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Original poster

Feeder State Schools for Grammar in WA14 area of Altricham

75 replies

mah24 · 07/01/2017 00:29

Hi All, we are moving to Alty WA14 area by end of the month. Looking for good State schools who can help my 2 daughters to prepare for the Grammar Schools (8 year and 6 year old)

Checked the admission office and were told that only school we can get the place for both girls is Broadheath Primary. Not sure how good is the school?

We are currently considering two properties for renting. One in Bowdon Vale area near Bollin School (Apparently no place for us at the moment). This property is bit dated and not our first preference. The reason we are considering this is due to closer to Bollin and some good grammar schools.

The second property is near Oldfield Brow Primary School (again no places). This property is very good and we loved it as home. Only concern is a out of catchment area of some good schools such as Bollin.

It is more closer to Broadheath PS as compared to the other though.

We are confused now. Not sure which property to choose and which one is better in long run. Any help/suggestions will be appreciated.

PS- we are non Christian so not sure will get any place in the Church schools if the demand is already so high?

Cheers

OP posts:
mandy214 · 11/01/2017 12:10

Yes, I think its getting more difficult to get in to AGGS - I think for the 2015 intake, they filled their places by the time they'd got to 5.4 miles (even though the official catchment is 8 miles from the school). For the 2016 intake (first year they combined with SGS and changed the format of the exam), they went out to 16+ miles - if you think how far you can be from the school to be 16 miles away as the crow flies, that's a massive number of girls potentially taking the test! Will have to see whether that was an anomaly when they publish how far they offer for 2017's intake.

mandy214 · 11/01/2017 12:11

I knew what you meant itshen Smile

itsahen · 11/01/2017 12:28

Haha Ive just google mapped it. 16 miles takes you right over to North Manchester and takes in Bury & Bolton. It goes to Warrington and covers Northwich and Macclesfield. Thats insane. Obviously most people who will do the exam are within 1/2 hour to 45 mins drive I assume???
I know a lot of people who moved from Manchester to Trafford for schools at reception stage. I also do know lots who chose not to having thought about it. Living near the border its often a topic of conversation for people with with age 3/4 children or again with year5/6 children and the debate whether to have a go....

mandy214 · 11/01/2017 13:13

Think the conversations start at age 2/3 and never stop! Wink

itsahen · 11/01/2017 13:20

Totally. We are adamant that we are not going down that route for so many reasons of our personal choice but so many people talk about it, there is a certain paranoia that sets in. Have I ruined my children's future success in life by not tutoring and pushing to get them into AGGS ? Have I set them on a path to failure lol
Always keep an open mind.... :)

mandy214 · 11/01/2017 13:24

You know what, I think its actually a really brave and wise decision. There are soooo many parents who simply jump on the bandwagon. Our situation was slightly different as I have twins and alot of the stress came from worrying about one doing well and the other doing less well but year 5 was a horrible year.

itsahen · 11/01/2017 13:40

Thanks Mandy. We chose to stay in Manchester LA when we moved and know some who have indeed moved from Trafford to Manchester as many schools are deemed as good in very different ways and want different things. I thus know lots of people in both systems and chose to stay in the comprehensive one. People do migrate however before year R and all the way through primary though and others head private from yr3 onwards to go to selective and non selectives such as Stockport Grammar, Cheadle Hulme, WGS, MGS, WHS etc so its a topic that is always around and you cant't avoid people asking you about it... and yes I do think people get swept away in getting a tutor and going for it as everyone else has one...

ticklingafoot · 11/01/2017 14:11

Stockport grammar and cheadle Hulme have entrance exams so are technically selective.

itsahen · 11/01/2017 15:28

Yes I meant those were a combination of selective and non. Some do move to schools where prep normally move up etc or to the likes of Ladybarn House with selectives in mind. So many options if you want afford them lol

Original poster
mah24 · 11/01/2017 15:51

Finalising my list of five choices
Have spoken with few Faith Schools and there seems no places and being no Faith we will be down in the order. So decided not to put them as our choice.

I am going to put Oldfield, Billing, Stamford, navigation road and one more. Can you please suggest which 5th school I should put in the list where we have near the catchment.

Cheers

OP posts:
theknackster · 11/01/2017 16:12

Tyntesfield, if you are living on one of their catchment roads? That's a good school as far as I know.

Original poster
mah24 · 11/01/2017 19:22

Thanks, our street is not on their catchment. I already checked.

OP posts:
Timeforteaplease · 20/01/2017 10:10

Personally I would not put down Oldfield Brow - it's not got a good reputation locally.
All the other schools on your list are great.
You will have to do additional work with your DC to get them into the grammars. It is insanely competitive. I heard that a few years ago Sale Grammar had something like 1,800 applicants for 200 places. Alty grammar schools are similar.

theknackster · 20/01/2017 10:29

Oldfield Brow's reputation wasn't great 15+ years ago. It's more than fine now, however (as the scramble for school places there would suggest).

OB has been a great school for my two DC, I've no complaints at all.

itsahen · 20/01/2017 19:57

Thats the problem - old reputations stick for a very long time.
At the end of the day OP would be better in a decent school near to where they have moved to than one miles away. The wait list for Bollin etc are prob even longer and its academic unless there are spaces

Pregnantagain7 · 21/01/2017 14:21

Hi one thing that I would recommend doing if you can is looking around the grammars before you decided that you want your daughters to go there just because they have the best results. It doesn't automatically mean that it's the best school for your daughters.
Ime aggs is a really good school for a certain type of girl, my second daughter passed but I chose to send her to a different grammar as I knew she would not enjoy Altrincham.
As others have said it's a really really difficult school to get into so other options would be sensible.

Pregnantagain7 · 21/01/2017 14:23

I also meant to add go and look around Oldfield brow it's my catchment school but I chose not to send my children there. It's got good results but it's in the middle of a council estate. Nothing wrong with that but you should be aware and decide if you're ok with it.

mandy214 · 21/01/2017 20:39

I agree. And speak to parents who have children at the schools. First hand experience is crucial - you'll no doubt get this from parents at primary school who have older children at the grammars, but don't assume either the girls or boys grammar is the best fit for your DC. Certainly for the girls, girls need to be super bright, but more than that - super motivated, conscientious, confident, an independent learner etc etc. The boys is slightly more supportive / hand holding but its still full on. Passing the 11+ is really only the start. Our head gives good advice about whether its the right school - if you've had to do anything more than Yr 5 tutoring (mostly for speed / exam technique) you'll need to replicate that throughout senior school.

And also be aware that both Altrincham Grammar schools are brutal about staying on for Years12&13 - you need to get top GCSE results to be allowed to stay on for A levels.

itsahen · 21/01/2017 21:06

Very interesting Mandy as ever. Its that which makes me think even if my DD had a go and got in, I'm not sure she'd really be best fit with it. I'm not sure she's that focused on academics as her sports comes 1st really

Original poster
mah24 · 22/01/2017 10:48

Hi All, thanks for the comments

Oldfield was no 1 in one of the rating table, in Local area and top 100 in whole country, i checked last year (I think it was MEN 2016). However, i checked again and it is updated for 2017. Surprisingly and most worryingly it is now one of the worst performing in the country.

Not sure why there is so big variance. All I can think is the MEN School Rating is false so should not trust them.

After speaking with some parents whose children go there, I think it will be good for our daughters but we are most probably going into Broadheath PS anyway in short term atleast. Moving early Feb so still waiting for the confirmation of school. finger crossed.

For grammar- will see how it goes, dont want to push too hard but will definitely try to get into one of them.

OP posts:
itsahen · 22/01/2017 15:07

Our top performing school suddenly dropped in the last MEN tables so no idea what happened except that last years SATs results are all over the place so id not put too much faith in such things

Buttwing · 22/01/2017 17:27

I think I know why. Last year the new sats were brought in, the year sixes were sitting exams based on a two year curriculum but they had only had been taught the new curriculum for one year. I don't think you can really trust last years results I think a lot of schools will have done really badly.

theknackster · 24/01/2017 11:53

but it's in the middle of a council estate

gasps
clutches pearls Grin

On the 2016 results vs 2015 results at OB...my impression was that the 2015 Y6 class were an unusually 'good' year and the 2016 Y6 class were a nightmare more challenging. I guess we'll see in the next round of results whether there is a 'worrying trend' or a 'blip'.

mandy214 · 24/01/2017 12:05

You need to look carefully at the tables and see why they're coming out well or not so well (some list them in terms of "value added", some list them in terms of actual scores etc).

But there are 2 main reasons - the change in the SATS and the levels which were expected of children. I had DC in all SATS years lucky me and the tests were very different from what had been tested before (the expectation was much higher). For some schools, this meant cramming an awful lot of content into a short time frame (schools weren't actually told what would be tested / how the tests would work until very late in the day). Some schools with more able children were already doing this, at least partially, and there wasn't so much of a "gap". Other schools had to make a massive leap.

And as theknackster says - year groups vary year on year. Some year groups are brighter / harder working / don't have as many children leaving or joining part way through school / different boy:girl ratio which can impact on results, so there are always going to be year on year variations.

itsahen · 24/01/2017 13:11

In our area a few miles away, the 2016 SATs were all over the place. All three local consistently outstanding schools took a massive plunge. Id ignore 2016 personally