Harborne va Bournville

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Harborne vs Bournville

Hi all, we are soon to be relocating from the North East to Birmingham. My husband needs to be 20mins from the QE. We don’t know Birmingham well at all, we’ve started by having a drive around and really like Harborne and Bournville area (very different vibes I know!) but next steps to help make a decisions will be schools and it’s a total minefield!

I have primary aged children but want to plan for the future and avoid moving twice. It seems like single sex schools are so common in Birmingham and I dont think I’m keen on that…where are the best mixed, state secondaries?

please help one confused Mummy!

everyone likes these areas.

having lived in Birmingham for twenty years, mostly working in secondaries I’ve seen that they change a lot, and change quickly. It’s also very common for kids to travel quite far, due to the grammar system. So walking for 40 mins or getting two buses is often the case.

if you go for Bournville, just be aware it might be a BVT house which has its own struck guidance on buying and upkeep of the house as it’s a protected area.

Birmingham is a very tricky place in terms of secondary schools due to a grammar school system. Harborne doesn’t have great non grammar schools in catchment and many Harborne parents are tutoring their child to an inch of their life to get into grammars (lots of children for few places) or paying for schooling (but again requiring them to pass highly selective entrance exams). As leafhunter states children often travel up 40 mins a day to get to schools.

Moseley Queensbridge School, mixed comprehensive state school. Not too far from QEH

Thanks @LeafHunter I feel like I might be trying to plan too far ahead, especially since we’re going to Birmingham for 6 months then to Canada for a year before back to settle long term in Birmingham. I was just hoping if I could hit the right area first time round it’ll be familiar for the kids to come back to. We’ve already moved them once when my eldest was in reception from Newcastle to N Yorks so the mum guilt is strong 🤦🏻‍♀️ but you are right so much can change.
Thanks for the heads up about BVT!

Thanks @TJW13 argh this is so stressful!
ive just mentioned above we are going to Canada for one year after coming to Birmingham for just 6 months before coming back again to settle. Just wanted to try and hit the right spot. If a child passes the 11+ but doesn’t get in to their catchment school are they offered a place at another grammar school?
the grammar school system is totally new to me. I’ve never considered private as the schools here are so good, but I’m wondering if Birmingham state schools are going to be good enough if they fail the 11+, they’re really bright kids but only in reception and y2 and I’m sure most people think that about their kids. Which are the state schools that aren’t so good in Harborne currently? Any other state schools in other areas that are known to be particularly good? Thank you!

Harborne is a 'sought after area' but is void of good secondaries.
The Primary schools are great but children then tend to go to Private school or secondary if they don't get into grammar school.

I'd suggest Bournville over Harborne.

There is Bournville School and Dame Elizabeth in Bournville, but currently, Kings Norton Boys, and Kings Norton Girls are more popular. What have you got against single sex schools ?

Plus, things change a lot over the time that will pass before your dc go to secondary school.

Some of Kings Norton has some very nice roads.
A lot of Birmingham suburbs have a big variety of areas. Kings Norton is one of them - some beautiful areas within a couple of miles of some really deprived areas, all coming under 'Kings Norton'.

It will, of course, depend on your budget.

A lot of it is reputation.

i worked in Quinton (ne harborne) at a school where kids previously had very poor grades. I think it had 8% a-c pass for a long time. But staff and children change and now it has higher pass rate. Lovely staff, good facilities and a lot of very motivated kids, often who had parents who didn’t know or weren’t interested in 11+.

I then worked for a school elsewhere which had an amazing reputation. But they worked so hard to keep it that the staff and kids were miserable and the grades overall were no better than the Quinton school.