Primary Schools Stoke Gifford

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We're currently trying to choose Primary Schools for our DS for next September. We like Baileys Court, St Michaels and Hambrook Primary, but we can't choose between them. Does anyone have any experiences of these schools or advice on how to choose? We are walking distance from St Mikes and Baileys Court, whereas Hambrook is a short drive.

They are very different schools, so depends what you want/what your child is like.

I've been to Bailey's Court for Governor events and it seems like a nice school. 1 form entry and quite a small school. Looking at last year's stats it is over subscribed, so how close are you? How realistic is your chance of getting in?

I'd never even heard of Hambrook so I just googled it. You do realise that a "short drive" in the morning will be horrendous, don't you? Depending where you are you'd either have to use the ABW roundabout or drive past AXA. Can be even worse at the end of school, especially in the 2 winter terms. How would you get there if you had car trouble? It's unlikely anyone else would be living near you.

St Michaels we had down as our 3rd choice but it is huge. They take 3 reception classes. That can be a really good thing for clubs and for moving class, but we felt it was too big for a 4 yo. Our neighbours go there and they are really happy with it.

You get 3 choices, so just put all 3 down. We went with gut instinct for ordering our choices, rather than ofsted or anything else. As it turned out we got our 2 choice and it has turned out to be the best fit for our DD. The school I preferred would not have been. DH actually preferred this one in the beginning because it has loads of land and DD is an outdoorsy child.

Only you know what your child is like and what is likely to be the best fit.

In terms of quality, nothing significant to choose between them. Go with the one that feels like a good fit or has facilities /services that you need eg. Wrap around care. I would imagine the traffic is pretty awful to Hambrook though. I used to come from Bradley Stoke to Winterbourne and it was always very slow. Not horrendous but enough to drag you down every day!!