Slough or Wokingham?

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Parent Abroad
Posts: 11
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2020 8:57 am

Re: Slough or Wokingham?

Post by Parent Abroad »

Hi all, thanks to everyone who replied. We have noted and considered all your points.

Just to give an update — we’ve now secured a property in the Maiden Erlegh school catchment (0.6 miles away). And Bulmershe 0.9 miles away.

However, with the recent exam date announcement of the Slough Consortium which clashes with the Reading exam date, we don’t have the Slough exam as a fall-back option anymore. As a result securing a place in ME or Bulmershe has become more crucial.

Now my question — is 0.6 miles close enough to get a place there considering all the new changes this year?

TIA
Tinkers
Posts: 7240
Joined: Mon May 16, 2011 2:05 pm
Location: Reading

Re: Slough or Wokingham?

Post by Tinkers »

ME have usually allocated to about a mile, this year it was less and about 0.8mile. However I don’t know how the waiting list moves.

I think you should get ME or Bulmershe. I would advise looking at both though as they are quite different schools, with very different ethos.

Depending on which primary school your child attends you’d also have the option of Maiden Erlegh in Reading as well.

I know parents with children at all three.

I hadn’t realised that the Reading date and Slough date clashed.
Tinkers
Posts: 7240
Joined: Mon May 16, 2011 2:05 pm
Location: Reading

Re: Slough or Wokingham?

Post by Tinkers »

This might be useful, but hasn’t been updated recently.

http://hamiltonit.co.uk/Tools/google_ma ... chment.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Just checked this years allocations.
ME went to 0.865 miles.
Bulmershe went to 2.265 miles.
MER went to 1.311 miles.

I have allocations info for other schools in RBC and WBC as well.
Parent Abroad
Posts: 11
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2020 8:57 am

Re: Slough or Wokingham?

Post by Parent Abroad »

Thanks Tinkers.

Yes, I’ve noted last year’s allocation went down..worried if this year it gets further down.

Just to clarify my above post, the Reading school will allocate either 11th or 12th September for the candidates to sit the exam. And the Slough exam is on 11th. There’s still a chance

Regarding the WB state schools, how is Bulmershe compared to ME? And how good is the ME in Reading?

DS is studying in a British international school which has a variety of extra curricular activities including weekly PE, swimming and music in the curriculum. He takes an instrumental lesson and sits for the yearly ABRSM exam from his school. We also have an opportunity to hire his instrument from school for home practice.

Do these schools provide extra-curricular activities?
solimum
Posts: 1420
Joined: Wed May 09, 2007 3:09 pm
Location: Solihull, West Midlands

Re: Slough or Wokingham?

Post by solimum »

He takes an instrumental lesson and sits for the yearly ABRSM exam from his school. We also have an opportunity to hire his instrument from school for home practice.
Just an aside on the music issue (without any local knowledge at all!) - most UK schools have had music provision seriously reduced, the peripatetic teaching service is also underfunded so you may be lucky at the local schools or it may not be available. An increasing proportion of music tuition is privately organised (and often school lessons are only for half an hour a week, minus the time getting across school having forgotten what time it is this week...) which is not really enough to progress through the higher grades. Does of course mean that good quality music tuition is increasingly only available to the well-off or those with committed musical parents. I believe those taking GCSE music can have lessons funded by the school but again worth checking.

Either way I would suggest (sooner rather than later) investing in an instrument of his own for your child, as the quality of hired ones, if available, through the music service/school is never as good especially for the higher grades and it leads to children abandoning music altogether when they leave school if they haven't got their own instrument. Obviously some instruments are pricier than others (you can get cheap violins which will still need an upgrade for higher grades, while even an entry level bassoon is a stretch!) but the value to a child of having that extra "string to their bow" of a portable instrument when moving away from home for college etc is inestimable. There will be a thriving second-hand market and hopefully advice available from the teacher.
BucksorHert?
Posts: 23
Joined: Wed Feb 16, 2022 12:49 am

Re: Slough or Wokingham?

Post by BucksorHert? »

I'm curious. If the catchment is limited to 0.08miles how do they get enough numbers to fill their places within that radius? Or is it a super small school?
ToadMum
Posts: 11946
Joined: Wed Jan 18, 2012 12:41 pm
Location: Essex

Re: Slough or Wokingham?

Post by ToadMum »

BucksorHert? wrote:I'm curious. If the catchment is limited to 0.08miles how do they get enough numbers to fill their places within that radius? Or is it a super small school?
Observations:

- 0.865 miles, not 0.08
- this is likely to be what people loosely refer to the 'catchment', that is, where DC get in from, not the official Designated Area of the school
- said Designated Area isn't necessarily a 'a radius of x around the school' and may be quite asymmetrical
- that figure will be the distance of the last successful applicant, if this was a final category applicant (not LAC, not the child of a member of staff, not a sibling - living either within or outside the official Designated Area of the school, or a non-sib living in the DA) and the DA is asymmetrical, this distance could be from the edge of the DA nearest to the school; in-area applicants, and particularly non-DA siblings where the family moved away after the first DC got their place, may live much further away.

Not being able to find a map of the school's DA, however (at least, not that I can access on my phone), I may be completely wrong about the shape of the DA, but this is what happens elsewhere. Our own Priority Admissions Area school is practically on the western border of its PAA - we live towards the eastern border and in more than one year in the last decade or so, would not have got a place for our non-sibling applicant DC.
Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.Groucho Marx
Tinkers
Posts: 7240
Joined: Mon May 16, 2011 2:05 pm
Location: Reading

Re: Slough or Wokingham?

Post by Tinkers »

It’s not catchment to 0.8 miles. That’s the distance ME have allocated to that year. It’s typically about a mile. Some of those in catchment will not get places unless they have a sibling or other reason to be higher up the admissions criteria.

As TM points out, the catchment is not a neat radius around the school.

ME is over subscribed and gets more than enough applicants. It’s also quite a large school at 9 form entry.
Anyone wanting a place at ME needs to ensure they are well within a mile of the school.
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