as I'd like to visit the schools first to get a feel for them (daughter's nursery looks great on ofsted but we've had a lot of problems).

I don't want to consider faith schools, so St Matthews isn't on my list for that reason & neither is Shire Oak in Headingley.

Thank you, in anticipation

How likely are we to get a place close by ( CA primary / Carr Manor)?

BUMP!!!!

Well Carr Manor is supposed to be very good. Chapel Allerton not so much.

St Matthews is your most obvious one, but obviously if you don't want a faith school then that's out. (You can of course opt out of religious services, and from what I understand it isn't exactly forced on pupils, but it is your decision).

Weetwood is good, but I doubt you'd have much hope of getting in as you're not in catchment.

Found the Carr Manor map.

There's also Gledhow, but that's quite a tight admissions area. Kerr Mackie looks like it has a wider area but you're not quite in it still.

Thank you for your response. I had begun to think I was shouting into the wind there!! CA primary always looks so lovely when I've been past at playtime. I understand that the form asks for five schools & I'm struggling to find that many in my area. One of my neighbours said that there is no such thing as catchment area in Leeds??

There isn't a catchment area as such, but the admissions policy is to give priority to those for whom the school is their closest. The maps that are produced just show the area where people came from in that intake, so gives some idea what chance you've got.

If you like chapel allerton then great! It's your closest so you would probably get in no problem.

Thanks

Hello, hope you dont mind me jumping in here. We are looking at a house which would mean that Chapel Allerton primary would be our closest school. I know very little about Leeds and so would welcome some feedback from this as well as other schools in the area. Same situation as you Haarlem really.
Harleem I hope you dont mind me asking but could you recommend a nursery in the area? Many Thanks everyone

All of the nurseries here seem to have really long waiting lists so depending on how quickly you need child care you might be better off trying to find a child minder who has availability

Hi there,
I've tried to reply 3 times but it hasn't posted! Trying again..
We are in the same boat, except living in Roundhay. Did you get the letter yesterday? There's also a more in-depth booklet on the website. If you look on findmyschool, you can see the 5 nearest schools to you,and if you ring the LEA they can tell you which schools accepted kids from your street last year,so you know if you meet the admissions criteria.
I've got a friend with children at CA, but they had a bad Ofsted recently. Moortown is excellent but they are small and hugely over-subscribed. We want Gledhow but are marginally closer to Moor Allerton Hall, which we really don't want at all. It's a nightmare!!

Thanks, think we're ok now. Carr manor community primary, chapel a primary & carr manor primary

Hi

Im also a leeds mum and moved from Chapel A to Bramhope a year ago.
Before I left I researched local school lots in case we stayed.

Study the catchment maps. The better the school the smaller the catchment. e.g Talbot primary in roundhay is 0.1 miles!

Moortown is the best of the ones u have listed but very unlikely to get in from where u are.

also unlikely for kerr Mackie I think but has mixed reviews anyway.

I think carr manors Ofsted is very good but mixed reputation ... the only way you know is by looking and getting a feel for the place.

good luck!

Went to carr manor community primary open day a few weeks ago. I was really impressed until the year one teacher said " & here are us water bottles...& here are us rabbits"

Both CA and St Matthew's are in the Requires Improvement category from their latest inspections.

My dc attends St Matthew's and I would not recommend it at all - the standards of literacy in letters home and on displays around the school is dreadful and the staff seem very unhappy with the poor management.

I really really hope we get carr manor primary school ( the one that's around the corner from carr manor community primary). It is by far the best we've seen & the teachers & teaching assistants were great. Weetwood primary also looks lovely but we don't have a hope in hell of getting in there. I reckon we will be allocated chapel allerton primary, which we thought was very run down, with uninspiring leadership & the classes seemed extremely chaotic. We wouldn't consider faith schools so St Matthews is out

My DD goes to Carr Manor and we love it. The staff are fantastic and there's a real community feel there. DD is thriving.

Weirdly I initially wanted her to go to Chapel Allerton. Till I met the head did my research.

Yes know what you mean, hugely uninspiring. I thought the head at carr manor primary was great. We were really hoping not to set our hearts on one school & to feel dead set against another school ( especially our closest one, CA primary)

Our head is brilliant. I love her.

Fingers crossed for you

Thanks, cross everything because we really don't want CA!!!