Advice on Bradford upon Avon - St Laurence school

[4Laurie]

Hi there, are there any mums out there who could advise me about St Laurence school, I am currently in NZ wondering where to move back to, and like the look of this school, plus it's near friends in Bath/Bristol, etc (though property prices are a little scary). It's almost oversubscribed, like every other school I've contacted - is it worth appealing, what are your views/experience of the school!! Any info very helpful from this little corner of the planet...thanks, Jenny

Hi Laurie - I'm posting out of sheer pity- your OP has been bobbing up in Active all night!

I know nothing about Bradford on Avon schools, I'm from Marlborough in the east of the county. However, if you want to get a 'feel' for your chosen area, the local FB groups aren't too bad.

FWIW, there are absolutely no weak primaries in our patch, and three of my clients happily commute to Bath/Bristol daily.

Hi Savernake, thanks for posting - I wonder why it kept popping up, I am new to this. St Laurence is a secondary school, one of the huge probs in trying to move back is every secondary school which looks good seems to be full, including St Laurence who have one place left in year 8 and two families visiting next week, it's not a case of - I can move there and my son can go to local school, seems not..year 7 has a waiting list. NZ is so different, there is no concept of 'full', your child just goes to local school and that's it. I really want to find him a good secondary school otherwise we can stay here, where there is a fantastic semi private for only 5K a year! ...thinking on...

Good luck whatever you decide.

FWIW I don't believe St John's is oversubscribed, a catchment family ought to be able to get in pretty quickly. It's a pretty academic school though, the sort that would love to be able to turn itself back into a grammar.

I was brought up in Bradford on Avon , but that was many years ago! It is a very pretty town with very interesting historical features . St Laurence has been built since my days, but have heard very good comments about it. Can't give you much up to date info, but can recommend the area. Schooling is in something of a crisis in U.K. - usual problem of not enough places in good schools and fierce competition for those. (I taught for 37 years in Salisbury, another lovely place to live, but still doing 11+, another contentious issue!). NZ was always held up to us as a paradigm in education and many initiatives were copied by us. I can't give you advice except to say if you want to move possibly be guided by schooling available - you have obviously done your homework! All the best in your search.