Deer Park, Orleans, Marshgate, Vineyard & Russell – any recent views? 2026 intake, would love parent feedback!

[mikesamuel]

Hi all,
We’re starting to look at primary schools for the September 2026 intake and would really appreciate any local experiences or opinions. We’re focusing on schools in the Richmond/Twickenham area, and our current list is:

• Deer Park School
• Orleans Primary
• Marshgate Primary
• The Vineyard
• Russell Primary

We’ve now toured Deer Park, The Vineyard, and Russell.

Deer Park:
Academically it seems very strong (KS2 results look excellent), though the last full Ofsted was in 2018 so I’m not sure how current that picture is. Would love to hear from any current parents about the leadership, teaching quality, and general feel of the school today.

The Vineyard:
Lovely location and great facilities. However, the tour felt a bit poorly organised, and the headteacher didn’t come across as especially confident — the presentation didn’t have much weight. Could just have been an off day, so I’d really appreciate recent experiences from parents or other prospective families.

Russell Primary:
Beautiful setting with a great outdoor space and a really nice feel overall. My only concern is the low pupil numbers and what that might mean for the school’s budget and long-term sustainability. If anyone has insights on how they’re managing this or whether it’s impacting the school day-to-day, I’d love to hear them.

We haven’t yet visited Orleans or Marshgate — any thoughts on what stands out about those two?

Any experiences (positive or negative), recent impressions, or things you think we should be aware of would be hugely appreciated!

Thanks so much.

As they are state schools I would look at the distance they have places available to, whilst it’s possible to go to a school that’s not the closest, be realistic and look at ones you are likely to get places at

thanks! They all seem to be within our catchment, at least according to last year's results. Especially given not all of them were oversubscribed.

Vineyard School have lots of sports and music support, lots of after school language clubs. If your kids love sports, it’s a great school. Also kids can learn piano, instruments inside. I heard about lots of parents wasn’t impressive about head. Not sure the reasons.

thanks! we liked the school overall but were not impressed by headteacher which was our main concern.

I do not recommend Vineyard School. It is a school where there is a lot of peer bullying, and neither the administration nor the teachers deal with the issue or provide solutions. You can hear this from many people.