Primary School advice needed. South Croydon area

[swilkinson]

Hi there,

I have a daughter due to start primary school in Sept 2015 and am already feeling quite overwhelmed by it all!

We live on St Augustines Avenue and our closest school is Purley Oaks which has consistently bad Ofsted reports - the last two reports were Satisfactory/ Requires Improvement.

Further afield are Christchurch, St Peters, Howard, Aerodrome and Ridgeway.

We plan to visit them all but I was wondering if anyone on here had any could provide any insight into any of the schools I've mentioned.

my daughter currently attends a Montessori Pre-School in the area (Lemon Tree) so I understand that Ridgeway would be best but I'm worried that we'll be out of their catchment area.

Also, can anyone tell me if you have to go to Church to be considered for s CofE school?

Thanks in advance x

Regarding your question regarding a C of E school.....

They may say on their web site, otherwise ask them (when you can, you may need to wait for term to start.) The rules vary from C of E school to C of E school, so you nedd to check with the particular one(s)

The OP of this thread is in your neck of the woods and is v opinionated about primary schools

Unhelpful, sorry.

St Peter's and Christchurch have different criteria. Church attendance doesn't matter for St Peter's but gives priority for Christchurch though surplus spaces then go in distance. You also have Regina Coeli (RC) nearby. Traditionally it is unlikely that Ridgeway would go as far as Brighton Road.

There are two pieces of information which you want to pin down to help identify which school options are open to you. Firstly many schools have taken in bulge classes in the last few years. This had a knock on impact in respect of the number of siblings in later years (and a 2 year gap is very common so watch out for bulge classes in 2013). School secretaries are a useful source of info on the number of siblings and also whether there is a chance that the school might have a bulge class in 2015.

If you visit the Croydon council offices you will be able to view the application map for each of your schools for the last 5 years. This is a map showing all applicants for the school and whether they were successful and if so at which stage (initial allocation, first reallocation, subsequent waiting list).

Thanks so much Ladymuck. I've signed up to the Good Schools Guide and can see where areas where successful applicants were from for each school.

We don't seem yo be in a great area here for schools and I feel so anxious that the closest school to us is so poor. If we could move before school applications we would but that's not possible.

You're in my neck of the woods OP. If you look at p.8 of the doc they sent out for this September's admissions it tells you the furthest child they admitted in 2013 which should give you a rough idea of catchments. Croydon Council document. I think you'd be too far for either St Peters or Christchurch (btw, St Peters is not a church school despite the name). However, there might be some movement in catchments when they open the new primary school on Haling Road (first intake Sept 2015?).

I think Purley Oaks may have a new head now. Schools can change fairly quickly under new leadership so the historic Ofsted reports may not be an accurate reflection of the current situation.

Sorry, didn't twig that you already had the catchment info!

You've had some great advice here.

Purely Oaks has a poor reputation but I know people who are very happy with it.

Ofsted reports don't give an accurate picture. I can think of one nearby school that was last inspected (outstanding) in 2008 and hasn't been inspected since. It had recently converted to an avcademy so won't be inspected until 2015 - and its had a new Head, Chair of Governors, Governing Board, almost totally new management team etc in that time.

I think you'll need to do the school tours to get a proper feel for the schools.

Worth trying asking on Mumsnet Croydon. Hope this link works

local.Mumsnet.com/croydon

As a Ridgeway mum, I know that kids from the Brighton Road area have got into the school in the past. Of course every year is different though.
Ridgeway has a very different approach to learning from most other schools in the area. If it's traditional education you're after, then it's probably not for you. Eg they don't have homework in the form of worksheets etc, but have weekly home learning - more of a project to be done often including research on a topic, or practical work, or art/craft based presentations. This can be hard if you have limited time to help your child. They also have reading and spellings each week. When my DCs started they didn't have a reading scheme but could choose any reading book they liked - this may have changed now. No work is ever marked by a teacher, but is assessed through discussion with the child/peer groups etc with suggestions on how to improve. I have become increasingly sceptical as to the extent of this occurring over the years I have been involved in the school.
That said it is a happy, friendly school. The kids seem to do fairly well, although I have my doubts over how much the brighter kids are stretched.
Definitely go and visit the school to get a feel for the place.

Have u thought about Regina ceoli? They have to take numbers based on distance. It's a good school with good results just the old management let it down. There is new Harris accademy near Whitgift. U need to put down your nearest school otherwise u will get any school that's left which could be miles away. My friend lives just of Brighton road near garage & got selsdon primary...

I know it's stressful I went through this last year.

LadyMuck how do you go about accessing the school maps at council? Need an appoinent etc?