Teddington School

[ZellyTBaby]

Hi there, this is my first post on here :)
My son is currently in year 6 of St John's C of E in Kingston & I have just completed the online application form for secondary school.
I have put down Teddington as first choice,
followed by Hollyfield then Southborough.
I don't hold out any hope really of my son
being offered a place at Teddington but
wanted to try anyway.
Realistically, does anybody know what his
chances of getting in really are?
We live in KT1. Thanks :)

Virtually zero unless your son is in a linked school AFAIK take a look at the Richmond secondary schools booklet and it should tell you how many offers were made last year from nonlinked schools.

Any reason why you prefer it to Hollyfield- a lot of KT3 mums want their boys going there and are out of catchment!!

If it is St John The Baptist school in Hampton Wick then it is a linked school and you should get in. KT1 is a wide postal area and takes in both Kingston and Hampton Wick, and they are sometimes lumped together because of it- despite being in different boroughs (gotta love the Royal Mail).

No, my son's school is not a link school (it is St.John's in Portland Road KT1). I have put Hollyfield as our second choice as I am pretty certain we are in the catchment area. Our third choice is Southborough Boys.
Not any particular reason why I prefer Teddington to Hollyfield (most of son's football team mates are going there is one of the reasons)!! Beautiful new building & facilities, but I do realise you shouldn't choose a school purely by the building...
Was impressed with Hollyfield too by the way :)

Think the chances of getting into Teddington would be slim, don't know of anyone who has got in there from a non linked school for years. There is always a chance of getting a place later via the waiting list but I am sure once your ds is at Hollyfield he won't be keen to move. I have two DDs at HF who are very happy there.

Thanks, that is good to know. Yes, I agree that once he has started at Hollyfield, he probably wouldn't be very keen to move. Hollyfield does seem a nice school - just hoping he will at least get in there (we live just off Bonner Hill Road Kingston)so he would have to walk through the cemetery & up Villiers Avenue. Do you know how far the catchment area stretches? There does seem to be lots of Hollyfield students around near us...Also not sure how they judge the 'safest walking distance' from the school to your home.

I think that you will find that as Hollyfield is a foundation school their catchment criteria is slightly different from the council run schools.

Rather than safest walking distance the website states that places will be offered to those living nearest the school measured in a straight line from a particular point specified in the school grounds.

"As the crow flies" you do not actually live far from the school so you are more liklely to be in the catchment area than you probably think.