South Lincolnshire Primary schools

[welliesandpyjamas]

Hi - tried this in Local but no traffic there!

We'll be moving to the Boston area in the summer (probably living somewhere outside town, village or rural-ish if possible) and was wondering if anyone had any tips about the availability of primary school places?? We're moving from somewhere which is very oversubscribed and we're hoping it won't be as bad in South Lincs!

Are there villages/towns that are worse than others? We'll be looking for a year 5 place and a nursery place. I called Lincs council but they don't keep a list of available places, we'd have to apply for up to three schools once we have an address. Trouble is, we'd rather not choose a nice place to live and then find out there are no school places nearby! Catch 22!

If anyone has any suggestions or thoughts, I'd really appreciate it! Also, we'd need to place ourselves within an acceptable distance of a secondary school.

TIA

PS by 'worse' I mean in terms of oversubscription of primary places, not life in general

I am from South Lincs and a good deal of the area esp Spalding way has a grammar school system with 11-plus exam in yr 6 if that says anything to you. (It says something to me but I won't burden you with my prejudices )

I can't imagine village schools are especially oversubscribed as the area is not densely populated. My mum was a governor at the village school I attended until a few years ago and their rolls were falling badly.

Where are you moving from? South Lincs is quite isolated and under-resourced in terms of facilities so I would live in a town (Boston or Spalding) rather than a village myself (I lived in a village there as a child and hated it, especially once I was a teenager!)

Sorry not very detailed info but sure someone else will help?

here is ofsted at my old primary school in sept last year "the school roll has fallen significantly" 104 on roll and when I was there (racks brain) there must have been more like 140 pupils.

It's good and improving btw so that's positive. Not saying go there, just saying this may be the trend so that's good for you.

Hi I live in Boston, fishtoft side there are three this side of town that are excellent ,the one my daughter is in is expanding at the moment due to people moving to the area ,and the attached nursery always has an excellent ofsded report it also offers morning and after school club,message me if you need to know anything .

Hi Clary! Thanks for answering! Actually, we were seriously considering Gosberton!! So I'm very pleased to hear they're not too full

It was the Spalding surrounding area we were looking at. Definitely hoping to returning to village/rural life. Been stuck in a city for three plus years and we all hate it, can't wait to get back to a more boring quiet life :)

Talk to me about your prejudices! Every little helps I have no experience of grammar schools and 11 plus so would love to hear about all perspectives, especially with ds1 approaching that age.

Tammytwigg, thank you as well for answering! I wasn't expecting much so response so this is great. Must be a fair amount of MNetters around Boston

We've spotted some lovely houses on the Fishtoft side but have had to put them further down the list as DH's job will be on the Spalding side and it'd be best to minimise travel time, especially on winter evenings. But thank you anyway, because that side of town is not out of the question completely and I may end up PMing you in future if that's still ok?

Hope you find somewhere nice, as clary says we have the eleven plus in Lincolnshire my son passed his and is now at the Boston grammar school which we are over the moon with but the secondary he would have gone to on the out skirts of our side of town is also highly recommended,good luck .

Thank you tammy. And also thanks for the useful info re secondary schools. Is the Boston grammar school mixed or boys only?

It's boys only, there is a high school for the girls, they were going to merge a couple of years ago and still might in the future ,the funding got cancelled but it's still a brilliant school,the boys are very happy there .

Interesting. Having no experience of single sex schools, I'm probably very wrong to think it would be odd and full of testosterone but I suppose there isn't the distraction of girls? I'd be fascinated to see what the atmosphere is like in the classrooms.

Sorry, going off topic a bit there hope you didn't mind! Just a new and interesting trail of thought for me there, single sex schools, and didn't reslise they existed there.

Not in that exact area, but not a million miles away and lots of our primaries have spaces in all years and that includes very good and outstanding schools. You should be able to find out spaces by contacting the schools directly so maybe find a few tempting houses/villages then read those schools' ofsteds, then contact the schools directly. Hope you get chance to get over to have a good look around. And have a careful look at secondary options other than granmars, just to be safe (there are some with iffy reputations- but I won't name them - have local ish connections but wouldn't wish to cast unwarranted aspersions);-)

re single sex schools, absolutely not an option for my son who hates sport and has lots of girl friends, but I think the evidence is that girls do better in single sex and boys do better in mixed schools. You will know what is best for your son though. There are mixed grammars in Lincs and single sex grammars and all have quite large catchments/transport arrangements because some parents prefer one and some the other!

Gotcha, kitkatgirl

I did wonder whether it would be ok to contact the schools directly but wasn't sure how 'done' that sort of thing is! We're planning a trip to the area in about ten days time as our Easter hols here are different so we could call schools at the same time and see what the reponse is like.

Good to hear there are even more schools with spaces. All very encouraging.

Thanks for the elaboration on the schools. It must depend so much on the child, you're right. I'll have to think about it, although my initial instinct was that mixed would be better for ds1. But that's probably because of his having had a lovely friendly experience in a mixed class, so maybe too simplistic.

Good luck with it all. Am sure the schools would be more than happy with you contacting them directly. I have at least three times welcomed people looking around our village/hanging around school gate at hometime and subsequently taken them to see the head or secretary to make an introduction! Useful strategy if you want to meet some nice parents (and hope nobody thinks you're a weirdo)...

Ha ha, it could be a close call!

You sound kind, keep an eye out for a tired-looking family of 4 loitering around Lincs schools and villages week after next

:o

OK well re prejudices....

I found 11-plus incredibly divisive, the notion that a child's future can be decided at age 11 is bizarre. Kids I knew at the secondary mod were struggling to get their talents recognised.

Kids I knew at my single-sex grammar school wasted their years and ended up with 2 O-level passes. Makes me angry. Of course lots of people do well at grammar. One major disadvantage for me was that as it is a) a rural area and b) selective, the catchment is HUGE and my best pal at secondary lived 15 miles away which is the other end of the world when you are 14. I was never close to any school friends then or now and I think this is why.

Spalding High School was very very academic and all about the classics and MFL etc. I am sure it must have changed with the times and will offer a more rounded curriculum now.

It made for a long day too - my DS1 walks 10 mins to school so he leaves at 8.30 and gets home at 3.45; I used to leave just after 8am and catch two buses, then get home about 4.45pm.

So annnnnnyway - clearly if you are fed up wth city life then village life may be for you; the fact that it wasn't for me is neither here nor there!

Should add re-reading my first post - my mum was a governor at Gosberton until a few years ago - I didn't attend it a few years ago!!!! That was back in 197????

BTW single sex is how it is in Spalding, that was another thing I wasn't keen on! I personally find a single-sex grammar school a good way to pass lots of brillo examsbut not a great preparation for real life; personally I think school should be the latter and not the former, certainly my fandabby O-levels haven't got me very far in the real world

Ooooh well you did ask! Good luck with the hunt!

Spalding now has a mixed secondary school, the two Gleed schools ( which were previously boys and girls) have joined and are now beginning to mix!
( I'm on the other side of the Grammar school divide, both my sons attended/still attend Spalding Grammar and I've found it has suited them both! People do tend to have differing views[bugrin]
If you need any more info on Spalding primaries, let me know!!!

Clary at the loss of a few decades! I could've carried on feeling old thinking you were miles younger! That's all interesting food for thought about the schools. And helpful. Even things like travel time are actually very important to us too, so all worth considering.

Snowball, thanks for adding to the thread. Spalding could be of interest for primaries too, we'll have to check it out first. Could definitely be handy to know anout secondary schools as at the moment it could end up being the closest possibility.

But Spalding grammar and High schools are still single-sex, no? It's the sec mod that's mixed?

To be fair (after quick google) the Gleed is only mixed from this Sept so I am excused not even knowing that!

Snowball of course there are other views! Good thing too. I realise mine is somewhat controversial wellies you need to understand that Spalding is the grammar school, but if your DC went to sec mod from Gosberton they would go to Donington which is co-ed btw. I guess as so often it depends if you think they would get to grammar.

To be honest Clary, I think there are many who hold the same view, it is a problem faced by parents every year, we have several parents who, whilst their child is perfectly capable of passing the 11+, choose alternatives which more closely suits their child.

Definitely time I started looking in the different types of schools. No experience of grammar schools at all. Am I right to assume, as a starting point, that they're more 'academic' than your bog standard secondary?

What happens if you have one child who is more academically inclined than another? Is it worth the separation of (close) siblings?

yy grammar schools generally more academic. As an example, when I was at SHS 80 out of 100 pupils in my year did A-levels, in other words 6th form was totally the norm, not usual in most comprehensive schools.

The important thing to realise wellies is that if you live in Spalding, your choice is not between grammar and comp (as it may be in some parts of the UK) but between grammar and sec mod, in other words a school for the top 10% or a school for everyone else except that top-performing group.

Not sure how it works re separation of siblings - I guess it would pose the same logistical problems as any set of sibs at different schools. Do you think one would pass 11+ and one not?