Catholic primaries in notts

[benetint]

Hiya, I wondered if anyone knew anything about the catholic schools in nottingham? We've recently moved to basford but I don't know notts well. Thanks so much

Hi benetint. I've name changed for this post as I don't want to out myself as being in Nottingham.

Just wanted to warn you to put your catchment school as back up as I know a lot of people ended up with no school at all for September 2012 admission when they failed to do this (and then subsequently decided that maybe the catchment school wasn't so bad after all but found themselves 10th or so on the waiting list).

You would need to check the last distance offered very carefully for the catholic schools. I am aware of catholic children in Sherwood being unable to get places at St Marys for September 2012 admission when their parents had expected that they would. I don't know if they failed to check properly or if the last distance offered shrunk considerably from Sept 2011 admission.

My recollection is that the big increase in eastern european immigration started in 2007 so it figures that there might be an increase in school age catholic children from 2012 onwards.

Hi Benetint, a lot of the Catholic primaries -St Teresa's (Aspley),St Mary's (Hyson Green), Our Lady's (Bulwell) have joined with The Trinity School( Trinity being one of ,if not the best performing secondary school) to create an academy
School. Aside from that, I can't tell you much more!

Thank you both so much for your replies!

Hi Sherwoodmum, thanks so much for all your help, I really appreciate it, I have pm'ed you.

Thanks eyeshuttight, I've heard great things about Trinity. Has it always been really good? DCs would be going there in 7 years time.

I'll definitely put our catchment school down, I'd just heard great things about the catholic primaries.

How do people find out about last distance offered?

Many thanks

You need to email [email protected] for the city schools. Give them your address and ask them to give you your distance from the school and the last distance offered (and in which category this was) for each of the schools you are interested in. (I'm not certain if they hold this information for the catholic and academy schools but you might as well try them first.)

For the three nearest schools to me in Sherwood, the last category in which places were offered for September 2012 was the 'out of catchment attending nursery' one. (There has been some confusion over this category - nursery attendance won't guarantee a place as you will still be behind catchment children attending private nurseries or not at nursery at all, but it now seems to be your only chance of getting into a popular primary that you are not in catchment for even if you live right next door to it.)

Say that you know your catchment is X and that you will be putting this as one of your preferences, otherwise you will get a long and patronising email advising you to.

I'll reply to you PM later when I've got a bit more time.

Forgot to add:

The Going to School in Nottingham 2013/14 booklet will probably be put up on the City Council's website within the next week. (I think it has to be up by 1 September.) This doesn't give the last distance offered but it shows all the oversubscribed schools for September 2012 admission and what categories they offered places in.

This has been so useful Sherwood mum, I can't thank you enough.