moving to Bishops Stortford - anyone with views on Manor Fields Primary please come and share them!

[mrsravelstein]

We're moving from London to Bishops Stortford. Our nearest primary will be Manor Fields which according to Ofsted is fantastic, but of the many houses we've looked at in catchment, not one of the families sends their kids to MF... we've heard a lot of 'it's fine but not for us' and not quite sure what that means... any thoughts on it?

Not sure what they mean - I thought it had a good reputation.

There aren't really any "bad" schools - most of them have good/outstanding ofsted reports.

My dc's go to Summercroft which has had an outstanding ofsted report and I'm very happy with it.

All Saints is very highly spoke of among my friends as well.

Sorry I dont have more details on Manor Fields as we're pretty much the other side of town.

There are some people who live on St Michael's Mead and only BS college is good enough for them. Sorry, I don't know enough about MF but KS2 results are good.

When a lot of the houses in St Michael's Mead were built there were no places at Manor fields for people moving into the area as it was already full, so if people have older children they will have gone to other primary schools in Bishop's Stortford and siblings will have followed.

Quite a few families send their children to St Joseph's or St Michael's which are faith schools as well as BS college.

My next door neighbours children go to Manor fields and she seems perfectly happy with it.

Oh meant to add - dont assume your dc's will get into their catchment area school.

Most of the schools are full to bursting.

I have a friend who has a child at one school, but when it came to applying for her youngest he didnt get in and she has to pay another mum to help out in the mornings as obviously she cant be at two different schools at the same time.

thanks for these thoughts... sb i am slightly dreading that issue, but every single place we've looked for a house we've found the same issue, not enough places at catchment schools... the only upside is that pretty much all the schools in b/s seem to be highly regarded...

i was vaguely thinking about b/s college, but 3 kids and fees of 15k a year.... eeeek!

Have got 2 friends on St Michaels Mead all 4 of thier children attend MF. one friend is on the PTA and in all honesty seems to always be doing something for the school or meeting someone from the school. Children from both families are doing well so MF is doing something right. It would have been my choice had I not wanted my own to attend a faith school as it is important to us.
I too moved my children from London - they were at an outstanding school there - thing is BS schools are all Good/Outstanding so please don't worry - standards are very high.

thank you shelsbells, that's reassuring... MF looks lovely to me so hopefully my 3 will get in there, and as you say, the beauty of BS seems to be that most of the schools are pretty highly regarded...

sorry deja vu, i've just realised i totally repeated myself. blame fuzzy brain from negotiating with estate agents.