We've just moved to Petts Wood. Which 4 Primaries should I list on my in-year application form?

[notmydog]

Hi! Would really appreciate some advice. We've just moved back to England from South Africa. DD is 8 and due to be in Yr 3 now, Yr 4 from September. After a long struggle I managed to get hold of the LEA offices, where I've been told that there is a space for her at Crofton. We've managed to secure a rental on a flat and we will be able to move in next week. I need to put 4 schools on my application form, and I was thinking about Crofton, Southborough (equal distance from our home), Perry Hall and Princes Plain. I will try to visit each school early next week. In the mean time, it would be great to get some ideas and opinions from here. In her previous school DD did drama and piano lessons, she gets bored easily and needs to be challenged. Her English is excellent, although it is her second language. She is social and generally able to make friends easily. However, she is a sensitive child, which is my main reason for doubting Crofton, as this seems like a huge school. I'm also not able to get a feel for the school from the very impersonal website. I know it is silly to judge a school on its website, but the other 3 seem a bit more friendly in comparison! I'm also not sure what difference does being an Academy make to Crofton (I've been out of the country for 6 years and have missed the whole Academy palava).

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

My DD is starting Crofton in September and I was worried about the size at first but got a really good feeling from the school itself when I visited. Although I can only speak for the infants as we weren't shown round the juniors.

Southborough is smaller and when I went to visit it seemed OK, but the new Headmaster is not very impressive and they've had a very high staff turnover since he started.

Perry Hall is meant to be very good but not been there as we're out of catchment and Princess Plain is a quite a long way away ? I'm assuming distance doesn't matter so much for an in-year application.

Sorry, meant to add, that taking a rough guess at to whereabouts you'll be living, you'll find that all the children will go to Crofton or Southborough because you won't be in the catchments for the other schools. Don't know how important it is for you that your children live near their classmates? If you're not worried about that, have you considered Darrick Wood, again meant to be good but I didn't visit as we're out of catchment.

It was Crofton or nothing for us!

I live in a different area but Bromley Council is pushing all primary schools in its authority to become academies. So even if you have a non-Academy now it will be one in 1-2 years.

Are you Catholic? St James is excellent

Thank you so much Hapless! Yes, you do make a good point about friends in the area. I've just read the last Ofsted reports and I feel a bit better now as it does seem that pastoral care is good.

If your daughter is going into year 4, you also need to consider secondary schools too. Darrick Wood is an excellent school (there are two schools, a junior and secondary schoool) but the catchment is small so if you can ensure you are in that you should be ok. Many of those from the junior school go to the senior which makes the move to 'big' school much easier.

I agree with the psoter above that the new Head at Southborough has ruffled a few feathers and staff are unsettled.

Princes Plain is some distance away and has a larger than usual number of children with special educational needs which may or may not be a good thing for you.

If you are Catholic, St James's is excellent.

Everyone I know with children at Crofton, are very happy with it.

I think you really need to go to the schools before you make a decision, as I say, I only went to Crofton and Southborough because we're not in the catchment for any of the other good schools. We only really wanted Crofton but, historically, if we didn't get it we'd be given Southborough so wanted to make sure it was OK.

Having thought about it a bit more, if you're considering Princess Plain then I suspect you're further over than I first thought so I might be wrong about all the kids going to Crofton or Southborough.

If you have a look in this booklet, pages 40 and 41 give the catchments for the last three years and you'll get an idea where children from the area you're moving to are likely to go to school. (Sorry if I'm telling you stuff you already know.)