Hitchin, Herts primaries

[pearlym]

Looking ot move to Hitchin , all the tip top primaries are full, Oughton and Pirton look to have places every year. We will have Year 3 and year 2 or theeabouts. What are these schools like|? Any insights out there please? OFSTEDs make it clear that they are in mixed areas- do not mind that at all, as very diverse her ein London, keen to know about quality of teaching and pastoral care
Any info gratefully received

I would stay away from Pirton we have not been happy with the school not really lived up to its Ofsted report in any shape way or form. I wish there had been a forum like this about at the time when we made the decision to place our children there. I don't know about Oughton Head. I've heard Ickleford and Samual Lucas are both excellent. Hope this is of use.

Oughtonhead is essentially the sink primary in the town and is on the edge of the worst estate too. I know it's not terribly PC but I would avoid at all costs. Friends I know put their children down with the nearest private school as well for insurance in case they were allocated Oughton - catchments round here are fiercely small. That said, Oughton has some fantastic facilities as it has benefited hugely from extra funding and has a Surestart centre in the grounds too. Don't know about pastoral care though. Suspect teaching is fine but some of the children and parents are feral quite frankly so there maybe classroom discipline issues. And that sort of thing tends to feed through into wider areas in a school I think.

If you can get nearer to Samuel Lucas do, it's an amazing school with a great ethos about including and bringing on all the children. Their results are consistently high but they are also accompanied by a great sense of whole school family - the children in older years are strongly encouraged to look after and look out for the younger ones.

William Ransom has an amazing academic reputation but personally I believe this is achieved at the expense of some children - the pressure on them from day one is seriously enormous - reading and writing homework from day one reception - and parents of children who are just 'plodders' for want of a better word, despite trying really hard, are strongly encouraged to remove them - as admitted in public by the head, to avoid dragging the results down.

St Andrews again is popular but as a church school has a v v small catchment - you practically have to live next door. Plus they seem to have a very poor reputation in the context of children with disabilities and/or serious special needs.

Don't know anything about Ickleford, but Strathmore is on the same side of town and has a pretty good reputation I think, but less so for Wilshere Dacre which it feeds to.