Bristol primary schools - Bishop Road, Cotham Gardens, Westbury Park

[Victoriawk]

Hello!

I'd love to hear some firsthand experiences from Bishop Road Primary School, Cotham Gardens Primary School , Westbury Park School and St John's.

Our son starts in 2022 and we're trying to work out the best options.

We're closer to Bishop Road, but we hear on the grapevine that it may be a little too academic at the expense of fun?

Thank you!

Victoria

No experience of any other than St Johns. I have a 8 and 5 year old here, always found it a brilliant school 🙂

All good schools. You need to visit them all really to see which feels right for your family.

The problem is not all schools are doing tours because of Covid. Bishop Road is currently saying it won't be doing any. It's very frustrating!

I feel pretty uncomfortable choosing a school without having been there in person.

Luckily Westbury Park, Cotham Gardens and Sefton Park are running tours, but I live closest to Bishop Road.

Have you looked at the distances to get in? Westbury park is often only about 400m so unlikely to be an option to you anyway.

Yes, I’ve got the data for the past seven years. The distance varies a lot, so we’d have got in half the time.

Bishop Road seems good. Don’t have anything to compare it to but our child in year 1 has lots of fun there. He’s bright, I think, but doesn’t seem to be pushed too much academically.

For me the most important thing about primary school was the network of other mums and dads. The close proximity of the school to where we lived meant playdates after school and other mums to do pick up when I couldn't etc. Those are all good schools so think about what is most important to you? academic standards? Active PTA? Extensive before and after school wrap around care?