Good Mixed Secondary schools in Buckinghamshire or Hertfordshire

[EUTOLONDON]

Hi all,
We will be moving to England in about 2 months. Our areas of interest will depend mainly on the shool place and safety. My daughter will go to year 9 in September 2020. We still have to finalize a rental place. Please suggest out of Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire, which place has better secondary schools with a good chance of getting a place ? Your suggestions will be helpful for us to decide.
Thanks!

someone else has suggested it already but you should consider Bedfordshire as it's a truly comprehensive county and is a 3 school system with children entering the final stage of their education at upper schools in year 9. There are some quite well performing schools - you could look ar Redbourne in Ampthill (Ampthill a v lovely small town) , Harlington which is a village just to the north of Dunstable and on the main train line into London or Vandyke and Cedars in Leighton Buzzard as these schools all do consistently quite well. Good luck with the move OP

Thanks everyone for all the most helpful recommendations. We have tried looking into Bedfordshire and the school Cedars high school and Cottesloe high school. Looks like they might have seats available in year 9. We might be successful in finding a rental place close to the schools as well. Can anyone here suggest or give some reviews about these 2 schools? Or if your child goes to this school, how us it in general? I found mixed reviews on the net so thought that the best would be to hear from personal experiences.
How us Leighton buzzard to live in? Is it a safe and a friendly place? Is the area close to the train station a good area to live in?

Thanks again for all your help. Being totally new to this, your advice is extremely valuable 😄

Cedars is a nice school with good standing in the community. Cottesloe does not have such a good reputation (partly because it is closer to bucks so the most able can be creamed off to grammar schools across the border). Leighton Buzzard is just a very ordinary town : nothing outstanding about it. Check out the catchment of Cedars as there are some very pleasant villages nearby , such as Woburn, but this may not be catchment for Cedars.

If you haven't checked out Harlington Upper, I'd recommend looking at that, too.

ps it's not High School - Cedars Upper School is its name. You may get confusions if you use the term High School!

I live in a village near LB. LB a nice place to live out of the local towns. The villages all round are v nice if you like countryside.

Train wise LB is good to get to London.

If you want a private school Berkhamsted is good but price of housing in Berko is high

The Cottesloe is in Wing which is in Bucks, Piggy! I am a local. It is a secondary modern and of course the children who get the 11 plus will go into Aylesbury for the Grammars. Unfortunately the Grammars in Aylesbury are full and often remain so. Although that could change for y9 in Sept but then there is the testing to go through. Even if DCs pass that, they still won’t get into a grammar if there are no spaces.

The Cottesloe is one of the better secondary moderns. I haven’t looked at it regarding spaces and I haven’t looked for Cedars either. However if OP doesn’t have an address here yet, I’m not sure how that works for The Cedars. Also some DC from the Leighton Buzzard area could well get into Bucks Grammars as the MK children do. That alters the intake for The Cedars too.

I wasn't too sure if it snuck over the border , tbh. Was going with OP's confident assertion!

Not many Cedars kids go to Aylesbury . Most LB kids stick to the two schools. Some venture to MK.

Largely because upper school system dissuades movement at year 6/7.

Over time, you wi see the results and progress 8 at The Cedars and The Cottesloe are quite similar. They gave their ups and downs. Do you now live in Bedfordshire or Bucks, Piggy, as you seem to speak with such authority? The secondary schools in Bucks hugely outperform ones in Beds .

Beds. Don't know what you mean by now!

Grammars would outperform comprehensive secondaries in Beds. Cedars used to perform very highly but the upper school system has its flaws for P*, which measures progress over an timescale upper schools have limited control over. Obviously P8 is not the only performance measure.

I suggested Beds largely because OP is moving at a time when starting a brand new school, along with the whole cohort is possible to her. That's no bad thing.

There are 11 plus tutors in LB and a bus goes to the Bucks Grammars from LB. DC do go into Bucks for the Grammars and The Cedars results are below those of several Bucks Secondary Modern Schools. For a comprehensive, it’s not that great and it definitely loses DC from the area to Bucks.

I'll tell my friend who is headteacher there then

A school is not only measured by results.

It's up to OP, thought , but Cedars is up to capacity in most school years. It's never had a dip in numbers.

I'd far rather have my DC at a comp than a secondary modern, personally.

Wing is absolutely on the border.

I haven't actually read the data.

I just told you I am form Beds. I am not going to say more that that on an internet forum.

I told you why I suggested upper school, as did another PP.

If the OP mentions Cottlesloe , then clearly she has looked into it. Local knowledge tells me that people speak very highly of Cedars, not so much Van Dyke and that most people from LB choose between these schools, Walton High in MK or Redborne in Beds, if they can. I am sure some seek out grammars. I doubt many from LB actively seek out the Cottlesloe, but, obviously, if OP moves into that catchment, I am sure it also fine. I suggested Beds and know that The Cottlesloe is not a Beds Upper School. I advised on Cedars, specifically. I know people with DCs at both schools. Being local.

Cleary, as you support grammar schools as a concept, you are going to support the notion that Bucks sec mods are perfectly fine. Equally, there are people at Cedars , and some schools in Herts, who are avoiding the grammar schools and travelling the other way over the borders. It's a slightly crazy part of the world, education system wise .

Just put my penny's worth in that it is highly unlikely that you would find in year places in the south west herts consortium schools such as Parmiter's or the Watford Grammar.

I do know the school. I know people there.

No need to snipe at (one of my ) subjects. that si uncalled for. read the thread. My comments were on Cedars. I never said the other school was a Bedfordshire Upper.

I know Wing is in Bucks. I could very easily point to it on a map. I could drive there in 15 minutes.

All I know is that the vast majority of parents living in LB send their children to Cedars or Van Dyke perfectly happily and those living in its catchment in other directions sometimes choose other schools : some in Bedfordshire, some in MK, and some in Bucks.

Bedfordshire parents are very loyal to the 3 tier system, on the whole.

Hi OP if you are looking at schools around the Woburn Sands area it's probably worth bearing in mind the changes to the schools around there. Lots of info if you google and here is a good place to start www.schoolsforthefuture.co.uk/plans/woburn-sands/overview

No need to post factually inaccurate rubbish about a Bucks school either then!

Chesham High is full. Most secondary schools in Bucks are full. It’s best to compile a list based on which schools actually have vacancies instead of random suggestions on here. There is rarely much movement from Bucks Grammar schools. Make a shortlist of where you prefer, decide on comp, secondary modern or grammar, and then see where that leads you so you can check vacancies.

Yes, Woburn sands is a bit of a mess all round!

I think Harlington might be a more stable school to look at (and has excellent P8 last time I looked). Good transport links to London and some nice villages and towns in catchment.

Cottesloe has always had a bad reputation locally.

No idea if it's improved recently but a friend of mine moved her DD after a year there.

Cedars is known as a better school locally, but I would look into it very carefully if you've the whole of Bucks to pick from. Must be better options.

I think MK could be a better choice.

I know loads of families from Aylesbury who are falling over themselves to get DC there and it has a waiting list. It is not considered rubbish by Bucks parents who have to get a secondary for y7. The Aylesbury secondaries have been in and out of RI or worse for years. Almost since Ofsted was founded. Aylesbury parents who can find another school, do so. They don’t have the option of The Cedars at y7 (and it’s not in Bucks) so look to either John Colet or The Cottesloe. It’s been that way for years and years. One child being removed (to where?) isn’t proof that parents don’t like it. One parent didn’t like it and it operates a waiting list. Why might that be?

The whole of Bucks will never ever have vacancies for y9. This is not good advice. Very few schools will have a vacancy in y9. Ditto the better ones in Hertfordshire. Beds is much lower achieving and might be worth a look at vacancies and MK children leave in droves to go to RLS in Buckingham or the Aylesbury Grammars. They might be called comprehensive schools in MK but many right children from there are in the Bucks Grammars. At one Aylesbury Grammar alone it used to be over 90 DC each year. So considerable numbers. Some MK comps have a long history of being poor. And some are huge!!