Banbury Secondary School Advice Anyone?

[Swizzylyons]

Hi,

We are considering a move to Banbury from London and wanted to know what the school situation is like as it’s a big factor in our move. Two children currently in Y1 and Y4.

We love our local area in London, but wanting to move closer to family. Currently, our children are at a good primary school and we have a local outstanding school on our doorstep. We have seen some negative reviews about Wykam High school, which would be our nearest if we bought this house we are keen on. Lots of negative press on here though. Blessed George Napier (better results) is also close but we are Church of England not Catholic. Looking at the likeliness of getting in there - according to their criteria it looks slim…?!

Any insider knowledge would be greatly received!

Thank you.

Welcome any ex London people who have done the move and their views too!

Nothing to add but would also like to know the same - hopefully someone will come along soon and answer.

My colleague used to work at Wykeham Park. He lasted 6 months. He did not have anything good to say. Myself and my Siblings went to Blessed George Napier but we all did one A level at Wykeham Park due to timetable clashes at BGN, you can enroll in both sixth forms as the schools are next to each other. My brother had this teacher who was selling drugs to students, that was why the school changed its name. Used to be Banbury school.

The teacher was his business studies teacher. Apparently she was rubbish and he ended up teaching himself. She was too busy running her drugs business.

Ha! I don’t even know where to begin with your comments! I’m a teacher myself and so the thought of running a ‘breaking bad style’ drug business in school is beyond belief!

Really hoping BGN are a lot more accepting of CoE in a few years…

Banbury schools do not have the best reputation tbh, but I had heard that Wykham park had turned itself around. North Oxfordshire Academy is supposed to be pretty good - has good sports facilities for sure. A lot of people try to get into the Warriner (in Bloxham village but slowly getting joined to Banbury..) but it is full to bursting so you might struggle if not in catchment. It has lovely subject teachers but the senior leadership team are too stern for my liking but it is consistently good - unless you’re a town person I would consider moving to a village outside Banbury? Primary schools in the villages are lovely and most in an academy for one of the better secondaries..

Lots of non-catholic children get a place at BGN. Place allocations are shown on Oxfordshire CC website. Agree that Warriner is also popular.

Thanks all. Good to know for the future! Really helpful. Especially the concept of BGN being accepting of non catholics!

I'm not from Banbury but I have experience of other catholic schools and find your comments about BGN's attitude to non Catholics really strange and a little offensive. It's not about how accepting of non Catholics they are, that's not how it works, it's about how many spaces are available and how many catholic children apply for a space. The admissions criteria will give priority to certain groups, and Catholics will be higher up that priority than C of E, because it's a Catholic school. C of E will very likely be higher up the priority than non baptised children. If there are spaces as the admissions people work their way down the criteria, your child will be admitted, and there will be absolutely no difference in treatment between your child and any other, whether catholic, Muslim, C of E, atheist or anything else.

Hi, thanks for your message. I’m not entirely sure what you find offensive in me being pleased to see that BGN is welcoming children who are non Catholic into their school. I think perhaps you have taken my word ‘accepting’ out of context. Purely meant that according to their admissions criteria, they will admit lots of children but of course Catholic students will be at the top of that list. I clearly was not implying that Catholic schools hold any discrimination over other faiths/agnostic/atheists etc.

I am a Christian myself and have also worked in a Catholic school and have seen how many students in that school were of the Islamic faith and the students/staff alike respected that it was a faith school and upheld its principles regardless of their own personal beliefs. This was mainly due to the fact the demographic of the area had changed massively since the school had first opened.

If BGN is an oversubscribed school I would imagine that immediately my children would be lower down on the list as they are CofE not Catholic. As a teacher, I know how the criteria works but I was interested in any first-hand experiences of getting students into the school despite them not following the Catholic faith. Not entirely sure what is strange about that or offensive?

Thanks for your feedback though.