Secondary school in Oxford for child very good at maths

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We are moving out of London to Oxford and will be looking for secondary schools immediately. Our son is very good at maths, and it can be challenging because he gets bored and disruptive very quickly if not pushed. The schools local to us offer a variety of programmes for gifted kids, including maths scholarships and that sort of thing. We can look at houses in Oxford to meet catchment requirements, so can anyone tell us which of the Oxford state secondaries might meet his needs in a similar way? I've looked at school websites but would really value personal experiences.

Cherwell School. Job done.

Absolutely right - Cherwell has kids doing the competitions and they get through to the kangaroo and Olympiad rounds. Families might well turn down the local selective indies if they get a place at C.

buy a house close to the school though. Not all catchment dc get in. Wolvercote area has priority.

A house near Cherwell school may not be possible on our budget. Is it the only one that performs like that?

Matthew Arnold has a good department and is a specialist maths school - I wouldn't say it's at Cherwell's level though because I don't know. I thought the teachers I have met there have been great.

Thanks for the Matthew Arnold tip.

Draylon, I don't really mind you saying that - but you're making big assumptions so it isn't particularly helpful, no, and a bit pointless. He gets disruptive to his own learning, not the classroom. He is on SAP and so has all the support that that entails. It's recognised by his current school that he needs to be challenged in order to keep him motivated, and does lots of extension work to accommodate this. He also has mild ASD so that is taken into account. I would hope he wouldn't cause your (putative) able DC any trouble at all.

Matthew Arnold, unlike Cherwell, does generally have a place for every catchment child (or has done so for the last 3 years). There is a useful gizmo on the oxfordshire county council education website which shows you catchment areas which is worth looking at because the MA website is a funny shape. It covers cumnor and boars hill but shoots off in odd directions otherwise...

I mean the MA catchment is a funny shape...!

Thanks, celestialsquirrels. I know the website you mean! I only cottoned on pretty recently to the catchment issue, as in London, it's pretty much always on distance. It feels very odd to me that you can be in the catchment of a school but live much closer to another.

I know there are bits of Headington that are just within the Cherwell catchment, so I have been keeping an eye out, but if distance AND catchment are an issue there, possibly not worth it.

I know that at Cherwell, the current y8 cohort, 21 dc in catchment were put on the waiting list. I don't know how many eventually got a place, as we gave up at that point (being 4 miles OUT of catchment!!!). So do be careful.

Lord Williams is supposed to be very good at supporting SEN kids? Maybe someone can offer thoughts about there??

Just had a look at their website and it looks interesting. Thame might be a bit far out