Basingstoke Junior Schools - feedback please

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Hello
We are planing to move into a bigger house with the arrival of our second one. But one thing that we need to consider now is about the junior schools in Basingstoke as my first one will move into a junior school next year.
So we are in a dilemma as to where to shift. The schools we had in mind where Oakridge, Merton and Marnel Junior Schools and Great Binfields as this is the sort of area we are looking to move to. All seems to be "Good" schools.

We are planning to go for all the open school days for the above schools but some feedback/reviews/advice from the mums around these areas would be really helpful(good or bad) and appreciated please.

Thanks

Hi, saw your message and wanted to bump the thread for you. I any be of massive help as our dc haven't started school yet but I live locally and from what I have gathered:

Great binfields seems a lovely school. I have been to look round and there was a really lovely atmosphere and I was very impressed with the children. The new head seems good.

Of the two popley schools I think one is better regarded than the other but I can never remember which is which (helpful!)

Don't know about oak ridge, sorry.

Hopefully somebody more helpful will be along soon!

Hey beigecarpets... Thanks for your input.
We heard good reviews about Great Binfields too but the issue is they are a Primary school and also there are only 30 seats available which can make it really difficult to get in even if we are in its catchment area.

There are a couple of junior schools in Popley, and it would have been helpful if someone knew about these schools, as relying on Ofsted reports alone are no good.

Yes, sorry I can't help more with the Popley ones. There's also Four Lanes juniors in Chineham - I know it had a bad recent Ofsted but it has always had a good reputation locally before that as far as I know, and I know several children there and they are doing very well. I think it'll improve again very quickly so might be worth a look.

Oh, and if you're able to move into the catchment for it, St Mary's juniors in Old Basing is supposed to be fab. The catchment covers part of Lychpit too.

Thanks again beigecarpets

Do you happen to be Catholic? If so, there's also St Bede's in Popley to consider (they do take non-Catholic, but don't know how over subscribed or not they are - the Hantsweb website does have figures for the local schools somewhere under admission info telling you how many applied and how many got in the previous year, though not for the faith schools as they manage their own admissions).