Primary Schools Twickenham... Advice please

[MuddledMum]

I am currently doing 2011 school applications for Twickenham primaries for my DC. We are non church-goers so will be joining the postcode lottery for all the local schools. I have seen most of them but I know very few parents with school age children locally so I'm looking for advice. If you have children at any of the following...

St Marys
Archdeacon Cambridge
Trafalgar
Sacred Heart Teddington

... It would be great to hear your thoughts.

I've not included St James. I have visited and thought it was great but the Head said that there are only 5 non catholic children in the whole school and historically there have never been any in reception. Any advice/experiences much appreciated. Apologies if this reads a bit clumsy but am bouncing baby on my knee while I type!

All Richmond Borough parents need to be aware that the council is looking to make some significant changes to Secondary Schools over the coming years, which could impact existing schools, so check out the thread: "New Secondaries for Richmond Borough" and join the debate. The council will hopefully listen to parents' views, but we can only engage in the process if we know what's going on.

they are all good, but heavily oversubscribed so i doubt you actually have much of a "choice" in practice. which is your nearest?

I can't imagine you'd get into Sacred Heart if you live in Twickenham - it's certainly very oversubscribed from within the parish.

Thornham - I don't know that it is, a family we know this year from twickenham who put down St J's as their frist choice, got Sacred Heart as their second choice. It's also by no means full as a school, with classes of 24s I think.

St Marys, Archdeacon Cambridge and Trafalgar are all good schools, though catchments are becoming increasingly tight for all of them so it really would depend where you lived. Sacred Heart I have no idea!

my DD is at Sacred Heart and there are the odd spaces in some year groups as families move in and out of the area but this is the case for most schools. The classes are not as small as 24 though. I know people who didn't get SH this year and are practising Catholic. The distance required to get in varies from year to year so you never know. Another factor is that Collis is right next door so lots of local people send their children there which generally means that SH draws from a wider area. The intake for St. James's has an impact on admissions too.

All the primaries are good in this area so I doubt you will go wrong with any of your choices.

Archdeacon Cambridge will be having a bulge class in Reception in September 2012 (too late for MuddledMum, but perhaps helpful for people reading this thread in preparation for next year). The bulge class won't be in a portacabin, as they have funding for a brand new classroom, and its a very spacious school, so they should be able to accomodate it quite easily. It will only be a bulge class for that one year, after which it will go back to 2-form entry. It will be interesting to see what effect that has on younger siblings, as if they have a glut of those a couple of years down the line, there may be problems accomodating them all (I heard that happened at St Marys when they had a bulge class). See the admissions policy for more info.