Good schools in Milton keynes. State or private.

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Just really looking for some opinions on primary schools in or near Milton Keynes. Would be interested to hear about any private school experiences too.
Thank you

"in or near Milton Keynes" covers a very wide area .

In Milton Keynes I think "most" state primary schools are perfectly fine. As is ever the case a school that one parent raves about might be a nightmare for another. I think most people tend to go to their local school, so if you choose to live in a more "middle class" area that will likely be the demographic of the school. My DC are at an Ofsted satisfactory school, but I really like it.

Private options are Bury Lawn in the north of the town and Broughton Manor/Mk Prep/Ravenscourt (those are all linked) . I know a few parents with children at Broughton Manor who all like it but I believe it is very heavily academic.

If you think you'll be in the same place for secondary, it's worth looking at those as well - quite a few of the secondaries in the town only take a handful of out of catchment children.

I don't know much about the state primaries but I guess it's area dependent - ie, those in Woburn Sands, Emerson Valley etc are probably good whereas I know there are some dodgy ones around the Bletchely area (Chestnuts and Watermead I think I have heard bad things about). Probably most are fine though.

Private:
The Grove - haven't heard good things. I don't think it gives that much that a state primary wouldn't.
MK Prep/Broughton Prep - Only goes up to 11. THink it's selective. Not sure how good it is.
Swanbourne House - Quite posh end of prep schools. Good reputation for sport and drama.
Aykeley Wood - Some people are snobby about it but it seems fine to me. Cheaper end.
Thornton - very Catholic. Girls only. Suits the more 'delicate flower' type girls.
Bury Lawn - Don't know anything about it at all.

I haven't lived in MK long but I have heard that the best independents are in Bedford so the children are driven there by bus or parent.

My children are at state schools and there's plenty of good ones round here. I live in the catchment of 3 primaries and would send my kids to any of the 3. I have heard that if you are eligible for a faith school then Bletchley schools are fine but otherwise it's best to avoid.

I would look into the secondary schools in more detail. I live in the catchment of an outstanding secondary and my children attend the feeder primary for another outstanding school so I'm very lucky.

If you are looking for a primary school, two of the best are: St Thomas Aquinas RC primary (in Bletchley!) and the relatively newly opened Priory Rise. Both have absolutely cracking heads who are wholly committed to the children in their schools. Both have excellent academic track records, especially in teaching children to read.
As for the secondary schools, I'd take a long and careful look first at how many pupils are getting five good GCSEs (including maths and English). For many of them, it ain't good!
The best bet by far is to buy into somewhere on the periphery of MK - Buckingham's a very nice, thriving market town and Buckinghamshire still has grammar schools if that's what you'd want at secondary level. Aykeley is also in the vicinity if you want private.

Check out Linslade in Leighton Buzzard too -Greenleas and Southcott are outstanding, Linsale Lower is good and Linslade Middle School also does very well. From that side of town you feed into Cedars Upper which gets very decent GCSE results

Soundswrite- I'm very interested in your comment "Both have excellent academic track records, especially in teaching children to read." Last year was the first year that Priory Rise had Y6 graduates so I am interested about what you know about the academics there.

Are you from the company Sounds Write or a person from one of the schools you mention in your post?

As the nickname suggests, I'm from Sounds-Write. However, I know Sue Cox, the head at Priory Rise quite well. She used to be head at Cedars Primary school in MK. As the school started from scratch, as you say, last year was the first from which Y6 moved up. What I do know is that quite a number of parents have moved their children to Priory Rise because of how impressed they've been with what the school has to offer.
As for St Thomas Aquinas, they've been top or second to top of the league tables in Milton Keynes for the past goodness knows how many years.

Thanks. Didn't mean to sound so snippy. I was in school today talking to the teacher about phonics so was a bit spooked to see your username.

I agree that Mrs Cox is excellent.

would like to know of the best private school in Milton Keynes for my daughter who is 5 years old.

joanneandnoel I suggest you start a new thread

Hi all,
I would like to know more information/ review on the private schools in Milton Keynes West area.which one is better one, MKPrep or The Grove.
Has any one heard any bad remarks about those schools. please help.
Cheers,
Laklal

www.groveindependentschool.co.uk/images/pdf/reports/Brought-forward-compliance.pdf

BEWARE of this

I saw one review about Milton Keynes Preparatory School. This is not a school. From my experience with this school, it is only business run by horrible gang. My daughter had a very bad incident at the school resulted in breaking her leg. This was caused by a breach of duty and through negligence by staff and management that allowed another child to jump on her from the train structure at a meter height, which was not supervised. No one knows what had happened or tell me exactly what had happened and when decided what happened the story kept changing all the time. No one was allowed to talk to us apart from Mr. Carl Bates, the headmaster, because there is no transparency at this school. He is so defensive, arrogant and aggressive trying to deviate from the subject to belittle of the incident and our suffering. This complaint went into stage 2 and when the Chair of Governance intervened, he was more aggressive and intimidating than the headmaster that he threaten me to go to stage 3 complaint telling me that I will face humiliation. I know now why it is said in their website last year they had only 2 complaints and sorted out at stage 2.

The staff have no sense of ownership. I removed my daughter from this school because this school do not have pastoral care even though they keep talking about it in their website. I want my daughter to achieve excellent results academically in a safe environment and not to compromise her health and safety.