LINCOLN - Secondary school advice please

[TheQuietCricket]

Hi there,

We will be moving into the Lincoln area in time for secondary school place applications for the 2013 intake.

Ds is quite bright, studious, not sporty except for swimming, is in G&T groups for numeracy and literacy. He is a bit geeky if I am honest and doesn't really have many school friends but loves socialising with kids from the various out of school activities he attends and always pals up with other kids on holiday so he isn't really shy but I do fear he may be a target for being picked on.

Are there any Mn'ers who know the Lincoln secondary school scene and can advise us of which schools might be suitable to go and visit/aim to apply to, bearing in mind the description of ds I've provided.

We might then be able to base our relocation house hunting around this information.

Thanks in advance for any information/opinions you may have.

I have a relative at LSST. It is by all accounts a good sought after school and is partially selective.

Good luck with your search.

Depending on where you are you should look at The Priory LSST. You may also want to have a look at William Farr in Welton. If you want private then Lincoln Minster which is non- selective.

Should add scholarships are available for Lincoln Minster. A great school for pastoral care. The other two I mentioned sound very suitable for him as well. Avoid Christ Hospital, SSPP and City. Happy to answer any questions about Lincoln. We relocated from London over ten years ago and love it. Pm if you would prefer.

LSST and wiliam farr in welton. Are you in City or out in a village?

Sorry for delay in replying, we've been away for the weekend.

Thanks for you responses.

We had considered that we might need to switch to private if our secondary school options were bleak but the move to Lincoln had us re-evaluating this possibility.

LS1964 do you know what scholarships are available/fee levels for the Lincoln Minster school ? Ds may well be the type of child to really benefit from good pastoral care.

I haven't come across SSPP so far, what do the initials stand for ?

thenightsky We haven't decided on where to base ourselves yet so figured we might let the schools decision lead us on this matter.

We are in Lincoln, dd starts The Priory LSST in sept. It is a fab school but oversubscribed & places filled for 2012 so you would have to appeal. Agree William Farr in village of Welton is also excellent

have friends with dc at The Minster (private) who rate it highly but Priory LSST was still my first choice (& free )

sorry, just seen 2013 bit.. Priory LSST do saturday 'masterclass' for children in year 6.. dd has done these & loved them, it's a good way of finding if the school will suit your child

might be worth enquiring about, they start about October & competition for places is fierce!

William Farr is indeed, excellent. DS is having a wonderful time there.

Ok, ds says not wonderful, because "What school is wonderful" - that told me! He gives it 8/10 and says he loves the sport. Seriously though, it's a great school.

Not completely sure about scholarships available but Im sure there are academic, sport, art and music. Have a look at the website its very comprehensive. Do you have a placement for primary school as I note it is 2013 you are looking at. In this case you would attend the scholarship day in January 2013. The masterclasses for LSST are available for children with different areas of apptitude including maths. Some places are then allocated on this basis. Any idea where you will be living.

Forgot to say fees are approx £3700 per term plus extras. But to be honest I dont find the extras bill extortionate.

Hi! Have joined to be able to post on this thread! As above, LSST and William Farr both very good schools, but from what I gather from friends/acquaintances who work at both or have children at both, I would say that LSST is slightly weaker on pastoral care/more pressurised...and both schools are very large. May I also put a word in for QEGS at Horncastle, quite small and excellent all-round mixed grammar school, with lots of children who sound just like the OP's, which has a wide catchment with transport available all the way to Lincoln and Boston.
OP, your son also sounds a lot like my ds, though he has an added AS diagnosis, but the bright but not sporty bit (btw, Vulcans swimclub very good in Lincoln!) and we are going to send him to Lincoln Minster for senior this September, precisely for the pastoral reasons mentioned by @lateSeptember. Hoping all the good things we have seen/heard turn out to be true!

lateSeptember1964 We don't know where to choose to settle in the Lincoln/surrounding area yet so I'm trying to ensure that we factor in the major item of which school will suit ds to give him the best transition possible and then live somewhere nearby or with good transport links.

thanks for the information re the Saturday classes herladyship. Bizarre that competition is fierce for extra schoolwork on a Saturday . The school must really attract children like ds (or possibly children with pushy parents) .

KitKatGirl1 I've looked up Horncastle and Lincoln distance wise and am amazed that there would be transport arranged for this ! (Presumably parents are willing to pay). I had also researched swimming clubs and there appear to be 2, Vulcans and Pentaqua. Would you recommend Vulcans over Pentaqua ?

Thanks vey much for all the advice folks.

I've just been on QEGS website and the catchment area is shown as not including Lincoln or even coming that near to Lincoln.

Horncastle is a fair old distance from Lincoln. You're right it's not in catchment.

I second William Farr, the (excellent) Head has just retired after 20 odd years and he helped to hand pick his successor, good discipline standards and it's OFSTED outstanding.

There certainly are lots of children from Lincoln itself and surrounding villages at QEGS (especially lots of doctors' children), eg, Nettleham, Sudbrooke, Canwick, Potterhanworth, etc and there are buses laid on (one goes north out of town through Wragby and one east out of town through Bardney) but, no, they are not free. The school is not usually oversubscribed and children passing the 11+ and choosing it usually get a place. The school website says 'Children from the Lincoln area are welcome providing their parents can arrange transport'.

I would say the currently favoured areas to live are north/east of town (Nettleham/Scothern/Welton/Reepham) where you are then in catchment for LSST, William Farr and QEGS or south/east of town (Washingborough/Heighington/Potterhanworth) where you are in catchment for LSST, Branston (an 'outstanding' comp) or QEGS. All of those mentioned are nice villages with good primary schools, too. I would probably only avoid west of town as your secondary options are more limited (QEHS at Gainsborough very good but more limited catchment).

As for swim schools, sorry, can only comment on Vulcans; my ds enjoys his training but is not in squads, however, he has some amazing swimmer friends who are. I think it and Pentaqua are similar in terms of reputation and numbers of ex-swimmers at Olympic/national level.

Hope this helps, and good luck, OP with your decision/move

KitKatGirl1 When you compare the cost of private education with bus fare each day to school, it's probably well worth the effort re travel even if it is paid for by the parents. A grammer school does sound interesting but it also sounds like LSST operates a sort of selection process anyway despite techincally being a "comp".

I was thinking about the grammer school possibility as perhaps being attractive although if the pupils come from far and wide it may make socialising with school friends tricky but have added QEGS to the list to be visited.

Oh-Oh, a new head after 20 years at Willam Farr, will be interesting to see how that pans out. Many moons ago I went to an exceptionally good grammer school and after the headmistress who was there when I was a pupil retired it had 3 heads in 7 years and dropped like a stone to the lower half of the league tables with Ofsted reports that made sad reading.

OP - definitely go and have a look at those 3 (and wouldn't rule out Branston either - more mixed intake but does very well by top cohort and very well managed school with many happy parents/children who didn't want the more pressurised/less individual care of LSST). Distance-wise with QEGS, what I meant was - if you choose to live, say, 6 miles out of town, then your ds is only travelling 14 miles to school but, yes, wide catchment means more spread out socialising. You kind of get that with LSST too, as it has 48 feeder primaries! Anyway, we are very lucky in Lincoln and area to have on the whole very good schools (avoiding those already mentioned and some of the secondary moderns in the small market towns - unfortunate result of the grammar system.) As usual, look beyond results and see which suits your child the best (sounds like pastoral care/size might possibly be a consideration in your case). And lucky to have really inexpensive housing (are you moving from an expensive area?). Good luck and enjoy your search!

I wouldn't say avoid Christ hospital. It gets a better cva than QEHS for instance, all the kids I know are happy and doing well. Only just missed getting an outstanding on it's ofsted. Great pastoral care and excellent facilities. The top sets do as well as schools like William Farr. And it's not the high pressured atmosphere of lsst.

VlB - agreed, I was hasty in agreeing with the poster who said 'avoid Christs', certainly think it has a better reputation than others, especially Yarborough/Castle and seems to do well with the top ability (I always look at A level results for comparison, once you've 'lost' the less motivated students). Seems like we agree about LSST:-) For 'pressurised' read a 'marmite' school...

Lsst gets good results. But I know more than one kid where the school turned round and refused to allow them to sit a gcse as they weren't confident they'd pass it. They had to pay and sit it privately, but if they pass the school will refund the money and then add them to the schools stats. If they don't pass they can't make the figures look good.

My brother has just finished at lsst and we didn't even look at it for dd.

Someone mentioned avoiding "SSPP" but I can't find out which school this is.

Does anyone know ?

Saint Peter's & Saint Paul's, TheQuietCricket

Except lose the 's' !

Does anyone know about the buses running to lsst? we live just off nettleham road and understand there is a bus service to the school....many thanks laura x