Harpenden primaries and pre-schools

[Whirlwind79]

Hi

I posted this on MN local but haven't had any replies, so thought I'd try this too. We're looking to move to Harpenden from London and I have a load of questions! We'd be looking to move near Roundwood, on the more central side so that we could be within walking distance of the station.

• I understand that 2 out of the last 6 yrs, the max distance of place offered for Roundwood Primary has been below 500m. We've seen a couple of houses we like, but both are more like 600m away. I know the coming year has a load of siblings taking up most of the places at Roundwood, so perhaps it's just a one off, but does anyone know if there is a problem now in Harpenden getting into the good state primaries and having to live on top of them like you do in London? From what I've read, Manland, Crabtree and a few others suffer from the same problem.

• where do the children who don't get their 1st choice typically end up? We'd be way too far from Wood End and any of the other central and Outstanding-rated schools.

• I've read lots of mixed reviews about The Lea and Sauncey Wood, but the threads were 3-4yrs old so does anyone have any up to date views? Am I right in thinking that's where you tend to get offered a space if you don't get your 1st choice?

• as back up options, I guess we'd have to go with St Hilda's (we have 2 girls) and/or St Nicholas. I'd be interested in any view on those, as I haven't found much on MN and the schools aren't very easy to visit. How religious is St Nicholas? I know church attendance is required to get in, but how much religion is worked into the syllabus? What is St Hilda's like?

• for the time being I'd be looking at pre-schools. My eldest will be 3 in September so can't go to any of the nurseries attached to schools till Sept 2015. Can anyone recommend any good pre-schools in the area? So far I've found a lot of day care options but no pre-schools in the immediate area (eg Batford Nursery would be a drive away).

Answers to any (or all!) of these questions would be really helpful.
Thanks

Only in Harpenden would you find a school like The Grove which has an Outstanding graded Infant school and a good with outstanding features Junior school, being described as having a Ofsted report which was average at best!

Gosh Roundwood were splitting classes in that way in the 1970s!!!

Back then it was split on ability/age.

I believe the Harpenden schools have collectively agreed to split classes according to age, not ability. They have 2 different topic banks for each year, ensuring that dcs don't go over the same material twice. On each topic they plan work for the different ability groups within the class. While I'd prefer my dcs were in a single year group from a friendship point of view, the academic side worked well enough. The Lea has a great reputation for special needs, small classes and a really caring ethos. All the Harpenden schools perform well, have high expectation of the dcs but also of the parents!
Bear in mind, the great Sats results are not just about good teaching, lots of tutoring goes on for the Sats, parents do lots of work with their dcs, dcs feel under pressure to perform, failing is not cool, it's that kind of town.

Our close friends have four children at The Grove and they rate it very highly. Their children have thrived there and are doing very well. They find it a friendly school with approachable head/teachers. Friends dd2 (Y2) is very intelligent but struggles a little socially, she has thrived. Also their ds2 (YR) has some physical SEN and again these have been dealth with really well.

A little dismayed by some of the negativity on here with regard to some of these schools. The 'Lea' being a case in point. This school scored solid 2's (good) across the board in it's December 2012 inspection, which we need to remind ourselves was under the new more stringent OFSTED criteria. Good, means exactly what it seems to mean, your children will get a good education at this school, its working well. There are things which OFSTED might think can be done better (it's quite possible you wouldn't think these things are very important) and the school will be engaged in an on-going process of reflection and self-improvement. Other highly recommended schools havent been inspected for a long time and so the judgements need to be treated with some caution.

So how do we arrive at comments such as 'I don't really rate this school' or the spurious pecking order (based on what?). There's nothing wrong with coming to a view but I think negative comments, especially when based on nothing more than gossip, hearsay and what I suspect is good old fashioned bigotry shouldn't be shared in a public forum. By all means be a champion of a school you have some connection with but never turn your support of that school into an unnecessary and damaging competition.

Whirlwind79 did you move to Harpenden? I am moving from London beginning of May, and was wondering how you have found Harpenden life?x