Anyone know Epsom Primary School?

[Jazzyjo]

Hi,

We're moving from North London to South Cheam/Ewell in Surrey this summer. Only recently found our house and consequently applied very late for a place in a reception class in both Sutton and Surrey schools. Unsurprisingly we haven't got a place at any of the schools we applied for, but Surrey have offered a place at Epsom Primary School. It sounds like a nice school from the website and Ofsted report and we're due to visit soon, but I wondered if anyone with local knowledge knew anything about it?

Cheers.

Sadly, it is not a popular choice due to the fact that it isn't like the other surrounding schools with high white, British family intake (eek - don't quite know how to put this nicely) and is also a feeder school for the nearby Longmead Estate.

The school is really not bad. A lot of mums who used the pre-school facilities had nothing but good reports about the EYF teachers and it has had a massive injection of cash (sure-start centre on property) so I don't think it deserves the reputation it has.

Local gossip has it that the LEA is planning on moving a bulge class from the top rated Epsom infant/primary school to this school ...

There are also huge expensive housing estates being built in the area and the nearby schoos are heavily oversubscribed.

My DD did a month there before moving to another nearby primary (nearer to us) as we did exactly the same thing last year - moved on August 25th!

It has a poor rep locally, but I was pleasantly surprised; the teachers were lovely and the school is coming up rapidly, thanks to a fantastic head teacher. It is much more culturally diverse than other schools around Epsom; it has something like 30-40% children with english as a second language, for example, there is a high intake of portuguese speaking children.

We got into our preferred school within a month of DD starting, so there is some movement in waiting lists as well if you want to go on them.

Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated.