Senior schools - any comments on these schools?

[Campaspe]

Hello Bristol MNers. It's that time when we're thinking of secondary school admissions, and I'd be interested in any comments or thoughts my fellow parents have about the schools we're considering (and yes, I know they're not all in Bristol).

Oasis Brislington
Broadlands Academy
Wellsway
Hayesfield
Oldfield
Bristol Cathedral

If I live in Brislington, what are my chances of getting a place in one of these?

The council can give you information on your chances in terms of how many people who put those schools down got a place at them and how far away applicants were who got places. Bristol cathedral is one of the most oversubscribed in the city, but still I think a third of applicants got a place, there was a recent article in evening post about the most popular schools I read it there.

We are in St George so not far from you. Bristol Cathedral as far as I understand it takes children from all over and is basically a lottery (once they've allocated 10% of places for students with 'musical aptitude')

We are also looking at Oldfield. I have several friends round here with children there, but know this is no guarantee for our year

It's a banded lottery at cathedral ensuring that thy take kids within all ability ranges.

Bristol cathedral choir school has an early closing date for you to send off their supplementary application form (I think it's 24th September which is next week)! Most of the people i know who have been allocated places have been offered music places. I think that it's automatic that younger siblings of existing pupils are offered places which increases the number of applicants per place for an oldest/only child.
Oasis Brislington will be your catchment school (it's also ours but we applied elsewhere). I know that it is improving but is likely to be undersubscribed. I have seen discussions about this school on local BS4 FB pages.
Have you also considered John Cabot academy in Kingswood (another lottery school) but has much better chance of getting in from Brislington and also runs a bus service to that area?
Broadlands does take a fairly high percentage of pupils from the Brislington area. Wellsway tends to be oversubscribed and the chances of being offered a place are much lower than other schools.
Both Oldfield and Hayesfield used to be undersubscribed and the latter used to have a school bus going to the Brislington area. But this may have changed now that Hayesfield is the only all girls school and Oldfield is co-ed. I think both schools should be able to tell you how many children go there from outside BANES.
Hope that helps.

Just checked the Saturday 24th September deadline is if you want to be considered for the one of the music places (but as it increases your chances considerably it is a good idea to give this a try).
Other posters are out of date. There are no longer any banding tests, other places are allocated by random lottery.

I imagine your best chances are Oasis Bris and Broadlands. After that - Cathedral, you are as likely to get a place as anyone else applying (without music place, chorister or sibling), which is actually a very small chance due to high number of applicants, but someone has to get the places so may be worth one of your options. I would have thought Wellsway unlikely as very popular and oversubscribed. The Bath schools, I'm not sure now. Historically they took from Bristol but since the changes I'm not sure. Oldfield used to take more from Bitton, oldland common area. You should be able to get this data from BANES.

Oasis Bris is rapidly improving, look at Oasis John Williams for an idea of where it is going. I'd recommend it!

Local schools are historically poor but doing really well now

Oasis john williams is below the national average for GCSE results. So I wouldn't use that as a good example. 47% of kids do not get 5 decent GCSE passes at that school. It's true some Bristol schools have improved but many were starting from such a low base that even a significant improvement still finds them performing under par. Others just haven't improved enough.
Bristol used to be 4th from bottom in school league tables, compared to that there has been massive improvement but u fortunately many still do not get anywhere near decent results and John Williams is one of them.

But you're going by last year's results.

Their progress 8 score for this year is above national average. I don't know the 5 a-c but English&maths is 66%. Plenty of the bright kids from supportive families come out with a string of As and As.
Schools week also named it as one of the top 10 schools for high outcomes for low ability kids.

(just to add, I don't work there but at another Bristol school)

Oasis john Williams is below the national average for GCSE results. So I wouldn't use that as a good example.
Yes but a very high percentage of the children there were also below average on entry as well as relatively high FSM and SEN. BCCS has one of the lowest percentages of FSM and SEN in the whole of Bristol
My dd has just started sixth form and there are dcs in her A level class who were educated at this school (and were comparative ability at primary school) and have achieved well and remain well balanced individuals.

Well if the op is looking for somewhere great with low ability kids, FSM and SEN it sounds like a good option.

Have seen lots of children in Brislington area recently in Broadlands uniform so looks like a good chance of being offered a place there.
Children in the top sets of local schools, do still achieve well and go onto take A levels and even go to uni. Many of these are now classified as Good by OFSTED which means that they perform well compared to schools in similar areas nationally.