Guildford County School

[todayortomorrow]

Hi,
We're considering moving to the catchment areas of Guildford County School for secondary. I've got a couple of questions for anyone with kids there/expert in it!

1. Would you recommend it? Any strengths, weaknesses in your opinion?
2. Do you know the furthest distance that people have got in from by the end of August, the Surrey website only has the data from the end of March and I'd assume it increases. Someone in a thread on here said it was 1.6k by Sept 24, where it was 1.16k at end March - would love to hear if that's the case
3. Bonus - if anyone's done this move, how did you find spaces at primaries?

Thank you!

My son is there and loves it. It's a school.where academically driven kids do very well I think. My son has some SEN, but without an EHCP. For anything related to this I often have to chase the SEN department for answers.
But yes, you have to live close. We got in via appeal. When our appeal happened in June, they were at 1.8km from school for waiting list. Can't imagine this getting any better with VAT on private school fees!

This is great to hear, thank you! The school told me it got to 1.97km for 2024 but was less the year before.

Any other feedback welcome

Interesting to know how far they got out via waiting list in the end - we wouldn't have stood a chance at 2.8km, despite this being our nearest secondary.

You asked for primaries - my son went to Queen Eleanors. Far less competition for places (we got in easily) and a good school overall! It's probably County's biggest feeder school.

Thanks for this, they currently have spaces so that would be our plan too. Do you know if many kids join in y5/6? Not ideal but what we'd need to do

My son who is sitting next to me (graduated QE year 6 in the summer) says that quite a few kids joined in year 5 and 6 and they found friends easily. Not sure how reliable this statement is, but I haven't heard anything negative either!

I have no personal experience of the school but a friend of mine was offered a place during the second week of September and moved her child who had already had a week elsewhere, they live 2.4mikes away.

@blobodob Just out of interest... 2.4miles or 2.4km? Would be interested to know whether we would have got in via waiting list eventually. We measured at 2.8km away (not miles). @todayortomorrow sorry for hijacking your thread, but I lived this appeal and school admissions for many months!

Actually, just rechecked... we are only 2.6km away, not 2.8km!

So sorry, km not miles!

@blobodob Ah ok, thanks. So it looks as if at some point during the autumn term the waiting list may actually have moved out to us if your friend got a place at 2.4km just after the start of term.

Not at all, this is all valuable info! & glad it worked out for you eventually

I wouldn’t worry about making friends at Queen Eleanor. There’s a fair amount of movement in and out and kids seem to settle quickly. Also they sometimes mix up the classes going into Y5 so they make new friends then.

I have kids at Queen Eleanors and can confirm that lots of families move into the area and get places at the school when their eldest is in Y5/Y6 so that they're in catchment for Guildford County. Their kids always seem to settle in and make friends quickly. There's also movement at QE due to proximity to the university and hospital and families moving for work/study placements.