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Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

Original poster

Surrey/ Lingfield state senior schools

14 replies

Piranha2 · 21/03/2018 17:22

Hi All, I’m looking at schools for my son who is year 10 moving into the area. He is particularly good in music doing GCSE, ebac etc. He is dyslexic. Just wanted some feedback on state schools in Lingfield/ Oxted/ Caterham/ Warlingham? Not a great time to be changing schools, but that’s life!

Thanks

OP posts:
LIZS · 21/03/2018 18:42

Where will you be living? Have you checked for spaces? There is no state secondary in
Lingfield, they travel to East Grinstead, Horley or Oxted. Lingfield College(formerly Notre Dame) is private. Of those you mention Oxted and Warlingham are probably best thought of locally.

Original poster
Piranha2 · 21/03/2018 21:36

We are fairly flexible in terms of location as long as a good rail line is near for London commute. Thanks for your advice. What are the East Grinstead schools like? I’ve looked at Oxted, there are a lot of staff vacancies there at the mo on their website, which concerns me. I am also worried about the sheer size of the school. It seems to have a wide curriculum however. I don’t know anything reWarlingham School.

OP posts:
LIZS · 21/03/2018 21:43

No experience but I think Imberhorne is well thought of, if large. If you are commuting Warlingham has 2 stations so can use Caterham and East Grinstead trains. Not all the secondaries have 6th forms so you may want to look out for those that do to avoid a further move.

Enko · 22/03/2018 10:14

I have a dd in Sackville we have been very happy with the support she got with her dyslexia.

Friends with children in Imberhorne and Oxted also happy with school.

Currently Oxted seems to be the favoured one but it tends to swing around and likely in a few years it will be one of the others.

TulipsandLilacs · 22/03/2018 15:33

Dd is in year 9 at Warlingham. She is very happy there and doing well. There seem to be a lot of good teachers there. The other state schools mentioned seem to be well regarded, so we'd probably have been happy to send dd to them had we lived near them.
If you go to Warlingham by train you have to trek up a big hill every day from the station. Dd does it every day without complaint though. I think they soon get used to it and it's good exercise. There is one paid for bus that goes up the hill, but dd doesn't bother.

beckymad1x · 22/03/2018 15:35

I went to Oxted School and it was good back then but it's not great now! So maybe avoid Oxted if you can!

Original poster
Piranha2 · 31/03/2018 17:09

I too am looking in the same area with a dyslexic yr 10 boy, and just wondered if you could fill me in on the problems at Oxted School please? I had it down on my list as a possible.....

OP posts:
Titsywoo · 02/04/2018 23:40

I have a dd at warlingham in year 8. Last year was fine teaching wise but this year I've noticed a few of the long term staff are leaving and there is a high turnover of staff who are training and then leaving to go elsewhere. The government cuts are obvious now although I guess it will be happening to most state schools. Their results are still good at the moment.

Titsywoo · 02/04/2018 23:42

Although in year 10 it may not be an issue as i think they keep their best teachers to teach gcse years! Lots of schools do this from what i hear.

TulipsandLilacs · 08/04/2018 15:15

I hadn't noticed that Titsy. There are quite a lot of long standing members of staff. The most recent newsletter said one teacher and one other staff member left at Easter (the teacher is being replaced by a teacher who left a couple of years ago but is returning to the school.) Dd had an RE (SRW) teacher leave at Xmas. I agree it's a worry about funding cuts though.

Titsywoo · 09/04/2018 00:26

I've definitely noticed at least 2 good long term members of staff leaving tulips but what concerned me more was dd getting several nqts this year and last who then disappeared after a couple of terms. They are constantly advertising for people who want to train to be a teacher. The srw teacher who dd has this year is in training and dd says he can't control the class at all and she feels she has learnt nothing. It's all a bit worrying and upsets dd as she loved some of her teachers and they keep changing.

TulipsandLilacs · 10/04/2018 11:21

Oh that's a shame. Is it affecting many subjects? You could speak to the school about your concerns as they are usually quite helpful. Dd has had some good teachers this year but is in the year above your dd. I have another dc starting in September though. I know Oxted had 29 staff leave in the summer. Not sure if that was teachers or staff in general.

Titsywoo · 10/04/2018 11:37

Wow that's a lot! I wonder why?

We've got parents evening in a couple of weeks so I'll get a better idea of the teachers than rather than relying on what DD says completely!

TulipsandLilacs · 10/04/2018 11:52

A friend's SIL has a dd there and she said it was in their summer newsletter. I just looked it up and it was 29 teachers. Not sure why.

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