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

it's common here for siblings to split, either because they went to different schools because of their sex ( boys to one and girls to the other) or because one passed the 11+ and one didn't. However, as the Grammar and High take ( roughly) the top 25% of children in the area ( as opposed to the 2% in some super selective areas) entry is not quite as academic as in other areas with Grammar schools. The majority of "my" children passing the 11+ this year are straight level 5's but in previous years children with level 4's ( and even 3's!) have passed. So yes, academically, the Grammar and High start off with the more able children and, until recently, were the only providers of post 16 education in the area.

Also the LIncolnshire 11+ is only sat in Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reaoning (no maths or English) so the tests are not at all like anything the children will have encountered at school. They will most probably need some practice to pass them regardless of ability. Two girls at my son's school who are level 5/borderline level 6 (just) failed this year because their parents didn't want grammar and so didn't let them do any practice except the one at school. (Just to say we are out officially out of catchment for grammar - but near enough to get places at a couple if you really want to go - but near an 'outstanding' comp which most people are happy with).
I guess you need to make sure you are near a good comp/sec modern if you don't want single sex grammar or don't think it suitable for your children. If you choose north of Boston you are nearer to co-ed grammars at Horncastle or Alford, or nearer to Bourne you have got a good comp, (Robert Manning).

Clary, yes, I feel academic stuff might come more naturally to one than the other, who of course has other great strengths (but not those assessed in exams ). Snowball interesting to hear, however, that the intake is less competitive (if that's the right description). So many factors to consider, Kitkatgirl. i'm really very grateful to everyone who has shared their thoughts even though it has left me with a far more complex decision

So, to conclude, we'll probably have no problems getting primary spaces if it's village/rural, and it'd probably be ok to call the schools for info before applying. Also, we need to ensure careful investigation of ks3 schools in our catchment areas and make sure the options suit our dc. Thank you very much, Lincolnshire MNetters :)

Just thought I'd add that we've just moved to South Lincolnshire (Baston) from Surrey. We contacted schools directly to find out about availability, then decided on an area based on that. We were then able to apply for a school place before moving up by putting an application in to our local council, who forwarded it on to Lincolnshire council. This meant we could apply without a local address. The schools were all very helpful. Good luck.

I would certainly check with schools in areas you might be interested in about whether they do have vacancies. I teach in a small rural school but over the past 6 years or so our numbers have almost doubled and many year groups are now full ( indeed several are overfull!) So check first with schools you might be interested in, arrange to look round, check which secondary schools are in the area and THEN apply!
Schooling is a tricky business these days!

Learnermummy, sounds like an ideal outcome, hope ours works out so nicely :) Interesting about applying through your own council, they didn't mention that to me on the phone...but I wonder if it's because we'd be applying from Wales, hmmm.

Snowball, you're right, it is such a tricky business! An added bonus to moving in the summer is that I will avoid quite a headache when DS2 starts school in 2013. A sudden growth in population and very odd new catchments areas here would have meant getting them to two different primary schools 3 miles apart on foot at the same time each day! Glad that's no longer an issue and seriously hope it will be possible to have them in the same school in Lincs. In the case of your school, what has caused the increased numbers? More people moving to the area? Schools closing/merging?

Hope so, DS1 starts at his new school next week!
Wouldn't have thought getting them into the same school would be difficult since siblings are given priority.

No, hope not! This is just a crazily odd an odd town where school catchment areas are concerned now. I even wrote (very politely) to the Education department and asked them whether any leeway would be possible, bearing in mind they would be asking me to walk 7 miles in total and cross a dual carriageway in my attempt at getting both to different schools for 9am...and they said no

There are some previously under-subscribed, now pretty full schools near us, too. Sometimes result of building houses, often result of outstanding ofsted reports persuading people to move their dc from schools they're unhappy with, etc, etc. (My ds's school is increasing from 3 to 4 classes this year due to popularity). Hadn't wanted to imply you would definitely get places at all the schools you might consider but certainly you have a much much better chance of spaces even at excellent schools in comparison to some metropolitan areas. And in answer to previous post, yes, do look more carefully at secondary provision. There is quite varied provision in the south of the county!

The primary schools in Spalding are pretty much full due to increased housing stock and "incomers", both from outside the area who have discovered that we are only 90 minutes from London, housing is cheap and have grammar schools ( all pretty good incentives for many!) and from elsewhere in the European Union, so we receive children who can't get in elsewhere ( 10% of our children come by taxi and probably the same again from outside the local area but brought by parents) One Spalding school is currently exploring the possibility of adding another class for each yeargroup so numbers might fall but once we get children through the door, few leave!

Phew, snowball, sounds busy busy! Not dissimilar here, but here they say part of the reason is that the town became one of the major refugee processing centres for the UK a few years ago, and the population boomed, and the schools, well, they've exploded! And there's no physical room to expand old inner city schools, of course. Sounds like there's lots of different elements affecting things there with you. Hopefully, it makes for quite an interesting mix of kids :)

Kitkat, thank you again, all solid advice. We're looking forward to our trip to Lincs next week now to start sussing out the area. I'll probably be back on the thread "live from Lincs" to ask questions about different areas as we find places we like

Hi, me again!

Anyone got any thoughts on Pinchbeck West and Bicker as places to live?

Message sent!

Got it and thrilled, thank you :)

wellies no primary school in Bicker apart from a private one.

Pinchbeck is nice (for the area! ), handy for Spalding, only a couple of miles away, biggish village with reasonable facilities, pubs, church, shops etc. School too, was quite well thought of when I was young!

It's not really a very rural village tho, so I suppose it depends what you are lookign for. Have you found a fab house?

Oh doh! What a muppet, thinking of Pinchbeck (East) not Pinchbeck West, that's really small and maybe has no school? Not sure btu ignore what I said.

Pinchbeck East and Pinchbeck West both have primary schools ( although the latter changed it's name a few years ago to St Bartholomew's. )
One of the joys I found when moving here is that villages with the same name can be MILES apart! Gedney, Gedney Drove End and Gedney Hill are nowhere near each other, Holbeach and Holbeach Bank are miles apart, Moulton, Moulton Seas End and Moulton Chapel similarly. It makes for fun navigating!

snowball it's because of the parish boundaries; Moulton, Moulton Chapel and Moulton Seas End (for example) are all in the same parish and they are formed by drawing a thin slice throughthe countryside; similarly Holbeach and the various St thises and thats etc.

Gotta love it! Pinchbeck East and West are fairly adjacent tho. Cool that PW still has a school.

Thanks Clary and Snowball :)

I've been trying to open the school link you sent me, snowball, but struggling because "it is not possible to connect to the server", which I think is down to my mil's internet here. I am actually, for the first time in years, close to pulling my hair out due to a dodgy internet connection sad but true! But hey, at least I can get on MN - phew!

The place we like in PW is in walking distance to school, and were there a place for ds1, it would be perfect [wistful]...but we are very drawn to the size of the garden of the one in Bicker and hankering back to our smallholding days, already talking about pig, goat, chickens! even though it would mean driving to school. Do many of the schools run school buses, anyone know?

Very much doubt if there are any school buses. There are very few buses at all in South Lincs sadly.

what school would you go to from Bicker?

It looks like either Donnigton Cowley or Swineshead St Mary's, according to the map. Would need to check spaces and catchment though... Know anything useful about either??

Shame about the lack of school buses. It's made me get all nostalgic about our primary school bus, which used to do the rounds of the villages to get us in...very grumpy driver, bus full of dust, and everyone used to deliberately jump in the air as we went over the humpbacked bridges so we could go flying! Ah, the good old dangerous days!

School buses are only for secondaries around here, but around 10% of our children come by taxi!

Hi Welliesand pyjamas

Also live in South Lincs and have a good friend who works at Thomas Cowley School in Finance office her DD also goes to the school. They both love the school it has a kind of an old fashioned family feel to it. We looked at it but are just on the edge of the catchment area. Ido know that is has vacancies in yr7 and also this yrs 7 intake as well.

Also have a friend who lives in Gosberton and travels to our primary school 11 miles each way as she didn't like the one in Gosberton but that is just her opinion.

Pinchbeck primary is on the up as has an excellent head there who has turned around his last 2 schools and is doing well there as well.

wellies is looking at primary schools atm mumwhereareyou.

Sorry no info on either of those. My mum taught at Donington econdary for years and tho that was a while ago I believe it is very well thought-of, tho obv a sec mod; kids from Donington area used to go alternate years to Spalding High/Boston High, but that may not be true any longer wellies.