Quentinb

Hi all,

A little about me. I am South-African and have a British passport and we are planning on moving to the UK before the start of the next school year. We don't have the money for a private school, who does? So I would like to know from personal experience which public schools are the better ones? We are planning on living somewhere far South/South-West in some rural area. I work from home so location is not such a big problem as long as I have a Fibre internet connection.

I know I can get a list of school from the web, but I would really like your input on this matter.
My kids are aged 10 and 13, so not sure if in the UK that is Primary and High School?
Just a website link will be good enough.

Thanks a million.

christmasoompa

Hi, I'm going to change your thread title, as in the UK 'public school' actually means private/fee paying school - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public...United_Kingdom)

You will have children in primary and secondary, your 10 year old will be in Year 5 or 6 (depending on when their birthday is), and your 13 year old will be in Year 8 or 9 (ditto). So you'll need a good primary and secondary. You can search the school rankings to see which are the best ranked schools, but you'll find good schools in most areas tbh. I live in an area with some of the best schools in the country (here is a previous post from me about my daughter's secondary school - Education better in UK?), but of course house prices reflect that (Berkshire).

You could look at grammar school systems if your children are very academic - Bucks, Berks and Kent, although not sure what you mean when you say 'far south'? If you can narrow down the area a bit, then that will help people make suggestions for you.

Bear in mind too that if you go somewhere with excellent state schools, they're like to be very oversubscribed unfortunately, and places have already been allocated for the next school year. So you may find you don't get your first (or even second or third) choice of school anyway, and your children will just have to go wherever you can get a place. You can though, put them on the awaiting list for your preferred school and hope they get in at some point.

HTH, good luck with the move.

Quentinb

Thanks, so let me get this strait, the UK has State, Public and Private schools? State schools are free and Public/Private are fee based?
I guess that an Independent school means that it is not State nor Private but does have a fee based system.

Okay, then my Title for this post makes no sense at all.
As you said, I think we should first narrow it down to where we want to live and decide if we will make use of a State or Independent school, depending on what we can find and what we can afford.
Thanks, best would be to delete this Thread
Sorry

christmasoompa

Independent schools is just another name for private schools.

Essentially, you have state schools, they can be academies, or grammar schools for secondary (selective schools, you have to pass an exam and score a certain amount to go there), or just 'normal' comprehensive schools. You can have single sex schools, or mixed. At least, that's my understanding anyway. They're 'free', although of course by the time you've paid for school trips, uniforms, sports equipment etc, they're really anything but as my poor bank balance will testify!

Private/public/independent are all fee paying, but you can get bursaries or scholarships if you have a child that is particularly bright or gifted i.e. in sports or arts.

You can search for areas with the best schools and then aim for there, it will probably be places like Berkshire or Buckinghamshire, but of course they're expensive to live in (as a general rule, areas with lots of good schools = pricey housing). Or you can find the area you want to live in and then find a school to suit.

No need at all, you may think of questions you want to ask, or it may just be of use to others in the future.

Whatever you do, I'd recommend you sort it out asap if you want to get your children in for September, as you've left it very late and as said above, they will probably be put on a waiting list now. The sooner you move, the better your chances of getting a place at the schools you do want.

Best of luck.

Quentinb

Thanks, this already helps.

TinaU

Hi again Christmasoompa! My eldest daughter will turn 11 next January. We plan to move to England in May/June. Will she go to primary or secondary school? Will it be too late to apply for the new session?

Maggiepie

Hello Quentin
I can really recommend Malmesbury, Wiltshire and it`s school which is rated as outstanding in inspections. These inspections are called OFSTED. https://www.malmesbury.wilts.sch.uk/ As there is a Malmesbury in South Africa it could be a sign! It is a market town with countryside around it and not far from good road links. It is in the southwest but 1.5 hours from Heathrow airport

christmasoompa

TinaU

Thanks for the very useful info. I thought the school session ends by June, so she'd have to start the new session in September. Then best will be to let council decide her school and I should apply for my choice later on. But could the council put her in a school far away from our house?

christmasoompa

No, term doesn't end until July. One of my children breaks up on the 20th July this year, the other the 24th. So she'd still have a couple of months in primary school before the end of term if you move in May. Got to say, it would be an appalling time to move as they will be about to sit their SATS, so chucking her in right at the deep end! But it also would have the advantage of her at least meeting a few people so there is a friendly face or two when she starts secondary in the September (if you can get her in to a local school.........possibly not).

And yes, the council can put her in any school, they'll give you the closest with space, but that may not be anywhere near. A quick Google will show lots of news stories of kids having to travel miles away.

But it will depend on how oversubscribed your areas is, you'll need to check that out and see how likely you are to get your choice of school. Is your date fixed, no way you can move for this school year? It would just make it so much easier all round!

prospect

We moved in Jan to the Midlands and from my earliest conversations with the Admissions Board here was (with a laugh) - why would you? Our area is very over-subscribed and I also have kids in 'boom years' and the misfortune to need two places in the worst of these two years! My understanding is some counties have Admissions groups that are more lenient and in some cases I know people have been able to find a school and liaise with them directly re waiting lists but that has not been our experience (schools have been friendly to a point and then very unhelpful). We were incredibly lucky to get all 3 into the same school although it was our third priority - we were warned the kids could split or in a school a few miles from our home. In some counties Admissions run 'overflow' buses for the kids that can't be housed locally. We have had our kids names at our local school for 6 months with no success - though they have moved up (and I need to ring every week before a break to retain their place on the waiting list). It could be another 12 months before all three have places at the same school again. As the UK govt points out with the state system you don't get a say but you can indicate a preference!! It has been all quite stressful for us - not having the flexibility after being in a country where one does have the option to chose/more kids around when things aren't going to plan. The high school in our area is much lauded and so rentals are also hard to find as people are keen to move into the area by year 6 to get on the lists for the year after. Another issue was the Admissions Office would not formally process our application until we had moved in, despite us having a rental agreement. In the end I think they did start looking at our application earlier but they were threatening a possible 3 week wait after we'd been in temporary accommodation for 3 weeks.

TinaU

What would be a good time to move then? However, I don't want to go in winter, as my kids aren't used to that weather. Forgive me for my ignorance, but what SATS do primary school goers need to sit for?

prospect

SATs are a week of tests that they sit in year 6 in May .... they spend a good part of the months prior preparing for them. They are very important to the schools in terms of reporting based on showing level of attainment and also progression through primary school. We came in Jan in middle of winter and it was no big deal for us ... academically our kids have thrived but have struggled with things like presentation and handwriting, where the expectations are very high and that's not something they were used too.

christmasoompa

christmasoompa

Just thought it might be useful to show you a few of the SATS papers from this year, so that you can have an idea of what your child will be doing if you do move in May, and what the rest of her class will have been working towards.

Maths - https://assets.publishing.service.go...soning.pdf.pdf and https://assets.publishing.service.go...hmetic.pdf.pdf and
https://assets.publishing.service.go...soning.pdf.pdf

Spelling/grammar - https://assets.publishing.service.go...stions.pdf.pdf and https://assets.publishing.service.go...elling.pdf.pdf

Nothing tricky, but they'll have been practising timing and revising for quite a while, hence why I'd suggest you move earlier if possible. More just for her confidence and settling in than everything, it would be awful if she arrived and was stressed about failing the tests, they don't have any great impact on her life but it wouldn't be the best start to life in the UK.

HTH.