Moving to Sheffield. Help please!!!

[CrouchEndmama]

Hi Sheffield peeps,
We are moving from London to Sheffield this summer - or that's the plan anyway.
I'm currently looking at S11, but really could do with some advice on where the nicest areas are for families and schools.

Im from Doncaster and I lived in Sheffield twelve years ago so I'm fairly familiar with the area but I tended to hangout in the studenty areas.

I would really appreciate any advice re good areas for schools, both primary and secondary. I have an 8 year old daughter and a 5 year old boy. I have an okay budget so we can hopefully afford a nice area.

I looked at a house on collegiate crescent on sat- beautiful Georgian house at the top end of our budget - but it didn't really have a community feel to the area and that's really important to me.

Look forward to your replies :)

Chloe

Ecclesall and Greystones are incredibly popular with families but there is a real shortage of school places. They had to put a bulge class at Dobcroft to take the extra children who couldn't get into Ecclesall Infants. Greystones.

Nether Green school (In S10 though adjacent to where S11 starts) seems to have a v good reputations and because of its prximity to university and big hospitals often has in year spaces coming free as doctors/lecturers move on to pastures new. I've heard reasonable things about Hunters Bar infants.

If I were moving back to that area I'd go for Nether Green, Fulwood, High Storrs or Greystones

Hello Ladies
Please can you help me!
I am currently in London(kingston). Planning to move to sheffield with my 3yr old son n 1.5yrs old daughter. My son has Downs Syndrome. I am getting good support for him in Kingston. Please can you advice on the preparedness of Sheffield schools for the special need children. Any information on support in Sheffield area for special needs children is welcome. Thanks in advance.

I don't have the information you are looking for sorry, good luck with your move :)

Are you looking for special schools or mainstream? They're are some special schools, though places tend to be limited I think, but also some schools that have an inclusion unit attached and some mainstream primaries that are generally very inclusive. If you're not sure what type of school then the SN Chat board is very useful.

Hi,

If you want a sense of community & nice schools head to Crookes/Crosspool. Westways is lovely, vibrant, creative, friendly, multicultural, lots of extra curricular activities & feeds into King Teds & Tapton, Lydgate Primary I know less about but is outstanding on Ofsted I believe & feeds into Tapton. Both those senior schools are great apparently. I'm hoping my 5 year old will end up at King Teds as they have middle and upper school so 11 year olds are not in same building as 17 year olds! He missed out on Westways due to being just out of catchment and born in a boom year but went to preschool there.

Hi Manjiri: not sure about schools. If you are looking for a nursery with good special needs provision, Broomhall is local authority run and judged to be outstanding by Ofsted.

Moving from the USA to Sheffield UK, any advice on the best middle schools and ice skating? Looking for a great coach?

The best secondary schools in Sheffield are Tapton, Silverdale and High Storrs. Tapton is outstanding I believe. This knowledge will be helpful because the middle school all feed into the secondaries.

Feeders for Tapton are Lydgate School and Hallam School, and also Netherthorpe.
Feeders for High Storrs are Nether Green School and Dobcroft school.
I'm not sure about Silverdale.

Can't help you on the ice skating I'm afraid, not sure we have a rink.

House prices are very very high in the areas surrounding the best secondary school.

There is IceSheffield! Massive rink. They do normal skating and ice hockey. No idea about coaching, you'd need to get in touch with them.
There aren't any middle schools in Sheffield, just primary and secondary. (Ie up to 11 then 11-18)
King Ecgberts is also outstanding (feeder primaries Dore, Totley Primary, Totley All Saints - both Dore and Totley primary are outstanding. But house prices are fairly hefty

There are loads of good coaches for Ice Skating....free or dance?

IceSheffield definitely does coaching, and to a high level. They have competitions and train skaters to do external competitions. Contact the venue fr more details.

siv.org.uk/ice_sheffield/upcoming-icesheffield

We don't have middle schools in Sheffield. We have:

primary - 4y to 11y

• sometimes these are split into two separate schools:
  • infants: 4y to 7y
  • juniors: 7y to 11y

secondary - 11y to 16y (18y if it has its own sixth form)

We have several state schools and also some independent schools.
www.sheffield.gov.uk/education.html

And if you're bona fide praying Catholic, there is Notre Dame, feeders are the Catholic primary schools.

Notre Dame I think topped the exam league tables last year. It's not private, and is of course now obliged to take a few non-catholics.

If it interests you, results league tables here: www.telegraph.co.uk/education/2016/05/05/compare-your-school-primary-gcse-and-a-level-results/

Hunters Bar is another very diverse school, lots going on - juniors head is leaving at the end of this year, but the teaching staff are excellent, so I don't think it'll be a problem. Catchment is parts of Eccy Road, Nether Edge.

There is currently a sort of "dual" system of entry to secondary schools, both your postcode, and the feeder schools. There is in the South West of the city a sort of doubling up available to you, such that Tapton and King Edwards catchments cross over, High Storrs and Silverdale. King Ecgberts (Jessica Ennis is an alumni there) is away out in Totley Dore, so sort of stands alone. When there was more curricula freedom these pairs had a more distinctive niche - so Silverdale styled itself as the "academic" school, high storrs had some drama, sports art type distinction. But I think that's been eroded somewhat - and High Storrs outperformed Silverdale last year at A level.

There is a shortage of secondary school places available in the south west and north east of the city, see www.sheffield.gov.uk/education/about-us/consultation/school-places.html

and there is intent to build another secondary school - when first proposed was intended to be up and running (academy of course) by 2018. But the council plans were really rather stupid, having ringfenced the two better sites for housing, and suggesting putting the school on the current Holt House infants site, and shuffling around a load of junior places, I think it has gone back to consultation. The two better sites are the Bannerdale centre site off the Abbeydale road, and hilariously, the Abbeydale Grange school site - this school was mothballed about 6 years ago........................... There is a really really interesting old article about this particular part of sheffield and the schools here www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/sep/15/nickdavies

If you are interested in social geography, Danny Dorling has been Professor at Sheffield (now at Oxford) and wrote a lot about the local area. He describes the social gradient across the city as being steeper than that across Johannesburg - the south west corner being very affluent.

Hi,
I've moved here last August, and we live in S11 - it is lovely (a lot of students, but that's a two Uni city for you). Collegiate Crescent is a beautiful area, so is Broomhill and Crookes.

The schools - my 8 year old daughter is in Porter Croft, it's good, there's also Hunter's Bar and Greystones - they seem nice, too, and have good Ofsted rates.

Good luck!