Harrogate... or Skipton
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hermanmunster
- Posts: 12901
- Joined: Fri Sep 15, 2006 9:51 am
- Location: The Seaside
Re: Harrogate... or Skipton
Wow - what a day!!! yes SGHS lilke many girls schools is rather less grand in appearance... boys looks a little more gothic and dominating with Passchendale (AKA the bottom Rugby Pitch in front) Friday was Market day (as is Monday, wednesday and SaturdayMikeW wrote: Friday was then a trip up North, first heading for Skipton. We did a drive-by of the schools (why does Ermysted's manage to look bigger & grander than SGHS?) but got put off by the amount of traffic around the town. Is it always that busy, or was something special on? There seemed to be a lot of tourists (it *was* a beautiful day), and a road closed due to resurfacing, which might have made a difference.
We then drove over to Harrogate, on the road past Bolton Abbey - and it is indeed pretty unpopulated, but a nice journey on a sunny day. That was followed by a whistlestop tour of flats we'd arranged with an agent. Followed by more driving around schools. DD was a bit upset to see someone had burnt down part of the playground in Valley gardens, where she'd played only a couple of weeks earlier. How do you explain vandalism to them???
It made for a pretty tiring day, all in all.
). They took the opportunity of half term to resurface Craven Street outside tesco-
shutting that street, inducing gridlock onto main roads and then putting up lights in newmarket street. Not good for anyone (tourists included - love em, keep the place jolly) but fairly unusual event - still frazzling by the time I went to work after 6pm... Narrow Boats galore here.
Trip to Harrogate indeed lovely - even in the fog last thursday, splendid shopping and noshing trip.
Good for your DD doing tests on hols.. hope she continues to get on OK.
Re: Harrogate... or Skipton
Mike, don't let the burning down of the playground put you off.
It's a very rare event here in Harrogate, and the local outrage was front page news for days (well, OK, we only have a weekly paper, but you know what I mean
).
The culprits have been caught (teenagers ) and are being dealt with! A new playground will rise from the ashes - perhaps they'll call it pheonix play park 
.
Wow, with that trip, you were only yards from my house (if I'd been there, that is!).
Did it help? Did you find a flat?
It's a very rare event here in Harrogate, and the local outrage was front page news for days (well, OK, we only have a weekly paper, but you know what I mean
).The culprits have been caught (teenagers
) and are being dealt with! A new playground will rise from the ashes - perhaps they'll call it pheonix play park .Wow, with that trip, you were only yards from my house (if I'd been there, that is!).
Did it help? Did you find a flat?
-
hermanmunster
- Posts: 12901
- Joined: Fri Sep 15, 2006 9:51 am
- Location: The Seaside
Re: Harrogate... or Skipton
Glad playground will get sorted - real shame as lovely spot there. Presumably teenagers weren't from HGS???
Re: Harrogate... or Skipton
Who knows. Kids - they're the same whichever school they go to, and wherever they live I think they've learned a rather sharp lesson though, from all accounts (that should read rumour, actually ).
I think they've learned a rather sharp lesson though, from all accounts (that should read rumour, actually ).Re: Harrogate... or Skipton
Hope the playground does get sorted - it has looked very popular on both our visits, and a good mix of ages. Does the pool ever get used for paddling? And what's the rumour? I've managed to find the local news on the StrayFM website, but that doesn't extend as far as rumour. A bit unusual for local radio!
I was also impressed that DD ended up chatting to some girls from Rosset while we were there, waiting for a go on the rope/pulley thing. She's normally far too shy for that kind of thing!
The trip helped, though we haven't found a flat yet - that's more because we're still waiting; a little due to fiscal prudence, and a little due to waiting to see which primary we get a space in. There's a couple of those we saw that we would go for, reasonably walkable to St Peters. We'll have more to look at next week too, with a few more agencies to add into the mix. Are there any agencies we should avoid?
There *was* one additional house that we spotted a "to let" sign, but hadn't yet made it to RightMove. I could have gone for that, but it had already been let by the Monday.
I was also impressed that DD ended up chatting to some girls from Rosset while we were there, waiting for a go on the rope/pulley thing. She's normally far too shy for that kind of thing!
The trip helped, though we haven't found a flat yet - that's more because we're still waiting; a little due to fiscal prudence, and a little due to waiting to see which primary we get a space in. There's a couple of those we saw that we would go for, reasonably walkable to St Peters. We'll have more to look at next week too, with a few more agencies to add into the mix. Are there any agencies we should avoid?
There *was* one additional house that we spotted a "to let" sign, but hadn't yet made it to RightMove. I could have gone for that, but it had already been let by the Monday.
Re: Harrogate... or Skipton
In case anyone finds this thread through Google in the future, I thought I'd round it off...
Earlier in this thread I'd concluded that we were still aiming at making sure we lived in catchment for HGS, and that there just wasn't time to go all out for either RGS or SGHS without a decent backup plan. But that we would include SGHS as a punt, and follow up later...
In the end, the move was a protracted affair that grabbed a lot of attention through December and over Christmas. That really shot a big hole in any preparation time for an 11+ test. HGS was a "jam tomorrow" thing - DD was more concerned about what was happening with the choice of new primary school, and what friends she'd make. And, of course, as she actually started the new primary after Christmas, the questions she got were all about what secondary she was going to. Getting settled, and making friends, seemed to start on that basis - but she seems to have done really well there (and surprised herself).
I should have realised all of these things, but in the end they took all the focus away from SGHS.
Finally, DD wasn't showing any drive about SGHS, while she was about HGS - and we figured that *that* was an important thing, and helped her feel settled where she was. And we all were enjoying being in Harrogate. It wasn't a hard decision in the end to drop the SGHS test.
-------------------------------
Incidentally, we found some interesting stats in this year's league table information... If you went from the tables (as available on the BBC website), and followed the link into the DfE site (and a further link if it is an academy), then you get to the full league table data.
But what seemed to be new was that they broke the KS4 attainment figures down further than I'd seen before: they gave results based on whether the children had been classed as "high, middle or low attainers" on entry - effectively the levels 5, 4 and 3 at KS2.
It was interesting to see that SGHS pupils were classified 95% high attainer and 5% middle attainer - suggesting that their 11+ level is indeed around level 5 at KS2. RGS was a little lower, at 87/13 - which probably matches the two different pass marks too.
Links:
- SGHS
- RGS
- St Aidens
- SJF
- HGS
What those seem to show is that, if you enter St Aidens as a level 5 "high attainer", the results match SGHS and RGS. Impressive!
SJF and HGS are a little behind those, even if you concentrate on just the "high attainer" levels.
Earlier in this thread I'd concluded that we were still aiming at making sure we lived in catchment for HGS, and that there just wasn't time to go all out for either RGS or SGHS without a decent backup plan. But that we would include SGHS as a punt, and follow up later...
In the end, the move was a protracted affair that grabbed a lot of attention through December and over Christmas. That really shot a big hole in any preparation time for an 11+ test. HGS was a "jam tomorrow" thing - DD was more concerned about what was happening with the choice of new primary school, and what friends she'd make. And, of course, as she actually started the new primary after Christmas, the questions she got were all about what secondary she was going to. Getting settled, and making friends, seemed to start on that basis - but she seems to have done really well there (and surprised herself).
I should have realised all of these things, but in the end they took all the focus away from SGHS.
Finally, DD wasn't showing any drive about SGHS, while she was about HGS - and we figured that *that* was an important thing, and helped her feel settled where she was. And we all were enjoying being in Harrogate. It wasn't a hard decision in the end to drop the SGHS test.
-------------------------------
Incidentally, we found some interesting stats in this year's league table information... If you went from the tables (as available on the BBC website), and followed the link into the DfE site (and a further link if it is an academy), then you get to the full league table data.
But what seemed to be new was that they broke the KS4 attainment figures down further than I'd seen before: they gave results based on whether the children had been classed as "high, middle or low attainers" on entry - effectively the levels 5, 4 and 3 at KS2.
It was interesting to see that SGHS pupils were classified 95% high attainer and 5% middle attainer - suggesting that their 11+ level is indeed around level 5 at KS2. RGS was a little lower, at 87/13 - which probably matches the two different pass marks too.
Links:
- SGHS
- RGS
- St Aidens
- SJF
- HGS
What those seem to show is that, if you enter St Aidens as a level 5 "high attainer", the results match SGHS and RGS. Impressive!
SJF and HGS are a little behind those, even if you concentrate on just the "high attainer" levels.
