need help for schools in Oxford

[cristiang2012]

Dear Parents,
we will be moving to Oxford next October for professional reasons and need to find
a) a place to live
b) a school for my eldest Edo (feb 5th 2006)
c) a school for my youngest Martina (sept 17th 2008)

Work will be in Didcot. Can anyone suggest any good place to live in Oxford city and some good state school? We're afraid of making the wrong choice and not knowing the area and the schools any suggestion is highly appreciated.

Many thanks in advance,
C.

What sort of areas do you like (busy, boring, village?) and what's your price range?

If you are going to work in Didcot why not look at Didcot and Abingdon rather than Oxford itself.
Also are you looking for State or private schools?

Oxford city itself is tricky as regards state schools, as far as I remember, with the catchment areas for good ones being very, very small.

Would repeat earlier question about why Oxford rather than Didcot / other towns or villages on the way?

Compared with surrounding areas, Oxford city has particular problems with oversubscribed primary schools and is also an expensive city in which to buy or rent. I'd suggest starting your search elsewhere unless there is a strong reason to prefer Oxford.

As far as I know, the most popular schools include SS Philip and James, Wolvercote, St Alyoisis (sp?), and St Josephs. You can look all these up on Google. The catchments are small, and do change from time to time so check things out v carefully. Even if you are in catchment, you may still not get in.

I quite like St Ebbes too. Summertown is good to live in, but vvvvv expensive.
I believe Florence park is nice over to the East of the city. Be careful in the East though as secondary schools are crap (imo).
Best secondaries over to the West, and Cherwell in the Centre.

Traffic is awful, so would second looking at Abingdon or around Didcot for an easier commute.

I think Didcot is a livelier town than Abingdon, but only hearsay, so happy to be corrected on that if necessary.

hth.

Great area though with lots to do and see. You'll love it if you can get good schools sorted.

You will be applying for in year places for both of them, so may struggle in Oxford to get them into the same school (schools very full). I would look in the villages around, which have some excellent schools - that are not necessarily full. There are lots of private options, but they are obviously very expensive for two children (unless you are getting some sort of relocation package that will cover private fees until a state place comes up).

"You will be applying for in year places for both of them"

Oh, I thought the OP meant a move this October, which would be in plenty of time to make an application for the little one to join Reception in September 2013?

Mind you, I never know what people mean when they say "next Thursday" and am always asking, "you mean in two days' time? or the following week?", LOL.

Sorry - my mistake. I thought the op's younger dc would be starting reception this year (misread the dob) I stand corrected

I still think that looking at the villages is a good idea though!

Thanks everyone for all the messages, the reason for choosing Oxford is that we don't really like to live in smalls villages away from the city. I was looking at Iffly or Cowley areas, but more than welcome to hear from you.

Any particular school which should be really avoided?
Many thanks
C.

10 years ago we lived in St Clements and loved it. It was up and coming then so it was still cheap-ish. It had a good feel to it (well, we thought so then but we were students, not sure how grown up it is). It is great to be able to walk into town and onto the meadow.

However, I have no idea what the local school would be like in that area. Multi-cultural I would imagine, but that is not necessarily a bad thing.

SS Mary and John school is on the up.

Thank 1805 - will check it out.

Acebaby, when you talk about excellent schools in the villages to which ones are you particularly referring to?

I mainly am aware of the schools in the didcot area. Hagbourne, long wittenham and south moreton have very good reputations. Hope that helps!

I understand your reasons for wanting to live in Oxford and I love living in the city myself. But I don't have to take schools into account because we home educate, which makes things simpler. Some of my Oxford friends are home edding temporarily because they were offered a school which involved a 1.5 hour journey by two buses, and others because they couldn't get both children into the same school. The good news is that there is a lot of movement in the city so you can often get into a school eventually if you are prepared to wait. This may not work with the few most popular schools, however.

Living outside Oxford wouldn't have to mean being in the sticks. Didcot has a frequent fast train service to Oxford city centre, for example. Sometimes I go into Oxford city centre to meet a friend. She lives near the Didcot rail station, and she often arrives quicker than I do as I take the bus from the edge of Oxford!

Abingdon is also a pleasant large town which is very near Oxford - we're constantly whizzing back and forth to see friends there, which takes me 12 minutes by car outside of rush hour. The buses are good too. There are some very decent schools there which are not hard to get into, I hear.

You do have to choose your location carefully if you want to be able to get into Oxford easily, especially if you'll be using public transport.

Hi Saracen, work would be in Didcot, but I hear it's not a very nice place to live , although the place has the highest life expectancy in UK and good value for money for housing. Also, considering we move from abroad, at least initially we would like to live in a lively place...maybe my my perception is all wrong... but thank you. Which schools do you know in Abingdon?

Thank you Saracen.

Didcot may not be the prettiest of places true, but probably more going on there than Abingdon.

Abingdon possibly has more schools to choose from?

Tricky. Oxford = lots to do and nice to live, but difficult school situation v Abingdon/Didcot = quieter, but easier commute and schools.

Oxford Ring Road a nightmare in rush hour.

How about Wallingford? Nice place in itself and very easy to get into either Oxford or Reading to shop, eat etc.

I don't know but I would think the primary school in Wallingford is good.

If I was u I would avoid cowley. And as for Didcot, there's a reason its referred to as 'the arsehole of Oxfordshire' its other common name is 'Brown town' due to the abundance of heroin available. I lived there for 2 years, its a dump they've tried to make it nicer with some new shops and an arts centre but let's be honest, u can sprinkle glitter on a turd to make it look pretty but its still a turd. Abingdon is slightly better but not much.

Hi all, we are looking to relocate also to Oxford area soon. Which of the schools or areas above would you recommend if dh is still going to be commuting to London until a good job op is available more locally? Thanks for any help.

Kind of depends if your DH is going to drive or get the train balancingcats? Probably Headington best in terms of driving out, but the western side of Oxford, maybe St Ebbs or Osney, for the station.

Dh commutes to london daily, we live in Headington. Options from here are express bus (cheapest option and frequent, 90 mins in no traffic ,but can be slow in the evenings), bus to oxf station and then train (prob nearer 2h door to door), or dh preferred option, which is drive to didcot for train. This gives a predictable 90 mins door to door morning and evening. It is, of course, possible to drive to London ,but that would drive dh mad (and he works on the train, so commuting isn't dead time).
There are some nice places nearish Oxford station, Osney and new development up the canal, but have no idea about schools there. Suspect you have to live a long way up the canal to be in catchment for St barnabas in Jericho, which I believe is popular.

I was living in east oxford (Cowley area) until DS was 1ish and we are now in north Abingdon. There are some excellent state schools in Abingdon and personally, I find Abingdon 100x better in terms of area than Oxford with excellent facitilities, particularly for families with young children and I spent over ten years in Oxford City moving around to various areas so I would say I know it quite well. I would not consider living in Oxford City if my work was in Didcot - you are simply adding unnecessary commuting and cost for no real reason. I also second what was said above in that it takes me less time to get to Oxford centre from here (10-15mins) that it did when I was in east Oxford (30-40mins) if the traffic is very bad.

thanks so much, thepowerofvoodoo,

which state schools are you particularly referring to, so I can look them up on the internet?

I can definitely recommend Wallingford - much nicer than Didcot. 2 x good primary schools and good schools in the villages around. A good secondary school as well.