Schools Nottingham

[alexmongoose]

Hello,

Could anyone advise me of good secondary schools in Nottingham please? I am currently looking on the Gov website, but there are so many, we could use some advise to start narrowing them down.

We will have one in 6th form and one in Y11. Key subjects from them are Textiles, Design, Music and Sociology.

Thanks

Whereabouts in Nottingham? It’s a big city.

As above, it's a big place. Also the best schools are unlikely to have places for Y11, it would be dependent on someone else leaving and few do for such an important year.

Are you moving for work, if so where are you based?

Bluecoat Wollaton Academy is outstanding.

The Nottingham Emmanuel School in West Bridgford is good

Trinity School has excellent results. She's Kanneh Mason went there

*Sheku

We aren't too sure on the area yet, hence not being too specific.

Emmanuel has the subjects the kids want, but as a Christian school (we aren't), I'm not sure about the ethos being right for the kids. I'm on the fence with it.

My daughter has looked at Bramcote and thinks she likes it. But as we don't know where we would be living yet, we need to consider several dotted around the city to be on the safe side really.

Is your child in year 11 now? If so I would not even consider moving them in such a vital year. Subjects, exam boards, texts chosen, work already covered may/will vary. Can you wait seven months till they are started on exams?

Are Nottingham, Becket School and West Bridgfird school both have a great rep.

Thank you! We have looked at most of these and thought they were good ourselves, so that's nice to have it confirmed.

Any areas we should avoid living? Housing will be the next thing on the list to consider!

If you want to get into a particular school, errrrm you need to live in its catchment area op! Isn't it like that where you are now? So those would be the areas to live in, so West Bridgford for West Bridgford school etc.

It's fairly unlikely btw that you will easily get a place at a popular school in year 11. Do you absolutely have to move?

I echo everyone else.
Do you really need to move them now? Not wait til June?
Unless they can do the same subjects in the same exam boards as they have been doing in Yr 10 and 12 they barely stand a chance in GCSE and A levels.

It's worth calling the better schools to find out if they'll have any places. West Bridgford schools are oversubscribed at year 7.

Moving a child during GCSEs or A levels is insane. I would move heaven and earth to keep my children in the same schools at those ages.

The Fernwood school in Wollaton is excellent and outstanding with ofsted - doesn't have a sixth form tho they have to go to one of the local colleges such as Broxtowe or bilborough and am not sure how well they perform as my daughter has only just gone into yr 9. Wollaton is expensive though catching up with west bridgeford prices! We have moved out the area as it was impossible for us to buy the school my daughter attends now is not as good but I do believe if a child wants to do well they will regardless of what ofsted say about the school.
George spencer is a very good school also and I think the catchment areas are a little cheaper than Wollaton and west bridgeford. The main catchment I believe is Toton which has a tram link now to Nottingham and sits just off the a52 so good transport links if you needed that x

Wow. Thanks for all the judgy comments re moving the kids in important years etc. I was simply asking about quality of schools/places to live from people who hopefully already live there and know a bit more.

To confirm (not that I should have to because it wasn't what I asked). My daughter will be going into year 12 when we move, my son will be going into yr 11 and we are checking that schools do his option choices of GCSE. I am aware that this isn't ideal....however, we have 5 children and he would be the only one not at a transition stage in education. So, while I agree it's not ideal, I think 1 out of 5 isn't doing too badly actually.

Thank you @45Nottsangel2015, your response has been extremely helpful. We haven't looked at Toton (but will now) and totally agree with you about choice of schooling and Ofsted...hence, not just looking at Gov website. We have been looking at West Bridgeford, but from what I've heard it's a bit of a 'yummy mummy' area, which isn't for me really...but obviously, I may be wrong on that.

I certainly wasn't judging you op and nor were others I am sure. If you only had two children, and they were in (say) yr 11 and yr 13 now, and you were looking at moving by December (say) then I guess people were letting you know it might not be the best idea.

Like people say, it's not very likely that popular schools like WB will have space in yr 11. I would call a few possibles and ask. Yes George Spencer gets very good results so may be worth looking at tho it would not be my personal choice.

How exactly is 'letting me know' whether something (they don't know anything about) is or isn't 'the best idea' not making a judgement? Especially, when it wasn't something I asked for opinions on? Whether anyone thought it was a good or bad idea, wasn't something I asked advice on though was it? At all. Feel free to re read the original post.

Some people felt the need to comment, without even responding to the initial question and simply offering their own uninformed opinion on something entirely different. And that just strikes me as strange, that's all.

But hey ho, theres always one (or two) people who like the sound of their own voice a bit too much wherever you go!

Because you might not realise it would be an issue to move in yr 11. Plenty of people don't, I imagine because their knowledge of how schools work is not as extensive as some people's. Not a criticism BTW, no one can know about everything. But lots of MNers work in schools so that's where those responses may be coming from (certainly in my case). Sorry if my comments offended, certainly not my intention.

Alderman White school in Bramcote is a very caring and friendly school. I'm not too sure about the subjects you ask about as my child isn't far up the school yet.
Some friend's children have had great GCSE results there.
For 6th form there is Bramcote College or Bilbrough College.

Every school department picks which exam board specification it wishes to follow. The chances that any new school will have all of the same exam boards as the previous school is very tiny. Therefore, for example, your child might have learned about a particular period of History in their current school and get to the new one and find the students have spent 2 years (if a 3 year GCSE) on topics he has never looked at. Some subjects are more likely to have issues with this kind of thing than others, but it can be a real problem.

I can see that finding a perfect moment to move when there are 5 children isn't easy and maybe not possible. However, I think a child being moved at the end of yr10 is likely to be fairly significantly impacted in terms of their GCSEs. It is just something to think about. However, moving part way through A Levels would have a similar impact and if you have to move, you have to move.

I have heard of people in this situation who have left one child behind to finish their exam course, with friends or relatives. Obviously this isn't a great option either.

I've been in schools for over 20 years and to be honest I can't remember a child ever joining in Yr11 - yes, at the start of yr10 when GCSEs had been underway for 1 year already, but not after the courses were 3/4 taught.

And Op, you sound very shirty in your recent post.

When you ask a question, people giving up their time to reply, may well also refer to other connected aspects of the topic and not stick purely to a very narrow question. This is entirely normal and to be expected. I think you need to be a bit less sensitive and stroppy if you want to get useful information. If some information given isn't relevant or useful, just ignore it, but people are answering and trying to help you and often someone might mention something you didn't directly ask about but which you hadn't considered and will be useful. In an open, public forum, you have to accept you won't only get directly focused answers.....and actually it's one of the positives of MN that this happens in many cases.

I hope you get some useful information and also food for thought.

Fingers crossed you can get a school that does the same options with the same Boards. The curricula are different.

This is more important to your Yr 11 child than a ‘good school’ , which is my response to your OP.

A friends ds (now at Chets) went to a school somewhere in the Nottingham are but I don't know the name.

If you ABSOLUTELY must move at that point in your child's education it would be best to see if a school will agree to them repearing Year 10. They won't be able to do the same GCSE subjects/exam boards and even if some are the same topics will have been taught in different orders. My dd's school took a couple of new students in the January of Year 10 and they say thats the absolute latest they can take a new student. Even then those students had to drop a subject in order to catch up on stuff they had started in Year 9/early Year 10.

A child moving at the start of Year 11 can expect to drop at least a couple of GCSE grades, if not more. My son is currentlyi Year 11. His mocks start in November where he will be expected to know the whole syllabus. January onwards will be going over previously taight topics as necessary depending on mocks.