Schools in Medway - help!

[Nomad2009]

Hi there,
I have just discovered this website and it's really great.

We are due to move to Medway in July because of husband's new job but don't know the area at all - we made a quick visit during the Easter holidays just to have a look around.

We will probably rent a house in the Walderslade / Hempstead area but the main problem is schools for our children (currently in year 2 and 7)- any suggestion for a good primary?

We will apply for grammar schools for older son however we have no idea of which is best, same goes for comprehensive schools. We don't want to choose just relying on league tables, any advice from other parents would be very useful.

Thanks.

Thanks for the info about schools - we will need to contact estate agents too about letting.

We live quite far from Medway and viewing houses is going to be difficult. I guess we will stay in a B&B for a few days nearer the time that we need to move and view as many properties as we can. Any suggestions about a good letting agent would help, to avoid wasting time.

We picked the area just because it is not too far from husbands new work place, we are a bit concerned about traffic in the morning etc. We live in a small village at the moment, nobody in the streets before 8am or after 5pm!

Hello Nomad. I live in Walderslade. There are some excellent primary schools around here. Tunbury is good (Kent authority) as is St Thomas More RC Primary (top of the league tables and Ofsted struggled to find anything negative to say about them) - it has a great family and supportive ethos and my children are very happy there. From an ex-teacher's point of view, I can't fault their teaching and organisation. Walderslade primary (Dargets Hll) is also pretty good - slightly smaller.

thanks to both of you for the advice. We are going to Rochester next week as DS1 will take the Medway test on Wednesday. Hope to have enough time to visit primary schools too.

Have to disagree totally with TPF.

Rainham Mark is a good grammar school and Hempstead Primary school is a very good one when considering your younger dc. If you do look at Rochester then Rochester Maths is the best grammar in Medway for boys.

We have found out that Rochester Maths are really oversubscribe and there is no hope of getting in there, Rainham Mark also rather full, the only one which seems to have places available is Chatham Boys - is it a good school?

Rochester MAths is that grammar or comp as be looking for school for ds13 if move to area and maths is one thing he excells at

Hi, my son is in year 10 at Chatham Grammar and has done really well (they take their GCSE's a year early - we are awaiting results!) I went to Rainham Mark Grammar (many years ago!) and it was a great school - in hindsight, I wish I'd sent my son there - but CGSB is still good.

Welcome to the area!

My children are at Tunbury and it has some lovely teachers. If you live in Hempstead I doubt you would get in to Tunbury though, it is quite a way away.