Teddington / St. Margarets - Primary schools

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Hello all.

We wonder if you can help us with some advice. We absolutely love Teddington and St. Margarets. We have to say that Teddington takes our preference as it has that villagey feel to it. However, St. Margarets is a better location in terms of transport links. We both will have to commute to the city.

We are moving to the area in the next few months. Unfortunately, due to COVOD-19, school tours are not taking place at the moment, and they will re-open in September, by when we will be already in the area. But we would like to move closer to the school that we choose.

The schools we wanted to visit are listed below.

1. Collis Primary School
2. Deer Park School
3. Orleans Primary School
4. The Vineyard School
5. Marshgate Primary School
6. Twickenham Primary Academy
7. St Mary's Church of England Primary School
8. St Richard Reynolds Catholic Primary School
9. St Mary’s and St Peter’s Church of England Primary School
10. St James’s Roman Catholic Primary School

I would like to know your views on any of these schools or any other if we missed one. Which one do you prefer? Any advantages? Disadvantages?

Our plan is to send our little one to a private secondary school. So, the academic records are quite important for us, but also the after-school activities and clubs.

Many thanks

Collis Primary School -popular school and you’ll need to live very near to get in catchment
2.Deer Park School - don’t know about it sorry
3.Orleans Primary School - as Collins. Popular local small school so again, check their catchment as some years it’s crazy small
4.The Vineyard School - amazing school so I hear
5.Marshgate Primary School - dont know
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6.Twickenham Primary Academy
7.St Mary's Church of England Primary School - good school but quite big and not much space until main junior school
8.St Richard Reynolds Catholic Primary School - good primary but secondary has been disappointing
9.St Mary’s and St Peter’s Church of England Primary School - lots of happy parents and kids
10.St James’s Roman Catholic Primary School - no chance unless you have the signed letter from a priest for regular church attendance for the last 2 years

Hope that helps a bit

Hello @After8itsgrownuptime,

Thank you so much for taking the time to give me your feedback. It is great to have a view of a local parent!

From your point of view and/or experience, which would be your top 3 schools in terms of academic records, and after-school clubs?

Many thanks

I don’t know all of them but collis has extensive extra curricular and wrap around care - I have lots of friends there and all happy and ditto Orleans and at Marys in twickenham.
People literally kill themselves to get in to vineyard but it’s in Richmond hill so it’s big money to get a house in catchment so budget might factor in to this choice. Orleans and st Marys in twickenham would be my next choices. we were offered a place at St Marys, but had already lined up a private school as we didn’t think we would be in catchment . All 3 are good schools so really it’s down to area. We went for twickenham for the fast train service in to London as we both commute

St Mary’s Twick is excellent, I’ve had the odd minor gripe but would have done at any school. A lovely warm and caring atmosphere but still gets impressive academic results. Fantastic focus on mental health.
The three-site thing is a pain in some respects, eg if you’re doing the school run with siblings, but it does mean it’s not as overwhelming as some schools of its size. On a pp’s comment, the middle site is big too, I’d say it’s only the infant site that’s a bit squished but then it also has the smallest children. After-school activity offering not hugely extensive (possibly better if your children are sportier than mine tho). We’ve been very happy with it; weren’t quite in the catchment for Orleans and that didn’t seem as friendly when I looked round (this was several years ago).

I’ve been happy with SRRCC as a secondary. One just leaving year 11 and one in year 8. We didn’t do primary there as already elsewhere.

Primary is only 1 form intake, some church places, some community.

St James’ very hard to get into, we live in one of the parishes in catchment but didn’t get in.

For the church schools, consider if you will meet the criteria for admissions.

Hello @@After8itsgrownuptime,

Many thanks for taking the time to reply to me. It all very useful. We may aim for Collis then as we love Teddington.

Kind regards

Thank you @Ktay!
For St Mary’s Twick, I wonder if you know what is the minimum amount of time that you need to attend to St Mary’s Church or to live within the Parish Boundary to apply for a Foundation place?
I would love our little one to take music classes and languages classes. Dad would love him to be in tennis, football, rugby, etc. But I guess we will see how he actually enjoys!
Interesting to hear that feedback about Orleans. Visits are so important! Many people seem to love Orleans.

Many thanks!

Thank you @AuditAngel!

In the SRRCC website states that one needs to attend Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation for at least five years for church places. However, some places are allocated to kids with certificate of baptism. How difficult do you think is to get a place if one has the certificate of baptism?

Many thanks

The Vineyard and Marshgate are in Richmond and you won't stand a chance of getting into either from Teddington or St Margaret's.

St Mary's and St Peter's is a brilliant school. You don't have to be churchy to go there but it has a nice Christian ethos about it, as do all the schools in the area imo. It has a lot of outdoor space and the actual school itself is modern and spacious. Collis is THE school in Teddington that everyone wants to send their DC too but honestly they are all good. I tutor a lot of DC and I don't notice any difference between them.

For the 2 catholic schools, you do have to have letters from priest saying you attend mass regularly as far as I know. I agree about the pp's commments above about SRR secondary school, so worth considering as it is feeder school/obvious secondary school choice.

A lot of people are very happy with the Deer Park School which is relatively new. I've tutored a few DC who go there though and the parents haven't been happy, which is obviously just a small %

Thank you @senden84! Very valuable comments. It is great to know that you are a tutor and you don't notice any difference between them.

I imagine Deer Park School will have fantastic spaces and infrastructure as is newly built. But it is even more important the academia side of things and extra-curriculum activities.

I don’t know much about the criteria for foundation places I’m afraid, I don’t think they account for that many of the overall intake each year.

I wouldn’t want to put you off Orleans, the tour I did was 7 years ago and the head teacher and some of her colleagues might have been having a bad day!

Can I ask what people have found disappointing about SRR secondary? Looking at secondaries for my son as we speak...

Thank you @Ktay! It is always good to hear different opinions tho. I truly appreciate it.

If you are considering as far as Marshgate, you can add Holy Trinity CoE and St Elizabeth's Catholic, both excellent schools but all in Richmond side so you would have to look into Sheen/Mortlake plus the religious criteria to have a chance.

Hello @Stilllookingfor. Thank you for the suggestions, I will add them to my list :-)

How is Sheen? I understand Mortlake is a nice area, but Sheen is not as nice?

Many thanks

Sheen is fine, just south of Mortlake, perhaps less well connected in terms of transport so depends on your work etc.. You are closer to the Richmond Park which is an advantage. If you consider Sheen, also add Sheen Mount School, which would be top in my list in the area.

We got an offer from St. Marys twickenham just by being in catchment . We didn’t step foot near the church so if you can get a house near the main gates, you can get in that way

Hello @Stilllookingfor, thank you so much for your comments!

Hello @After8itsgrownuptime! That's great to know ;-) Thank you!

St M in Twickenham has had a lot of bad press in the last couple of years ( e.g. www.thetimes.co.uk/article/t-mary-s-church-of-england-primary-punishes-parents-who-complain-nz9sczqh7) The Ofsted rating is over 9 years old! A lot of families have left the school, and indeed so have nearly all the good teachers since the current head arrived a few years ago.

None of the neighbouring schools have any vacancies. St. M has quite a few.

Orleans is a lovely school, but filling up with children leaving St. M so very difficult to get a place there.

Gems Twickenham Primary Academy is a fairly new school and it getting very hard to get into. It is kind, nurturing, happy, and academic. But the sight is very small and the playground is a bit crowded.