Advice for secondary schools in Gloucestershire

[CCEmum]

We are relocating to Gloucester and want to move to a catchment for a good comprehensive school, that would also be a suitable location for the grammars - any advice would be much appreciated as we don't know the area very well! We also need a good primary school. Any ideas? Thanks in hope!

Longlevens or Brockworth are lovely and within the catchment areas of both cheltenham and Gloucester schools.
Avoid tredworth if you can. Tuffley is OK. Abbeymead/abbeydale also lovely and good schools around. Especially abbeymead primary. I would highly recommend abbeymead/Dale, longlevensvor brockworth/Hucclecote

Thanks for the tips- much appreciated!

Agree with pp. For primary schools there are loads of good ones around. Good comps in Churchdown, Henley Bank in Brockworth is rocketing in terms of results and reputation (and therefore popularity).
Grammars- buses go from all over the city (and far beyond).

The grammars don't have a catchment area so anyone can apply, plenty of children commute to the grammars from all over Gloucestershire.
Are you planning to live in Gloucester city? A number of the secondary schools are in Ofsted special measures, including Gloucester Academy and Beaufort. Some have recently been overtaken by academy chains following poor Ofsted reports. Henley Bank in Brockrowth is one of these but I've heard they are really improving now and their exam results were much better last year.
Churchdown school is popular and you can generally get a place if you live in Longlevens or Hucclecote.
Some children in Gloucester go to Newent School- it has quite a wide catchment as it's in a rural area - don't think the catchment officially extends to the city but villages just north of Gloucester are in the catchment area.
Schools in Cheltenham mostly better regarded than Gloucester but the house prices are crazy there.

Yes Newent school very popular, its a fab school, and buses from all over the city go there but Hempsted good for a shorter journey and has a lovely primary, also good commute to the grammars. Lots of choice really OP

Thanks for the really helpful suggestions, they are hugely appreciated

Does it have to be Gloucester? There are 4 grammar schools in Gloucester, two girls, one boys and one recently co-ed. This obviously has a detrimental effect on the nearby so called comprehensives which are more like secondary moderns. Churchdown is ok as is Chosen Hill. St Peter’s Catholic school is fine, if you are Catholic. I don’t know so much about the Forest schools but it can be a bit ‘Hot Fuzz’ in the Forest.

Cheltenham has only one grammar school and some good comprehensives. The grammar, Pate’s, is hard to get into. Balcarras is really good but the ‘catchment’ is expensive. Bournside is OK, as is Cleeve. Pittville is getting better. Avoid All Saints.

The only really good comp is Balcarras. You could also access some of the grammars from there by bus. I think house prices there are high because of the school though.

The results from most of the other comps in Gloucester / cheltenham area are fairly average or poor, presumably because the grammars take most of the brighter children that would otherwise have gone to their local comp.