MA School - West Oxford

[RiverbankWest]

What are people's experiences of Matthew Arnold in Oxford? We're currently in the catchment (West Oxford) with our house of the market (need to upsize).

We've lived in West Oxford for a long time, and ideally would like to stay, but I have a few reservations about MA and was wondering if we should be looking for places closer to the Swan or Bartholomew instead.

DS is very young, so secondary is a long way off, but we want the next move to be the last one for a very long time. Any thoughts of people with firsthand experience of these schools would be very much appreciated.

I work in Oxford and from chatting to friends and colleagues I believe it's got a pretty good reputation, but I'm not all that well informed and as most of my friends have children who have left school now I'm a bit out of date. I'd have been happy to send my kids there had we not left Oxford (but that was about 10 years ago)

As you probably know, the Swan is aiming for a very specific approach. Quite strict and traditional. Some people love it, some hate it.

@irregularegular , yes, I do wonder if it would just be never ending detentions over trivial infractions at the Swan. Bartholomew seems great but that would be either require moving further out than we'd prefer or 35 mins on the bus each way for our DS.

Bump.

We live the wrong side of town but I’ve heard good things about MA and know people who moved to West Oxford specifically to get into catchment for it. No personal experience though, sorry.

Have friends with kids at MA and at Swan. MA is getting good results, is improving/on the up and seems to be a very happy school. The kids are chatty, confident and good at questioning
Swan's ok if you want something very strict. (My boys would have hated it.) Feels very formal to me and the kids are quite subdued about school, though say that they enjoy it.

@Notquitegrownup2 that's encouraging to hear re: MA. There was a thread on here a couple of years ago which mentioned some issues, but I saw that they recently received a good Ofsted report, so that would tally with your impression.

The Swan has an enabling curriculum, progress and attainment are strong and impressively at its first Ofsted inspection, 4 of the 5 categories were judged Outstanding. Are you also considering The Cherwell School?

My son left MA about 4 years ago. He did really well there and their approach suited him. At that time it was also quite strict imo. I had friends whose children never found MA ok and who ended up going to Cherwell for A levels, but for us MA was wonderful. Tbh part of that was his very close knit peer group, many if whom also went there so it was a smooth transition.

I never liked Bartholomew but a couple of friends chose it (one came to MA for A-levels).

@LadyLapsang My understanding with Cherwell is that even being inside the catchment doesn't guarantee a place these days. We don't have the £ for a property close to the school, and in any case, North and South Oxford lack some of the key things we like about West Oxford - proximity to the city centre and train station (although that's a massive PITA at the moment) plus easy access to nice countryside, with Port Meadow and Boar's Hill nearby.

We're only just outside the catchment for the Swan, so that seems like a more realistic MA alternative. Similarly, it's not unheard of for kids in West Oxford and Botley to get a place at Bartholomew after a period on the waitlist. That's why these are the main two alternatives I am considering.

@PermanentTemporary that's really interesting. Can you elaborate on why you weren't a fan of Bartholomew?

Overall, I imagine MA, Bartholomew and Swan would probably all go down as choices on our secondary application for DS, it's a question of preference order. No idea what I would put as a 4th, but I have several years to think about it.

2 main things. Ok 3, which was the one we gave to ds as a reason - that the coach was going to cost us £50 a month, which at the time was going to be a real stretch for our budget (we would have found the money if we’d really felt it was the right school for him). I just didn’t like the head much, and when we visited, the A level art class was all female, which raised alarm bells at a mixed school for me.

I liked the head at MA straight away, but she’s left now so that’s not much use for anyone else, except that I think feeling in tune with the head is a good way of choosing a school.

Another friend ended up getting to Marlborough (not the independent!) which surprised me, I had no idea it was anywhere near.

Both our lads attended our local nursery and primary school in Cumnor. We then had a choice between secondaries. Many families choose Bartholomew, some 6 miles away in Eynsham, but our thoughts were 'why put them through all that extra travel, time wasted and feeble social life?' when Matthew Arnold is only a 10 min walk away? We - and they - were very happy with MA. One son (19) has already started his own business and the other (22) is just finishing at Sheffield Uni

Thanks @Anedylon , that's my thinking, too. I don't think Bartholomew is so amazingly better than MA for the cons (no local friends and time wasted commuting on a bus) to be worth it.