Solihull and surrounding Birmingham mums

[wannastartover]

Hi All

I am a mum that is hoping to move to a nice area in Birmingham. I have looked at a few areas and one that interested me was Solihull as its easy and quick for family and grandparents to get to as they are based in Oxfordshire.

Was just looking for opinions on the area and also I am an OFSTED Registered Childminder and was wondering if there any mums out there struggling for childcare in that area or as a childminder would that not be a good move? Also what other nice areas in Birmingham needs childminders. Quite open for all opinions.

Thanks in advance

No wolverhampton is not in Bham but it very close and as it is a nice place she could think about it.

National standard is 5 A*-C GCSE.
My statistics (at 21:53) were correct - Bham (2008) was 66.6%, National was 65%. Birmingham outperformed all it's statistical neighbours, which Solihull is not one of.
You have to compare like with like, and Birmingham serves a very different population to that of Solihull. Solihull's figure for that year was 73.7%, also higher than national. I did not state anything untrue, and I did not mention Solihull's figure.
Your figure of 54.5% ( at 21:43) was misleading- that is for the new measure of 5 A*-C including English and Mathematics, which is not the national standard at present.
The parts of the article you quote from (at 22:51 today) refer to that measure rather than national standard.

Regarding top 5 status- the Times article you link to lists 24 schools, in England not the UK, who achieved outstanding ofsted grade for 3 inspections. There was no ranking assigned. Arden was the 7th school mentioned.
If you examine the list ofsted produced that year, it was of 457 schools, in total.
See here and here

Also re house prices- Knowle is twice as expensive on average than Sutton Coldfield, and four times as expensive as Birmingham.

Wolverhampton falls between Sutton Coldfield and Birmingham for property prices.

I did not say I got the Top 5 school comment from that news article. I was purely showing my school in KNOWLE with an Outstanding grade by ofsted.

As i said The Quote My school was in the top 5 in UK - This was at least 5 years ago.
Read again.

I'm sorry- you linked to the Times article, I assumed that you were backing up your assertion.
It's not 'UK' but England- Scotland, Wales, and NI education systems are different, and schools in different systems cannot be compared.
What criteria are you using for your former school being No. 5 in England please? ie top 5 for what? (eg Value added score, A level point score, A level pass rate, GCSE point score, GCSE pass rate, ofsted rating, etc, etc.)
I am not saying it wasn't, I would just like to know what you are going off.

Well surely cat if Knowle were so affordable.... we'd all be living there!

Yes. And I wonder what some of the (nationally recognised) excellent schools in Birmingham would think of the assertion that Solihull is the only place with good schools. Perhaps I am mistakenly sending my children out into a minefield every day and I haven't even noticed?

Sorry Op - I'm not even from Birmingham originally and now I feel I've got to stick up for it!

Cat's original list, warning to be aware of "nice and not so nice" areas in the different suburbs is spot on. For example, the bits of Northfied that fall near Bourneville are lovely but you wouldn't necessarily want to live near the centre of Northfield, which is pretty depressing. Cat is also right about the issue of a secondary school in Harborne, alhough I do hear/believe that the main one there has been steadily improving (don't have any figures to confirm or disprove this though).

If you do come to Birmingham, can I also mention the very good theatres, decent live music scene (of all types) and great curries!

Thank you all for your replies, havent been on Mumsnet for a while and was quite surprise that this post was still active and the little turn it took. But thank you all for the input. I am alone with my daughter and will take all of your advice on board. I do personally think that I like the sound of Solihull. Viewing more places the weekend and hopefully I should move soon.

Quite near Cat - Cotteridge/Bourneville-ish.

Waves. Can you smell the chocolate?!

hi there ladies,
we live on the boarder with olton and i must say this side of solihull does appear more respectal in someways,b,ham does let it,s self down at times with most of it looking socially deprived and only a few small pocket areas looking respecat able now.

Plus not all schools apprecaite that we want our kids ti be able to achieve 5 GSCE,S or above when they leave and they need the core basic levels of learing in primary in order to progress to that.

Tc in your search .

sorry about the spelling mistakes ,i was typing to fast and didn,t proof read ,that,ll teach me lol

Hi Cat. Passes over a bar of Bournville.

This seems to be the slag off Birmingham thread.

Would it be really nasty of me to comment that Birmingham may be 'socially deprived' with schools that people from outside Birmingham seem to think employ people who don't actually care about pupils (grrrrr) BUT the mothers on here from Birmingham seem to be far more literate than those eulogizing about Solihull? Miaow.

is this still rumbling on?
We could turn it into a S bham chat thread!

Janeite- not only literate, but also well-informed!

Cat- are you in education- I always seem to 'see' you on education threads... (you don't have to answer if you don't wish to) just wondering.

sorry ladies ,only making a interperation of how is appears to me sadely .

Am I allowed to play?
I am only from East Birmingham though

I have laughed at you all this week, but kept out of it all cos of wot Tinksmum said