Wellington School in Timperley, Trafford

[Ocelotl]

Hi,
Does anyone have a child at Wellington School in Timperley? What would it be like for a boy who is very academic/into science?

We paid the price for not playing the tutoring-for-grammars game, so although ds is at the top of his Yr6 he's the only one of his friends not going to Alty Boys in September. We don't know anyone at Wellington, liked the school from the open day, but some shared real-life experience would be really welcome.

It was superb when I worked there which was in 2008 so obviously it may have changed since then. It is something of a private school without the fees

However the head is new - that said, I don't imagine they'd appoint someone who didn't have a similar ethos would have been appointed. Loads of extra-curricular, very high standards from the students but also from teachers. There was heavy staff turnover to be honest as they did expect a lot of work: some teachers found it difficult to mix family lives with what the school expected. However again this could have changed. I would happily send my child there and hope your son is happy - am sure he will be. Most of the children were very friendly with the grammar school children and there seemed to e nothing more than a friendly rivalry between the schools (in terms of sporting activities and so on.) :)

Please PM me if I can help you out with anything else.

Thank you, this was a really nice and positive message. I have heard a lot of good things so far and I like what I see. Hope they've found a way to hold on to the good teachers and let them have some work/life balance.

We have friends with children there (3 different families) - 2 in Year 7 and one in Year 8. So early days I suppose but they all rate it very highly.

Hi there, my daughter is year 10 and has chosen double science, but several of her friends have taken triple science. We've always been delighted with the school and the change in head teacher seems to have been seem less. Hope you get on ok with your choices :0)

Only just spotted your question; if you have decided to go with Wellington School I can add that we have found the Secondary School excellent for our 2 teenagers. Like you we didnt want to play the tutoring game as we believe that with good home/school support if your child is bright it will come out. Both our children ended up in the topset (called 0 at Wellington and 16 pupils in the set) the eldest one had all A & A's at GCSE 3 years ago and at present we are waiting for the results in August for our youngest. He is also predicted A & A's. We found the school very helpfull and Staff very good, there are quite a few out of School activities.
Where ever you have decided to send your son, I am sure he will be happy and will make lots of friends :D

Hi, my daughter is just about to go into Year 9. She narrowly missed out on going to Alty Girls, but we decided not to appeal. I have to say that she has had nothing but a positive experience at Wellington. She is in the top set and is excelling at Science and Maths in particular. The teaching staff are young and enthusiastic, yet professional. The sport is a huge part of school life, which is very important to us. The children she's friendly with are lovely. We couldn't recommend it highly enough.

Hello to interested parents/students, honestly I'm a student currently at Wellington timperley school. Now I think a students view is more important than a head teachers view because who is there for money and who is actually there for learning? I have had some good and some bad experience here at Wellington. It's great for meeting new friends, to stop boys fighting, providing extra lessons and clubs but I have watched boys constantly harass other students, I have this one boy in my year (won't spill names) and he has been bullied since year7! Nothing changed. Me? I struggle with high anxiety and teachers don't care. My maths teacher picks on me and I struggle to breathe, I get hot and red, I get a dry mouth and can't speak properly but she doesn't care...she just wants her question answered. My French teacher has humiliated my class friend. my head of year does not care about issues, I'm struggling to think how I can prevent myself having a panic attack in maths because of how many times my friend has been ignored by my head of year. Honestly I have to admit I sometimes put year 7's in there place because of how rude they can be, and I don't want a rude year 7 making there class members feel uncomfortable because I know i was in that position from a group of boys. The headteacher expects excellence in everything and I am really up for the hardest work but it's the fact I can't have any help on my anxiety and I have teachers making me feel like I don't belong in this school. There was a girl who was scared to come in school and as I glanced over to my head teacher being told the girl wasn't happy coming in...she smirked like she couldn't care less and that the girl was a stupid person. Im scared for the next year and a half of school, but the thought of getting away is the best thought. (All that makes me sound stupid and just a little shy girl but in this society, it's a lot different)

Well done to you for your honest opinion. I think it is very valid and makes me realise that sometimes a good school can just not be the right one for certain children. I went to "Welly" in the old days and was happy. I now believe it is a very high achieving school. Some people say it thinks it is something it's not (i.e. professes to be like a private school and the less able don't get enough help). Obviously I have no opinion on the school now as I live slightly out of the area and do not have a child there. However, my year 8 daughter left Lymm High school shortly after starting in year 7 as she didn't settle there but can't get her into school in the Altrincham area as I would like as we have the wrong postcode. I am interested in seeing what you say about boys though as though it is usually common knowledge that girls tend to have more friendship issues and problems, my experience of my daughter's problems on starting high school, were mainly because of the bad behaviour of boys and she was picked on there more by boys. I went to Welly in the single sex days but when the two schools were next to each other so we could see the boys in the dinner queue and school field in summer and straight after school but for lessons, separate. I believe that is the best way. Wishing you lots of luck in getting things sorted out for yourself. My poor daughter is stuck in home education for now. She enjoyed it for a while but now wants a new school but we are struggling getting into ones around Altrincham!

Hi all,
I am new to the distract, and we are very fond of Wellington School, just to relaise that, from the secondary admission information that, for school year 20/21, living close alone could not gt a student a place at its grade 7, not even close to it, as it could only allocate a place until category 3 (children of staff, and not even ALL in category 3!).

Living super close could only get one into the top of the list in category 4, while we can't do anything to get higher than that basically.

Here are my questions:
(1) As I can only get information for this particular school year, might I know if it has been like that every single year, or it was only occasional?

(2) Do you know anyone who could so luckily get admitted from category 4 (just by living close to the school, no siblings in school, no parent working in there, etc.) in recent years?

(3) If that is the case for every single year, which other school would you recommend trying instead? (We are actually looking for an accommodation, and would be pretty flexible if w opt for another school, as we will look for a place close enough to the target school to rent instead.)

Hope someone can answer me, as we are so desperately in need for advices!

Thanks a lot!

The catchment area has been shrinking year on year for a while - I think there was one year when they offered further afield (think it was the year North Cestrian became an option) but the cut off is very close to a mile now and has been for a couple of years. I know of families who have been offered places this year living close to school (without siblings / children of staff etc) but they live within a mile.

Thanks so much for your positive information, @Africa2go!

We will DEFINITELY find a place as close as possible to the School, just I was so shocked to have red that it only admitted students up to 'Some Category 3 to 1.09319 miles' (copied & pasted from the table in that information pack).

Shall I just hope that it was a typo, and it meant Category FOUR instead?

But than 1 mile seems too big as the school catchment if it was for Category 4, when you see 1200 students competing for 244 places.

I don't know, I am just hoping that it was just last year when it was just occasional, maybe many staff members happened to have kids reaching that age and many, many existing students having younger siblings to get in. You know, such numbers fluctuate~

Your answer seems a relieve to me, but I still hope to hear from more people.

Thanks a lot again, @Africa2go!!!

Have just had a quick look - I think the confusion comes from a change in the admission policy. In this year's admission policy (2020), category 1 is looked after children, category 2 is children of staff and category 3 is children living within WA14 and WA15 postcodes (going on distance).

The policy for 2021 seems to have introduced a new category 2 - so siblings get preference before other applicants, so then category 3 is children of staff, and category 4 is WA14/15.

So when it says they only went out to 1.09 miles in Category 3, it means the old category 3 if that makes sense.

I have to say, introducing a sibling policy is likely to shrink the distance even further - if you're keen on the school I would try to be as close as possible, definitely under a mile.