Twickenham Primary Schools Advice

[Hmcx3]

Hello

I'm currently looking at primary schools for my DD who will be starting Reception in 2017 and I'm so confused - am hoping to get some friendly advice as we don't currently have many local friends in the area with school aged children. There is so much conflicting information about a number of schools in the area that DH and I are not sure which schools we should be considering. Our closest school is Heathfields Infant school and although it is rated as OFSTED 'Good' I haven't heard anything good about the school. The other schools are faith schools and although we are Catholic we aren't regulars at mass.

Can anyone shed some light on which schools are rated well in the area? We are also considering the new Twickenham Primary Academy near the green but given that it is fairly new there is very little information available on how the school is doing.

I'd really appreciate any advice from local mums if possible?

Thanks!

Realistically, a good place to start would be the allocations distances and maps on Richmond council's website so you can see which other schools, if any, you might be near enough to qualify for. Richmond schools are largely oversubscribed (though Heathfields and Twickenham don't seem to have been last year) so the number of schools you can realistically choose from is likely to be low I'm afraid.

We were offered GEMS Twickenham before we won the appeal we lodged for our first choice school - had we not have won I would've been happy to send my daughter to GEMS. It is really small and new (23 in a class) and we thought it seemed lovely

Thinking about it, there are quite a few faith schools in twickenham! And all outstanding if I'm not mistaken.

I don't know if you're close enough but Trafalgar is a good non-faith school. Also Stanley School

Have you been to look at them all. Someone I know rated Heathfield infants and thought the teaching was good. It does have a more mixed intake than most of Twickenham. If you look at there stats it does well by all its pupils including disadvantaged. Lots of the more middle class schools don't do wel by the disadvantaged. ???? Pointing to lots of tutoring going on.
Neighbours have just picked TPA over Archdeacon or Trafalger. Do check out St Edmunds too if christened and see how often you need to go to church. Sacred Heart in Teddington had spare places this year but it's a bit of a shlep and would mean less local friends.

Thanks so much everyone for your advice. We're going to have a look at about 12 primary schools in the next couple of months so that we have all the info we need before completing our application. Re Heathfields - OFSTED rates it as good but I haven't heard many positive things about the culture and reputation of the school unfortunately and it's really putting me off from adding it to our list even though it's our closest school!

Thanks again. Xx

I have first hand experience of Heathfield and think the teachers and head are very good. It does have a negative social side to it but its improving I think. Parents don't really engage with the school and a small minority can be quite negative about education in general.We eventually moved to Stanley but that was more to do with my son's needs. If he had a different personality (he's a follower) I would have left him there quite happily. When he moved over to Stanley he was was seen as being above average within his class so the teaching at Heathfield is great.

Catchment areas are quite small so if you live near Heathfield there is not much choice other than Faith schools and Nelson ( for which I don't hear good things about either but I don't have any experiences from there). Do have a look at Stanley - another big school but it has great extra curricula activities. The catchment last year was nearly 3000m which is almost double other years.

If you live very close to Bishop Perrin its worth looking at as the last few years have taken 1/2 non faith children due to low sibling places.

Do remember that its equal preference so you can put down any school in your preferred order. I would recommend putting Heathfield down somewhere though if its your nearest as I would prefer it to maybe Nelson or Crane Park.

Good luck.