South West Birmingham Primary Schools

[Purp1e]

Probably a bit premature but it comes round quickly, open days start in a few weeks.

DC will be starting primary school in 2020. I was wondering if anyone in south brum has any experience of the following schools.

In no particular order;

Our Lady and St Rose of Lima catholic primary
St Brigids catholic primary
Northfield Manor Primary
St Laurence Church Infant (and associated juniors)
The orchards primary
Proncethorpe Infants (and associated juniors)
Green Meadow Primary
Bellfield Infants (and associated juniors)
St Michaels CofE primary
Woodcock Hill primary

Just to add, we’re not religious, just looking at everything available to see what suits us so if anyone knows if we have a chance at the religious schools that would be brilliant

www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/find-a-school-in-england

That’s where you can compare schools. Also look at Ofsted reports. Look on the Local Authority to see what the admission policy is. If schools admit on distance, it’ll tell you from how far children were admitted in the recent years. For faith schools, you might need to look at their own websites. Generally, they prioritise regular churchgoers and you’re unlikely to get a place if it’s a sought after faith school.

Thank you for the point in the right direction.

Good webite for the data breakdown. I found some really useful info on the council website about how the places were allocated the last few years for all the schools except the faith schools. Definitely an information overload.

I think the majority of them will require a visit. Data can’t tell the stories of what it’s like day in day out. I had a look at some of the OFSTED reports. I was quite surprised at some of them considering I know at least one of the mentioned schools has a really good local reputation but after reading other threads I can see that I should take them with a pinch of salt.

I hear lots of good things abour green meadow and St laurence. Woodcock is our nearest and I don't hear much about it - take from that what you will. I wish we were in green meadow catchment!

Realistically, you can't be in the catchment for all of those, there is some distance between them.

@BackforGood I would have agreed with you as I just wrote a list of all the schools within a mile of the house. I was prepared to take a risk on one of them and then make the other 2 preferences more sensible if one of the further away ones suited us. However, looking at the admissions criteria’s and the figures for the cut off distances for the last three years (can’t speak for the faith schools) we would have got a place at all of them.

@ohmysoul it was green meadow I was meaning with the surprising OFSTED. I’ve not heard anything bad about it but OFSTED seem not to like it for reasons which I’ve not heard anyone complain about

I haven't looked at the OFSTED for Green Meadow so don't know what it says, but there's positives and negatives about most (all?) schools. Does depend, to some extent, what your dc is like and also, of course, what is important to you.

I have heard excellent things about St Laurence, but am not sure if church attendance is part of the admissions criteria?

Yes it is Changemyname

You even have to sign the register in the Church when you attend (if you are going to the Church just to get in).

You won’t get into St Laurence, or most of the religious schools, unless you have been going to church. I’ve not heard of anyone getting into St Laurence in normal admissions without church attendance.

Green Meadow was very well thought of but I’ve heard it’s gone down hill. That said, I know a teacher there and she is excellent. I also know of many children who are thriving there. Not sure what happened but Ofsted can be weird.

Northfield Manor used to be the school that everyone got allocated when they didn’t get into St Laurence or Green Meadow. But again, I know people are happy with it regardless.

In terms of the catchment distances, remember that they may include siblings or other children who meet criteria higher up the list. I know a LOT of people caught out with that this year in Bournville. They were all allocated Bournville School (different to the Infant and Junior school and much less desirable).