burnham,chippenham,maidenhead primary schools

[madhu13]

hello all,

we r looking to buy a house in the burnham,cippenham,maidenhead sort of areas..primary schools are the main priority...ideally schools with good ethnic diversity..

can anyone pls suggest

I live in Cippenham and my DD goes to Western House. It's a decent school, which had some leadership problems in the past but seems to be getting sorted now. All teachers my DD had were fantastic. It's a big school though, with all the pros and cons that might have. They have a dedicated PE and music teacher, and I think from Y3 they have a French teacher too (we're not there yet). It is quite ethnically diverse - quite an accurate reflection of Cippenham population, I suppose.
Cippenham Infants is supposed to be fantastic, but you definitely need to live in catchment to get that one. I don't know much about Cippenham Primary.
In the Burnham area I have friends with children at Our Lady of Peace and Lynch Hill, both with positive feedback.
About Maidenhead, I don't know about specific schools, but they seem to have a bit of a problem with places - or it might be that the people who don't get their choices are a bit louder and make the problem seem worse than it actually is. I would look into that if you end up choosing Maidenhead.

Hope this helps :)

Having lived in Cippenham and Maidenhead I'd def choose Maidenhead again, absolutely love the area. The schools in the area do seem quite ethnically diverse, although some more so than others.
There are some very strong schools in Maidenhead, but for most you do need to live right on the doorstep. We didn't look into it before moving but somehow by luck happened to be near the most popular at the time and it really is a fantastic school, both then and now. All of the schools which are rated highly by Ofsted are highly sought after in the town. A few to the North of the town/riverside normally have places, but don't seem as popular.

Lent Rise in Burnham is diverse.

thank you everyone....
getting a lil exhausted reading too many ofsted reports...and looking at properties

If your children are school age, you will need to look at which schools have vacancies. If they are nursery age, you have a bit of time but don't forget admission deadlines and read catchment area details very carefully. Other admissions info may be relevant if it is a faith school. Ofsted reports are not always up to date and teachers change so going on reports is not always the best measure for your needs. You may also want to know that Buckinghamshire is a grammar school county. All children can take the 11 plus. You may have views on that but it does alter the nature of schools in the secondary phase. I know Slough has grammars too and lots of Maidenhead children go to the grammar school in Marlow. Some parents choose where to live based on secondary education choices.

I would be looking at secondary schools rather than primary. And on that basis, move to Maidenhead rather than Cippenham or Burnham as it takes out out of the 11+ madness.

ALL the schools in that area are diverse.

I completely agree that, if this is a long term move, choose on secondary schools. None of the primaries are too bad (Oldfield has always had the best rep in Maidenhead, if you are Burnham side I would go St Nicholas Taplow).

However, you DO NOT want to end up with Burnham Upper (or whatever it is called now) as your only choice of Secondary.

my older one will start nursery this septemper...so got a little bit of time...
haven't given too much thought abt grammar schools...my idea was that u can always move then...probably should think about that again

I think it's Burnham Park Academy now, Sister.

There are 4 grammars in Slough but I think you have to opt in to take the test - I haven't given much thought about it myself as we are likely to relocate before DD goes to secondary. If selective is not your thing, Cippenham schools feed mostly to The Westgate, which has an outstanding Ofsted report and a good reputation, though, like I said, I haven't looked too much into secondaries so can't give a proper opinion.

St Nicolas Taplow, lots of parents then apply to Windsor and Maidenhead for secondary comprehensive school.

Hi

Wondering if you made a move to any of those areas as I'm quite in a similar position ?

Now I'm wondering who CheerfullyIndifferent is! Def look at secondaries rather than primaries and remember that school places are at a premium in Slough so you'll need to be close to the school of your choice and look closely at the admission criteria. It's not uncommon for children to be shunted off to a school that you didn't select on your form if you are too far away. Most schools are full and possibly operating on class sizes over 30. Just to confuse things Slough is one education authority, then there is South Bucks which covers Burnham both of which are primary systems

Posted too soon..

Maidenhead is part of the Royal Borough and also operates a primary system but is non selective (Slough and S. Bucks do the 11+ for grammar school entry). Windsor is also Royal Borough but operates a non selective middle school based system. Children go to any of those areas for schools and all are very diverse with it not being uncommon for over 20 different languages to be spoken in any one school

The grammar and primary admissions system is operated by Bucks County Council - not South Bucks District Council. Some primary schools may operate their own admissions policy but Bucks CC Schools Admissions web site will tell you which ones these are.

Bucks CC also has details regarding which schools have vacancies and in which year groups.

I've been through many discussions this morning on this forum. Extremely helpful but it's a lot to take in.

I am coming form Bromley that has excellent state schools and access to some super selective grammers.

Would you be able to recommend places in S Bucks/Slough that gives better value for money for houses but also good state primary and grammer options? I have a 4 year old to be starting school this sept and a dd aged 4 months

It's all fairly pricey I'm afraid - unless it's an area that's not so desirable which all areas have. In general I'd say Burnham / Maidenhead are more expensive than Slough.

If you're moving mid term then you will be at the mercy of spaces so it might be worth looking to see which schools have spaces at the moment - not that that's a gauruntee that they will have spaces later. Remember that the local authority only have to offer you one space in their area and it wont necessarily be close.

we are still looking..most of the houses which we can afford in maidenhead would be too small for us..our budget is around 450..
also the search is that much more difficult if we have to consider both primary and secondary

Mahdu
Did you find a place ? We are looking at cippenham if you know anything about it let us know

Would really love to know what you all decided in the end and in hindsight what you'll do differently? I'm tempted to DM you all. Lol! We're also looking to move to somewhere with good primaries and outstanding selective secondaries. Burnham is rated Good from 2008 or so. How is it doing now? Thanks.