Backwell Senior School

[tryingtomove]

Hello, we live in Bristol and DS is approaching yr6. We're hoping to move out of the city for senior school and have been looking at Backwell village and Backwell Senior School. Does anyone have any experience of the school? We can't afford the Bristol Indies as we have two DC but both are bright and have found our Bristol primary boring and easy so I'm hoping to give them something a lot better for senior school. Do the academic children at the school excel? Do many go on to good universities? It doesn't have to be Backwell as we can relocate anywhere around Bristol as long as we can both commute easily to work in the city centre. I really just need to start investigating really good secondary schools for bright, keen, confident children. Many thanks.

I am a Bristol based teacher (and grew up here) - I don't personally know Backwell School, but it has always had a good reputation and its Ofsted and GCSE grades look really very good. It would be definitely worth a visit and hopefully a chat with some parents of children already there (I don't know if you are a netmum as well as a mumsnetter, but Bristol local board is much more active than on here and you may get some more responses).
Other local schools around Bristol to have a look at would be Castle School in Thornbury, Katharine Lady Berkeley in Wotton Under Edge - although maybe a bit far out, Gordano school in Portishead, John Cabot Academy in Kingswood, The Winterbourne International Academy (formerly the Ridings) in Winterbourne, and Wellsway school in Keynsham. These would be my top picks for state secondary near Bristol - all oversubscribed so you would need to be living pretty close/in catchment for them.

Backwell used to be very well respected for music, and I knew three people who chose it for 6th form on that basis, but that was a while ago. It might also be worth looking at Churchill school, which is not far away. That's always had a good reputation in the area, and has always been seen to have a good university record.

Have recently chosen Backwell. It's a brilliant school! Had considered some options in Bristol city but Backwell was better on all counts. Visit the school open evening in September which will be followed up by morning visits to the school with your DC. We were very impressed!

Backwell serves a wide area, so lots of choice of where to live, but do check first that children in your chosen area are either in catchment or live in an area where most children get in (eg Nailsea) - you can ask the head this question, we found him extremely helpful on this score. Backwell is oversubscribed but not by as much as you would expect for such a fantastic school (to do with local insularity I think).

As for university entrance, I think 6 got into Oxbridge last year, and one of the things that most impressed us at the opening evening was the staff really understood the requirements and process of getting students in to top universities.

All parents and pupils of the school that I have spoken to regarding our decision are overwhelmingly positive, and the only remotely negative comment I have heard was that the school can be a little 'pushy' and always gives children the 'next step to achieve' when they've achieved one thing, but to us this was also an overwhelming positive. I know lots of families at the school, and as yet, have still to hear anything negative.

Hope that helps.

Oh, and it's still brilliant for music. I am a music teacher and was very impressed with what we saw and heard.

KS2L6 - am glad to hear it still has that rep for music. My mother really wanted me to go there and continue with music but I didn't have either the talent or inclination of my friends who did go.

Thank you for responding. As we both work in Bristol it would be an easier move to somewhere like Backwell as it's so close. But as I know no-one who is actually at the school I have to go by the Ofsted report and the league tables which isn't necessarily the best place to look. I would rather have the honest opinions of parents whose children are actually there now so the comments so far are really helpful. After an earlier comment I went to post the same question on Netmums but I must be a bit stupid as I couldn't find the right place to post to get a decent response. Similar questions only got 1 or 2 answers so I think I'll stick with mumsnet and hope I get a few more honest opinions. Many thanks guys.

Have spoken to a number of pupils from Backwell, as well as parents, and they all have a great deal of respect for their school and seem to expect to learn. They speak highly of the teachers and the teaching.

We were very impressed with the eloquence of students that we met at the open evening and morning. My DH, who works in the university sector, said that he would have assumed an independent school education if he'd met them in work.

KS2L6, oh my goodness! That's very promising. Maybe I'll get onto Rightmove this evening! Many thanks, lots and lots of positive feedback.

Friends moved to Backwell for secondary school with 2 boys and they both did very well at A level (youngest left last year) and rate the school very highly. They did A level Sciences by the way so it's not just good for Music.
Have you seen the recent article about the GCSE mix up though www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-16664979 as this is rather worrying.

GCSE mix-up was down to human error, but school received an apology from relevant exam board for the confusing nature of their exam codes.

Yes, Backwell is excellent for Science and maths, also. At least 50% of children take triple science with a very high percentage achieving A/A*. results on school website are worth a look.

I worked with a colleague whose 4 children went to school there - she speaks very highly of the place, all her children transferred to state from private school (ex forces) and althoguh she was worried, they were cared for very well and she was very pleased with the quality of their education.

I worked with a colleague whose 4 children went to school there - she speaks very highly of the place, all her children transferred to state from private school (ex forces) and althoguh she was worried, they were cared for very well and she was very pleased with the quality of their education.

I did take a look at the GCSE options and saw the reference to the Triple Science but I'm a bit confused. They don't study Biology, Physics or Chemistry separately but instead do a two year course which seems to include all three subjects. Surely this isn't as specialized as studying each subject separately but maybe I'm misunderstanding what I'm reading. I must be wrong if they have a reputation for studying science. I've just found out too that their specialism is Performing Arts. My shy, academic, self conscious DS would not like this in any way but I'm also not sure how a specialism affects the rest of the curriculum, but I am a bit concerned that it may detract from other subjects that he would prefer to excel in (ie. History and Maths).

Triple Science is the same as studying 3 separate Sciences in Physics, Chemistry and Biology. This is the standard in most State and independent schools these days.