Feedback on East Oxford Primary Schools?

[shakespeare]

Hi there

We are moving to Oxford (returning to UK from overseas) in June 2016 and looking for a Year 3 place for DD at Primary school in September 2016. There’s some good past posts about Oxford primary schools but nothing recent so I’m after an update - what is the state of play with quality of schools at the moment?

We’d rather not send to a Catholic school, and will probably be based in East Oxford so we've been looking at

• East Oxford
• Larkrise
• St Mary and John
• Windmill

Does anyone have a feel for what these schools are like and whether there have been any changes in the last year or so?

Hi shakespeare,

I'm afraid Windmill is not an East Oxford school as it is in Headington, so if you are going to live in East Oxford you would only get a place there if it was under subscribed. It does have an excellent reputation however.

If it were me (and I am very much past the primary school age children, but have lived here forever and have an ear to the ground) I would apply for either Larkrise or St Mary and John. They do not have the reputation of Windmill but both have a lot of community support.
Mary and John was a split site, but now all the children are on a single site on Meadow Lane.
Hope this helps!

My dd is in year 4 at East Oxford, and I'm very pleased with it. I had heard less than wonderful things about it before she started, but compared to her nursery at Comper, we found it very nurturing and child centred. There were some ups and downs for a couple of years, as the previous head retired, but there is now a very effective head in place, a good Board of Govs, and the last Ofsted was good. It's a very diverse school - ethnically, religiously and socio-economically, so while it has a high proportion of what were previously Free School Meal children, it also has a lot of children of academics (as do most schools around here). There is no school uniform, so if that's important to you, definitely don't apply! (Larkrise also doesn't have a uniform) They are extremely supportive of children emotionally, which was great for us as I had breast cancer when dd was in Year 1, and the school dealt with it brilliantly and helped her no end. She is thriving academically, with a reading age of about year 8, and the head takes no prisoners when it comes to rigorous academic standards. (He also knows all the children by name, and checks their homework books/reading diaries on a regular basis). I don't know anyone with kids there who isn't happy - the only negatives have come from people who don't! The parent community is nice too - no snobbiness/competitiveness that I or neighbours have come across.

dd was previously in the nursery section of SS Mary and John, and we weren't happy at all. Shortly after she moved, SS M&J went into special measures, but they've really sorted everything out, and friends with children there are very happy.

East Ox is a lovely place to bring up children, and tbh I don't think you can really go wrong with the school - things have changed across the board since a few years back, and standards at all three are high.

Hey, thanks so much for the replies. It looks like whatever we can get into should be OK. I really want to avoid snobbishness or competitiveness so all sounds good.

One more thing - as we are not religious do you have any idea how religious SSMJ is as a Cof E school?

East Oxford Primary School is also a very good option- very loving school that cares about their students practicing the belief of developing the whole child. Our daughter loves her reception and she and her class mates continue to make tremendous progress academically and socially. The school does a lot both academically and beyond. Don't overlook this amazing gem.

Well that's 2 of us praising EOPS. Hurrah! No idea tbh of how religious SSMJ is, but have to confess that I was upset by snobbiness/cliqueiness there. Sure it's not all years.

Today I had the pleasure of observing a maths class at EOPS in year 3- fabulous connections being made by students and great differentiation so students higher were being challenged and students lower were learning new strategies making progress. Excellent teaching and good TA support as well in a class of diverse learners eager to give maths a go.