Hello, I wonder if any local people can help me.
My husband and I are about to put our house on the market and attempt to move up the M11 to Saffron Waldon or a surrounding village. We have friends (without children) in the area and we have been coming up for day trips to get a real sense of the place. We are committed to making a move.
We are researching the local high schools. Our children are 7 and 5 and we want to make a move now so that they have time to make new friends before moving up to High School. I appreciate we're doing this fairly early but both children are quite shy and quite attached to their current school. The longer we leave it, the harder it will be for them to move. I am already feeling sick at the prospect but we know that a move is right for our family in the medium to long term.
Obviously we have read the Ofsted reports of both Joyce Frankland and County High but I have some very specific questions and wonder if anyone is able to give their views. We think that one of our children, although bright and very emotionally intelligent, may not be overly academic and I wonder if County High would be right for her? My worry is that the school seems very academically focused and I wonder if my child might find the pressure too much, or feel left behind/left out in some way. So I guess my question is does the school cater for those pupils who may not be top set/A grade ... My second question is whether the Ofsted report on JF school is an accurate description of the school. What I mean by this is that our current local school received a 'good' rating a few years ago and local parents/residents were in disbelief as it was widely recognised that the school had huge behaviour problems and some of the teaching was awful. I appreciate it is very hard for inspectors to get a true understanding of a school in a few days/hours and so I would like to understand opinions of the school from current parents.
Thank you so much for any response.