Schools in the UK

[user1482278771]

Greetings all!
My apologies in advance for my lack of knowledge on the subject. We are Americans and will be moving to the UK in late 2017. We have the option of living anywhere there, so any advice would be greatly appreciated.
We are searching for cities that have good schools that are not oversubscribed. We also prefer Christian faith (state?) schools if this is possible, Catholic, C of E, etc, all of which would be fine. We prefer to have prayer included in school as well as mass or service, but again, I am not sure how this works over there. Here in the US, we have to pay for a Christian (private) school. I understand religion is taught in most if not all schools within the UK...?
Also, we will be without a vehicle, for the safety of mankind :) So any place that has good transport, buses are fine, and/or walking distance to schools, shops, etc. Nothing rural. (Have I eliminated all choices here? :) Scotland, Wales, England, we are open to all. We would just like to be able for our children to attend a school where the student:teacher ratio isn't astronomical and where we don't have to fight for a spot just to attend. Thank you so much!!

Depends how old your dc are, but in England unless you can apply at a standard entry point ie. Age 4, sometimes 7, 11 or 16 you probably won't have a free choice of school anywhere, religious or otherwise. School year runs 1st Sept to 30th August). Under age 7 (year 2, equivalent to US Grade 1) class sizes are legally restricted to less than 30 and may have teacher plus teaching assistant.

There isn't a UK education system.

Scotland has a different education system, exams taken are different and so are ages for going to high school and to uni.

Many primary schools in Wales teach in Welsh - do you want your children to be bilingual?

From this point onwards I'm talking about England.

By law all state schools have to have a daily act of worship that is broadly Christian. Schools can ask for an exemption but it is usually Jewish or Muslim schools who, understandably, ask for this.

Many schools, particularly at high school level, ignore the rules. Some will say a prayer before lunch that is basically 'thank you for the food God'.

At the other end of the scale the RC schools might pray 3 times a day, have mass once a week, teach RE every day and relate other lessons to RC 'values'.

Again by law children have to learn about at least one other faith, this can vary a lot in the teaching. Some schools teach about all faiths, some only teach about one other.

You don't say your children's ages but in an RC school they would be expected to prepare for first communion and confirmation. Would you be happy with that? If not and your child was the only one not preparing would they be happy?

How long are you intending to stay in the UK? Is it a permanent move? What do you want from high school?

Parts of England have the 'grammar system' - basically children sit an exam at age 11 and if they pass go to a grammar school, those that don't go to a secondary modern or a comprehensive. Comprehensives take children of all abilities, but in an area with grammar schools they obviously take the ones who didn't pass the test.

Some areas do not have any grammar schools, all children go to comprehensives and yet more areas have a mixture of grammar and comps. Birmingham has grammar schools as well as comprehensive schools but not all children take the 11 plus exam and some of those attending grammar schools are bussed in from other areas.

Some high schools have specific feeder schools so children for the feeder are almost guaranteed a place in the specific school while children from other schools are not.

Feeders are not always close to the high school. I went to an RC school, since leaving it has merged with another RC school. It has feeder schools who are given priority in the admissions process. One of the feeder schools is in another town that doesn't have an RC high school, this means children 8 miles from the school have priority over a child living in the same street as the school but attending a non feeder primary.

If u chose Scotland you would likely get into a school without all the fuss that you would have in parts of England. There are some very well regarde Catholic state schools (but no CofE). At secondary level St Ninians in Glasgow is v well regarded. Though I'm not sure about capacity. St Modans in Stirling is also good again this is a secondary school. If you aren't driving then Edinburgh
of Glasgow would be your best bet.

I'd go for a more rural area in Kent as the schools will not be necessarily full or oversubscribed, can still have good commuting and transport links, and we have the grammar system and some of the best state secondary schools and primary schools in the country. Also there are quite a number of RC and C of E schools.

And the house prices are not as ridiculous as in other home counties.

Catholic schools in our area (Surrey) have recently expanded their intake at 4 due to increased demand from incoming Polish and Eastern European families, which has meant the oversubscribed interdenominational secondary is also permanently adding a class. However in practice they are now accepting more non religious based applications at infants to fill places.

Please be aware that "Baptist" in the UK is not at all like "Baptist" in the US! Full immersion baptism being about the only shared aspect.
Is "non-denominational" like Methodist, Moravian, Lutheran churches, or is it the US Protestant church? Sorry for ignorance there.

There are good schools in cities with ratios lower than 30:1. DS's school city centre, Edinburgh. 24 children in the class, no teaching assistant. great school, not religious though.

In Scotland your children will get a place at the school whose catchment area you live in, but depending at what point in the school year you move, if the school if full you might have to wait for the place and you'll be offered an alternative in the meantime. If you're smart you'll identify a school with a place that you are happy with in the meantime rather than wait and see what the council offer you. Some parents find that by the time the catchment place comes up the kids are settled where they are and they don't take the catchment school place.

There are catchment maps for Scottish schools on-line, look at council websites. Some property websites (think www.espc.com) have an option to search by school catchment, and the listing will tell you the catchment even if you search by other options.

Be warned: if they are not entering primary 1, there may not be spaces for them even if you move int the catchment area.

Hello. Catholic schools will generally only take children who are baptised Catholics. C of E schools are not usually so strict. Some have entrance requirements others just serve their local communities and how religious they are is variable. The C of E want to be more inclusive so there has been a move away from requiring church attendance etc. Class sizes are generally the same in all schools unless they are undersubscribed because people see them as poor or they are very rural. 1:30 does sound a lot but the teacher will generally have assistants helping out. Halifax have just conducted a survey of the best places to live in the U.K. So maybe that will give you some inspiration.

www.google.co.uk/amp/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/38351138?client=safari

My non Catholic children go to an excellent Catholic primary. Class ratio is 1:20 plus 2 TAs. The proportion of Catholic children at the school is just under 50pc.
However, it's in a village!
20-30 mins to 2 cities though.

Many religious state schools will also have community places available to non baptised/practicing children.

You don't express a preference for any of the home nations that make up the UK.

There are different school admissions arrangements in each.

You might find Scotland is the one for you, as you are guaranteed a spot in your catchment school, but can also apply for a catholic one or other non-catchment one (a placing request) which you might or might not get depending on numbers.

Does it have to be a city??
We live in a medium sized town called southport. In my opinion it's amazing for children!!
Parks, a boating lake, beaches, decent schools (faith and non faith) lots of young families and house prices are pretty decent too!!

I wouldn't worry about 30 kids in a class - most infant classes have a full time teaching assistant and other assistants in older classes.
In England, priority for school places is done on categories and then distance to school within each category. Siblings of a child in the school will be practically at the top of the list, so if your children are in different schools then you have a good chance of uniting them soon. Next category, for Catholic schools, would be to have attended mass at least fortnightly for at least 2 years and have a letter saying so from your priest .(exact time and frequency may vary). Next category down which may not be reached, would be children baptised Catholic, often by 6 months. So if your child isn't baptised Catholic, then you'd only get into a Catholic scjool if they have spaces in the bottom category "non-Catholic children".

For CofE schools it's similar - siblings, then for half or more places, having attended a 'qualifying church' which is any vaguely mainstream one, usually defined as a member of Churches Together or the Evangelical Alliance, at least fortnightly for around two years. Then any baptised Christian, then everyone else.

Details vary, but that's why picking a Catholic school is unlikely to be an option for you.

Most C of E schools do not select on religious grounds. They are either voluntary controlled and have the same admissions criteria as the community schools or they are voluntary aided which means that they may put in a worshipping criteria. I have been a governor in two VA C of E schools and neither have an requirement to attend church.

There are some parts of London where the good and outstanding schools are all VA C of E or RC but London house prices may mean that this is of academic interest anyway.

There are lots of nice places to live in the UK. The difficulty with moving here is that unless your children are preschool they are an in year admission and the good schools are full. This could mean going private and the good ones may also be full.

Google nice places to live and start looking at house prices, rail links and schools. Winchester often comes out as one of the nicest places to live.

Mummyamy123 Wed 21-Dec-16 09:20:10 Does it have to be a city??
We live in a medium sized town called southport.

Used to be a really easy train journey into the centre of Liverpool too (haven't done the journey for some years so advise you check this is still the case).

Schools with smaller class sizes are often either rural and therefore there are fewer children around to attend or in more deprived areas. This is because children whose parents are in receipt of certain benefits attract pupil premium funding for the school which means the school is more likely to be able to fund the staffing for lower ratios. C of E and Catholic schools sometimes have a bigger catchment area than others as (especially in the case of Catholic schools) they look to accommodate all practising children in an area. If they are good they are likely to be over-subscribed, not least because attending catholic primary school opens the door to often high performing catholic secondary schools.

I would advise you to take a serious look at the secondary schools in an area as many areas have good primaries which feed into much less good secondaries. Google Ofsted and read the inspection reports for both primary and secondary schools in any area you consider. Anything rated 3 (requires improvement) or 4 (inadequate) should be considered carefully as it could seriously restrict your child's future progress.

Alton, Hampshire. Lots of good schools. One C of E. State schools have criteria as to who is admitted. Usually those who live closest get in first, then those with a sibling in school, religion as a criteria comes bottom of the list mostly even for C of E schools (but there are exceptions where it is higher criteria).

In Scotland, you have a catchment non-denominational school and a catchment catholic school. You don't need to be Catholic (or any religion) to go to the Catholic one. Also, class sizes are capped for the early years of primary.

How is it that you can move anywhere at all in the UK OP? What jobs do you do? I'd recommend cities in SW England including Bath and Bristol especially if you won't have a car but school places don't keep up with birth rate so all schools are potentially oversubscribed. Look at the in year admissions process on the local council websites for an idea of how to apply.

Is "non-denominational" like Methodist, Moravian, Lutheran churches, or is it the US Protestant church?

Non-denominational is completely independent and very evangelical.
You will find UK church schools extremely liberal, OP.

Unless you are going to be in the UK for a very short time, and you're natural city dwellers not used to driving in the US (e.g. from NYC) I'd recommend reconsidering the not driving aspect. You may not want to commute by car/drive to school but you'd find it a bit limiting for days out, transporting furniture, children's activities even in larger cities.

Most UK families would be much more used to public transport - what might seem like an adventure, and the scary aspects of driving on the "wrong" side, will just seem boring (and the driving side will seem normal) after a few months. I get you might not want to be rural, but apart from very large cities (and really, mainly, London) most people would find having access to a car quite helpful.

I also don't get how you can be moving country but still be able to work anywhere. Is it a transfer, but you/DP can work from home? Or applying for a job e.g. with something national like the NHS? Or will you/DP be running your own business/working freelance from home but just have decided you prefer to live in the UK?

You don't have to be baptised or practising to go to a Scottish RC school. I moved from England to Scotland as a child and my local RC school accepted me and sibling with no issues.

Scottish class sizes are limited so our class sizes are smaller than in England. Our children also stay in primary school for 7 years before moving to high school whereas in England children are only in primary until year 6 and their year 7 is their first year of high school. So if you feel your children would benefit from being in a primary environment for an extra year with the move then Scotland is where you want to be.

I think you need to decide first of all which country in the UK you want to move to based on the school situation (as that seems to be the most important to you)m once you have decided on England, Scotland Wales, Ireland etc then you can get more detailed advice about which area would be worth looking at.

Also house prices in England are generally higher than most places in Scotland.

English primary is from Reception to y6 , so still 7 years, with transfer to secondary at 11, unless a junior/middle school system of which relatively few remain.