Which Crowborough School is Best - What Do You Think?

The new school year is just around the corner and in this new era of choice parents are faced with one of the milestone decisions of parenthood - which school for my child?

What matters to you when looking for a school?  Is it the proximity to home so they can walk to school, Ofsted reports, SAT scores, the area of town it's in, word of mouth, colour of the uniform or the family background of the other pupils?

Crowborough's lucky enough not to have the catchment area and over-subscription issues of Tunbridge Wells and our primary schools all have something different to offer.

St Johns C of E School  - A lovely little rural school run on church values.  On the edge of the forest it's surrounded by woodland.  It has a good ofsted report and SAT scores but is a little out of town, the parking is tricky and unless you live on the doorstep walking is not really an option.

Jarvis Brook Primary - This school has dramatically improved over the last few years and is now officially a 'Good' school according to it's recent Ofsted Report and several of it's elements are 'outstanding' - including pupil behaviour. 

White Hill Infant School for 4 - 7 year olds is smaller than average with around 120 pupils.  It's a lovely little school and it's Head is shared with Herne County Junior School.

Herne County Junior School - easily accessable in the middle of town this specialist key stage 2 school for ages 7 - 11 has great facilities.  With it's ICT suite and on-site swimming pool it has a lot to offer. For more info, click here

Sir Henry Fermor School - just next door to Beacon Community College.  It's above-average size - over 400 pupils on the roll - and oversubscription for most classes show that they must be doing something right.  Voluntarily Church aided, it's size means they have a high level of investment in their facilities.  Whilst large pupil numbers is usually a negative when looking for a school, it can be a benefit when going on to secondary.  The children are less overwhelmed when they move up and as Beacon is just next door they are used to the surroundings.

St Mary's R C School - on Chapel Green's Ofsted Report rated it as 'Satisfactory', however  it did acknowledge that the pupils achieved above average results in year 6.  A faith school, the children are happy and well-behaved and the school has been given pointers on how to improve. 

Mind you, when it comes to Ofsted reports I think it can be misleading - my own children attend different primary schools - the elder one's has an outstanding Ofsted report and the younger one's is much less complimentary.  However day-to-day happiness, learning and individual attention is far better in my younger one's than the perceived far better elder one's school. So waddyaknow.

Crowborough Beacon Community College

Is where most pupils go on to at secondary stage.  With about 1500 on the roll it is average-sized, but it's results are certainly well above average with this year's fantastic A level and GCSE results speaking for themselves. Crowborough Beacon is truly comprehensive and many Tunbridge Wells parents are opting out of the 11+ system, choosing the Beacon above the Tunbridge Wells Girls Grammar ,  Tunbridge Wells Boys Grammar and The Skinners schools for their children.

 What do you think of Crowborough's Schools? Are you a year R parent dreading their first day, ready to go home and cry all morning on their first day?