School

walton high school!

In my opinion, ask about. Take no notice of ofstead reports. My children go to St Leonards primary which is an excellent school. I haven't heard any bad reports about John Wheeldon. Go and talk to the headmaster and have a look around and if you get the chance ask parents of children already attending.
As far a secondary schools are concerned you'd best visit. The only one I would say NO about is Rising Brook. All of the others have good and bad reports. It depends what you're looking for. Personally, since the age of 7 my son has been a year ahead of his peers. He is now on a list of gifted and tallented. The school that is best suited to his needs would be Walton, this could easily change. It depends on the individual and their needs. Again, visit the school and ask questions best to make your own mind up.

I have two nephews there at the minute, and another has just left. No real issues as far as I'm aware. My girlfriends son is also there, and does have an issue with one teacher, but that happens everywhere TBH. I also went there, I turned out a well rounded individual

anutha vote 4 walton hi skool hear

(no, seriously - it's a great school)

Haha..

I went to Walton and it was notoriously good... The misses went to both Rising Brook, and Graham Balfour... and both were notoriously....err shit!

In My Humble Opinion of course!

Welcome to this big waste of space ToriRat, my son started at John Wheeldon in Sept 07, in reception class. It was a huge decision for us, as all of his nursery friends went onto St.Johns but I am very happy so far, the new head is Miss Colgrove who only started there in Jan, but she's made her mark already in many positive ways, terrifying as she is. When the children get back from half term, they'll be newly installed bike sheds and cycling tests for the 7+, bonza idea as half of the kids cycle in, only for us poor parents to drag the bikes home again.
Miss Colgrove came from Silkmore Primary, Ofsted were ready to close it down, she did an amazing turn around with it there. Go and have a look, like any school/nursery you need to get a feel for the place, I've worked with four local primary schools and they are all much the same but it's what's going to best suit you and your childs needs .

Is the nursery next to JW still there. Is it Sandyford?

It's called Stafford Childrens Centre. It's no where near as good as Sandyford. Three of my children went to Sandyford and it was brilliant. My last child went to SCC and I have taken him out and he now goes to St Leonards pre-school which is far better. Sandyford was like an extended family, the staff were lovely and the children learned so much. There's a saying, 'if it's not broken, don't mend it.' That was the case with Sandyford. I have no problem with the new building, it's the new methods of teaching the children. It's lost all 'personality'.

I went to Blessed William Howard and that was a good school in it's day......not sure if it still is or not but we all did well there.

My eldest child will be going to high school in September and we visited BWH on an open evening.

Very impressed with their set up and especially their standards.


The following evening we went to Rising Brook.
No comment due to possible libel action.
Hopefully they can improve before it goes too far

dirtybobby said:

anutha vote 4 walton hi skool hear

(no, seriously - it's a great school)

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me too....and i turned out ok.

wildwood said:

The misses went to both Rising Brook, and Graham Balfour... and both were notoriously....err shit!

In My Humble Opinion of course!

Click to expand...

my mum used to teach at balfour and only retired a few years ago- i have great faith that she was ok, even if the rest of the school wasnt.

all 3 of the high schools mentioned here have had massive amount of money put into them since the time i left to go to uni (1997) and so i have to admit, despite my bias....i have no idea what they would be like now.

for me, the biggest consideration would be not only how good the school was, but the location.

we moved to the town centre when my little bro was born, but were included in the baswich catchment area because thats where our childminder was.

it did have a big impact on my social life as a child as i never did cycling proficiency (still cant ride a bike now!) and stuff like playing out or going to mates houses for tea was all a bit of a ballache with lifts etc.

i remember being absolutely mortified when it came close to leaving leasowes as there was suddenly the threat that i might have to leave my mates and go to king eddies because we lived in the catchment area. luckily, because i kept going to the childminders with my bro (who was still at juniors at the time) i was safe and got to go to walton with my mates.

i can still remember being in the kitchen when my folks read the letter now- it properly worried me.

if you guys have only recently moved back to stafford, your daughter may be feeling a bit lonely and the thought of having to make new friends again in a years time may be really daunting. forgive me if im making presumptions, but from my own experience and despite not having kids, it would have to be a consideration for me.

ultimately, i know youll want the best for her, and you know her best, so im sure between you and the rest of your family you will be able to make a suitable choice.


x

All of mine went to blessed bills, I couldn't fault it, but it depends on where you live to where your catchment area is, unless you fancy going up against the board of governors to try and get your little one in, it's not easy, but can be done if your determined.

Good luck what ever you choose.

Read on....

ToriRat said:

Now i just have to find a preschool/nursery for ma lil boi.

Luv
Tori X

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Well I highly recommend mine!....but we're full til March 09.
I can advise you on many in the area if you let me know what your requirements are.

http://www.staffordshire.gov.uk/education/childcare/

I have to be careful here, because talking about schools is likely to get my blood pressure to popping point. I am married to a deputy head teacher, I volunteer in school as a reading buddy, and I spend a lot of time in schools with my job.

The best advice I can give is to ignore most of the advice you get! and completely ignore league tables and take Ofsted reports with a pinch of salt.

In the good old days you went to your local school, and if you listen to a lot of people, schools were succesful then, and failing now!

My kids went to The Grove, yes on Highfields!!! 200 and something in the League tables!!! Should I be reported to social services? My eldest two now go to King Eddies. I have been perfectly satisfied with both, my kids are rounded, and achieving very well at school. They go to same school as the people who live around them, and I have no reason to start dragging them across the town, and joining the "take your kids to school in the car" brigade.

I could go on, I won't.

As said, the league tables are a load of rubbish. I left school with 3 GCSEs, so no doubt lowered my schools standing a fair bit (Weston Road). Still got a degree without much effort though, so the school can't really have failed me that badly. I just couldn't be bothered to revise or do my exams, so if the school did fail anywhere it was in getting my attention.

Just an update, after saying ignore league tables, I need to re-emphasise this. King Eddies finished one place behind Walton in the recent published ones based on year 9 pupils who achieved level 5 or above in their SATs, this made them 7th in the County apparently, and comfortably ahead of the other secondary schools in Stafford. Does this mean much? ... of course it doesn't, but it didn't stop me pasting the article on the locker of my colleague who had informed me that he wouldn't let his kids go to Eddies' because it was "sh*t". He did look rather embarrssed when I pointed out that that's where my kids go!

No! lets hope we don't get any more of this kind of good publicity for Eddies, we'll have all the muppets who moved to the Walton catchment area, begging to be let back in to our slum. Well I am building a wall to keep them out, "Eddies for Highfields Kids, not for softy Southerners" We'll have people scrabbling to buy ex-council houses before you know it!