St Elizabeth primary school in Richmond

[RTwins20]

Hello Parents,

After some research and visiting lots of schools in Richmond I fell in love with st Elizabeth primary school. Positives for me are: one form entry so felt small and nurturing, the headteacher appeared to be very progressive in developing new teaching styles to encourage love for learning, headteacher wasn't overtly against tutoring (understood that what many parents have to do to get their children in Grammar or private secondary schools). Felt like exclusive. Nice mix of children of different ethnicities.

Would love to connect with any parents who send their kids to this school as I would like some insight on what they think of the community is like, what background are many of the parents from. What plans they have for secondary school transfer. It seems Richmond has plenty of great primary schools but a few secondary schools. Have you had to tutor in order to get your kids into Grammar or private secondary ?

Many thanks,

I don't know about St Elizabeth's but your idea of secondary schooling in Richmond is not really right. They are mostly excellent. If you live near St Elizabeth's, you would be near Christ's also which is a pretty decent secondary (I know lots of children who are there and loving it, or have been there and done really well). If you are thinking of private for secondary, it's totally down to how bright your child is which is hard to be sure about if your child has not yet started school, though there are a number of less selective schools in the local area.

My daughter went to one of the least sought after primary schools in Richmond, which was a really good school for her and fitted her personality and needs at the time and got into two very selective secondaries (one private, one state) with very little tutoring - about six months of fairly low key stuff. An hour a week, term time only, purely focused on exam technique. So I would not be starting to think about tutoring in Reception, personally!

St Elizabeth’s always thrashed our Richmond primary in the borough swimming galas ! It’s a very good school as are many in the borough . f It is Catholic, though and oversubscribed - would your child meet the admissions criteria?

For secondary : If you are Catholic and your DC is a girl, Gumley House is a popular choice at secondary for local parents - it’s Isleworth so technically Hounslow borough but their catchment seems quite wide. Non selective. Also, if a girl, the excellent Waldegrave School for Girls ( not a faith school ) - a complicated admissions criteria but non selective. There is a new Catholic secondary in Twickenham as well. Grey Court yo-yos up and down but I haven’t heard particularly positive things about it recently ( from someone who did placements there)

For private,you won’t need to tutor for St Catherine’s ( catholic girl’s) or Radnor House, will for Hampton ( boys), Putney High ( Girls) Lady Eleanor Holles and considerably less than the tutoring outfits will suggest for the selective and highly competitive to get in Tiffin ( some getting used to it practices a few months out - intensive tutoring for there together is not a good idea as classes are large and pupils need to be able to keep up naturally) Not sure about Ibstock now. Children from Richmond borough secondaries zig zag all over the place for secondary so don’t look only in the immediate vicinity.

I don't think Ibstock is very hard to get into judging by the child from my daughter's class who is now there, and that child seems happy.

Grey Court is pretty good and I know lots of children who are there or have recently been there and loved it and did really well in terms of getting to the next place they wanted to be and in terms of raw results.