Hillside primary and nursery thorpe,Norwich

[Haykrs]

Hi
We chose this above school due to the results and ofsted being good, proximity to home and mostly the community feel and holistic learning ethos.
1 year in and we are worried we have made a mistake and I've explored options to move my two girls age 3 and 5 but nowhere is available unless we go private which is too expensive.
I'm hoping someone who has a child in the upper years of the primary school can share positive experiences?

Some details on why we are worried: Decision to combine year groups in reception and yr 1, so our bright yr 1 daughter may end up being unchallenged in a large class and/or in a pastoral role (which she has enough of at home with a young sister)
Free range nursery with 40+ children on the roll where our 3yr old has so far been bullied by a troubled boy with no intervention until we raised it, and subsequently a SEN older child covered her mouth with his hand and told her to be quiet which terrified her. We didn't know the nursery was used for yr 6 SEN provision ad hoc. When we raised it and asked for policies we have been met with nothing useful and as this was late in summer term we have to send our 3 yr old back in with this unresolved.

Hi,

My friend has older kids at Hillside and they got on well, parents did mention you have to really fight to get answers/things followed up but once they do, things are sorted out well, so hopefully they can sort it out in the new term.

We chose St Williams just up the road and they have been absolutely fantastic, they are normally full but worth asking the office if they can contact you if a space comes up?

We moved to the area for a year 2 start and they had one space so you might get lucky, the office were brilliant with setting everything up and ensuring we knew everything we needed to.

They've always gone above and beyond for my little one whos now going into year 5, they have a nursery attached to the school which we didn't use but I've heard is good.

Thank you for taking the time to reply :)

How did your little one get on changing schools at yr2? We are also nervous of causing any disruption if we moved.

We will probably push for answers in the new term, and see how the combined yr group experiment goes.

Such a tricky balance between wanting them to get a great education but not unnecessarily causing them stress with moving schools.

If we can sort out what I see as a safeguarding issue in the nursery that will be the main issue resolved for now.

Good to hear you know someone whose children did OK at Hillside

Little one settled into new school brilliantly, best thing we ever did was move them.

We were Norfolk based before we moved, so it wasnt a massive upheaval in terms of not having family or other friends about for them.

I had so many sleepless nights on if it was the right decision for them or not (as we could have stayed at the old school, with a much longer commute but it wasnt a great school anyway and we had a few issues) but settled so quick and has a lovely set of friends.

Parents were all so welcoming as well and included us on group meet ups ect so it was a very easy transition.