by beachdreaming » Tue Sep 12, 2017 12:07 pm
We just got into Honeywell yesterday and we live on Taybridge Road so Thurleigh would have well been in catchment as we are over 1km. We got into Belleville before the summer started. We will most likely stay with Macaulay CofE because we like the one form entry, kind atmosphere, good teaching, diversity, ample play space, walking distance and extracurriculars for our son. We never thought we would get into the BTC schools but the bulge year at Belleville this year and last year probably helped along with the new distance policies. I hear a lot of people rely on tutoring at all schools, private as well for some, so the key is to find the place where your child will be most happy and suits your family's schedule. We didn't really figure out until about a year out where would best suit our son but really the schools are all very good around here. It's nice to have a good private backup but we ended up deciding that state suited us just as well. You just have to do initial visits at all state and private to get an initial feel (when pregnant is good), put names and deposits down before or at birth and then visit a year or so before entry and decide. In terms of figuring if you'll get into a state, getting within 100-200m gives you a good guarantee (except for Wix bilingual), otherwise, figure out Belleville's bulge years and you may be lucky to fall within one of those, the other years in between may have very small catchments because of all the siblings pouring in from the bulge years. We got into Macaulay on distance luckily but for any of the CofE's and Catholic state schools, you can always look up their church involvement requirements and start now too.
We just got into Honeywell yesterday and we live on Taybridge Road so Thurleigh would have well been in catchment as we are over 1km. We got into Belleville before the summer started. We will most likely stay with Macaulay CofE because we like the one form entry, kind atmosphere, good teaching, diversity, ample play space, walking distance and extracurriculars for our son. We never thought we would get into the BTC schools but the bulge year at Belleville this year and last year probably helped along with the new distance policies. I hear a lot of people rely on tutoring at all schools, private as well for some, so the key is to find the place where your child will be most happy and suits your family's schedule. We didn't really figure out until about a year out where would best suit our son but really the schools are all very good around here. It's nice to have a good private backup but we ended up deciding that state suited us just as well. You just have to do initial visits at all state and private to get an initial feel (when pregnant is good), put names and deposits down before or at birth and then visit a year or so before entry and decide. In terms of figuring if you'll get into a state, getting within 100-200m gives you a good guarantee (except for Wix bilingual), otherwise, figure out Belleville's bulge years and you may be lucky to fall within one of those, the other years in between may have very small catchments because of all the siblings pouring in from the bulge years. We got into Macaulay on distance luckily but for any of the CofE's and Catholic state schools, you can always look up their church involvement requirements and start now too.