Moving to Exeter and missed application deadline! Help!

[JM376]

Hi all,

We are moving to Exeter from Kent, which has happened very suddenly!

my little boy is in pre-school at the moment and due to start primary in September. I’m heartbroken to be leaving his school here and am getting very stressed about finding him a pre-school/primary school in Exeter, especially as we have missed the application deadline.

We will be living in Broadclyst, and was very excited at first as the school there is supposed to be great, but have since learnt that he is number 22 on the waiting list for the nursery and probably similar for school.

has anybody got any advice for other schools/pre-schools/nurseries in the area?

im going to call and hopefully look around St Martin’s, Rockbeare and Pinhoe. Does anybody have any experience with these schools?

thanks

Broadclyst/West Clyst/Monkerton are all part of the same Trust and are massively oversubscribed to the huge amout of houses being built north of Pinhoe.

Where will you and your DP be working? All three schools are good as far as I am aware. You will pass Pinhoe school on the way into Exeter if you are commuting that was. St Martins is by Cranbrook which is a town outside of Exeter. If you are commuting into Exeter each day you will be driving for miles out of your way. Rockbeare is a village school so is much smaller than the other two and is past Cranbrook so would be the most difficult to get to if you are commuting into Exeter.

Thanks so much for your reply!

My partner is a builder, so all
over the place and I’m a full time mum at the moment, so I guess that’s quite lucky as we can go against the commute. We’re coming down for the week this week to look around Pinhoe, St Martin’s and Rockbeare (Broadclyst don’t do tours). I’m hoping that we like one of them, although as you said they are all over subscribed and they have all pretty much told us that we can look around but they won’t necessarily have space. Although Rockbeare were so lovely on the phone and it sounded like they may have space.

You’d think they would have to build more schools to cope with the extra housing… madness! 🤷‍♀️

I think it’s going to be a case of applying and just seeing what we’re offered. Not the way I imagined my little boy starting school, but hey, let’s see what happens!

I know people who live in Broadclyst and they are happy there. Whilst primary may be tricky you should be on the door step of a good secondary school (Clyst Vale CC). Since you are a SAHM you have the option of looking at village schools and there are some lovely ones. ,

https://www.devon.gov.uk/educationandfamilies/school-information/apply-for-a-school-place/apply-for-a-primary-school-place/ Have you had a look at the allocations from last year.

Village schools often admit over PAN if they can accommodate as they tend to have a PAN or 10/12/15, etc rather than 30.

You could look at Cranbrook which is an all through school or look at other village schools like Stoke Canon if you fancy a village school.