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Views on Bucks Grammars

Posted: Tue Oct 27, 2015 4:51 am
by mpsv
New to this forum .,, considering moving to buckighamshire...not keen on high wycomve ... Which part should I live to opt for atleast schools ... By the way can somebody expand SWBGS

Re: SWBGS - new GS annexe in Maidenhead?

Posted: Tue Oct 27, 2015 7:27 am
by southbucks3
mpsv wrote:New to this forum .,, considering moving to buckighamshire...not keen on high wycomve ... Which part should I live to opt for atleast schools ... By the way can somebody expand SWBGS

Sir William Borlase grammar school.

Unfortunately with this area your budget constraints will be your deciding factor, marlow and the vicinity around it is one of the most expensive areas to live outside of london in the UK, so you wouldn't get much house for less than 500,000, rental prices are extreme too.

The further away from London you go, generally the cheaper the property, but the villages and prettier market towns are still extremely costly. There are some bits of chesham that are more affordable and some areas around the chalfonts but the uppers are not as good as great marlow.
Near to wycombe, in catchment of good grammars, ok uppers and more accessible housing than the pretty villages are areas like prestwood and holmer green and widmer, villages which have been developed to include large estates of housing but still have a very good sense of community, also check flackwell and Bourne end (prices rising recently) for catchment uppers, they may be great marlow??? A bit further north is princes risborough and the surrounding villages, which has a great sense of community but the upper is struggling at the moment. Then you are heading to aylesbury vale, far more affordable and has a huge huge expansion programme so lots of new houses, but be warned the best upper school near the new housing will not be including the new houses as its catchment, so unless you have strong Christian belief it's hard to get into if you need an upper place.

Really though think about uppers as well as grammars, or private secondary schools, these are non existent for boys, they have to travel to berkhampstead or maidenhead and one for girls in the southern bit, not sure about the aylesbury side.

To play the system you can opt for villages on the Oxon/bucks borders on the very peripheral of the bucks county catchment, which would mean you have access to grammars, uppers and what most people consider to be a very good comprehensive school.

Assuming money were no object I would probably opt for the marlow river area, but dh strongly disagrees with me as there are very few locals left around there and there can be a sense of conspicuous consumption which is a bit disgusting at times tbh.

Most importantly do not assume your children will secure grammar places, even f prepped at expensive schools, tutored, born to rich intelligent parents and showing signs of being bright as a button to yourselves, many children in these circumstances still do not pass the test

Re: SWBGS - new GS annexe in Maidenhead?

Posted: Tue Oct 27, 2015 10:49 am
by Guest55
mpsv wrote:New to this forum .,, considering moving to buckighamshire...not keen on high wycomve ... Which part should I live to opt for atleast schools ... By the way can somebody expand SWBGS
Bucks is a huge county - are you looking at the south or the north? We can give more help if you give more information.

I'd disagree with the above poster on the quality of some of the schools - Chalfonts and Amersham are both good Uppers - their intake is not the same as Great Marlow.

Re: SWBGS - new GS annexe in Maidenhead?

Posted: Tue Oct 27, 2015 12:00 pm
by Tolstoy
I would also add that Prestwood is in catchment for the Misbourne. This is more than an 'okay Upper ' it is actually very good. I have no experience with Great Marlow but if you look at the Gov stats Misbourne is pretty equal to it and last year seemed to produce better results at A'level. They are investing heavily in their 6th form and coming from an area where there were no 6th forms attached to the schools I feel a good 6th form option is of paramount importantance in any decision making process.

Re: SWBGS - new GS annexe in Maidenhead?

Posted: Tue Oct 27, 2015 1:20 pm
by southbucks3
I was referring to marlow mostly as this is on a thread about borlase.
All the schools mentioned above are good, the "ok" referral involved a large area with three catchment uppers not just the misbourne which has recently reclaimed its historic status of being good after a big glitch a few years back. My personal thoughts and those taken from the edge of sports fields are that great marlow has the slight edge as a school over all, not necessarily just academically. The best thing to do is lots research on schools in areas you like the look of.
Always remember though that our upper schools only take 75% of local children so the results cannot be compared to grammars but if you compare schools on the site raiseonline, you will see a break down of low/high/medium achievers and links to offsted reports.

Re: SWBGS - new GS annexe in Maidenhead?

Posted: Tue Oct 27, 2015 1:59 pm
by Guest55
Perhaps this thread needs splitting, Mods?

It's not clear where the poster is looking at and since they did not know which school SWBGS was then I don't know that we can assume they are looking at Marlow.

You need to dig deeper than DfE performance tables (not RAISE as that's confidential to each school) to compare intakes ie % of level 5s on entry to really know which is doing best.

Of course, you needs to look to see which suits your child best anyway!

Re: SWBGS - new GS annexe in Maidenhead?

Posted: Tue Oct 27, 2015 2:08 pm
by Sally-Anne
Guest55 wrote:Perhaps this thread needs splitting, Mods?
Thanks, have split this out.

Re: Views on Bucks Grammars

Posted: Thu Oct 29, 2015 12:09 pm
by mpsv
Thanks for the reply. My did is in yr 4 and now I am targeting her to get her into grammar so my choices were Kent and bucks but hubby mostly works in midlands so somewhere between London and midlands was a choice. Visited high wycombe looked at new builds but did not prefer the location... What are the locations I could live if I have to send my daughter to dr. Chanollers ..

Re: Views on Bucks Grammars

Posted: Thu Oct 29, 2015 12:22 pm
by scary mum
I would recommend visiting the schools to see which one would suit your daughter - the grammar schools in Bucks are of very different types & some schools are definitely a better fit for some girls than others. As previous posters have said, you need to assume that your DD may not get into a grammar and plan accordingly. I would advise against falling into the "grammar school, any grammar school trap".

Re: Views on Bucks Grammars

Posted: Thu Oct 29, 2015 1:12 pm
by ToadMum
mpsv wrote:Thanks for the reply. My did is in yr 4 and now I am targeting her to get her into grammar so my choices were Kent and bucks but hubby mostly works in midlands so somewhere between London and midlands was a choice. Visited high wycombe looked at new builds but did not prefer the location... What are the locations I could live if I have to send my daughter to dr. Chanollers ..
Isn't DCHS one of the more sought-after grammar schools? Or is that just the boys' school? I'm just boggling a bit at the concept of 'having to' send a child there, but perhaps I'm mistaken?