State school or private school?
When to start looking for school admission?
Once your home if filled with joy of having a kid immediately after that parents start thinking about schools, nursery and kind of area they should move into.
If you are late into registration into some good schools or nurseries you may be put into waiting list.
For example we were given waiting list of a famous private school in Reading and my kid were offered a place after 2 years. Seriously?
Unfortunately, this is the case if you are looking for best schools in Reading.
Which school is better, state or private?
This is a common question for every parent. However, before discussing which one is better affordability is the key issue as the private schools can be very expensive and may require some add ons which make the monthly fees too high. Once you know that you can afford private school, another question to ask yourself is about the local state school in your catchment.
If you have outstanding school i your catchment, it may be sufficient for your need. Some “Good” rated schools are also close to outstanding schools. The difference between Good or Outstanding state schools and private schools is similar in academics. In some cases state school may say to do 50 tasks out of 100 as other 50 tasks are optional whereas private school will push for all 100 tasks. Academically both the students may be similar, however due to extra curricular activities and the format of teaching private school kids may do very well in unorthodox sector and entrepreneur. In addition to this you get a network of people to know which can be very useful in the long term.
How to select a school?
You can see Top Schools in UK to see the top schools league table. You may also want to see OFSTED Report to find the rating of the state school. For private or independent schools you can see the ratings report HERE.
If you are looking for best state schools, then following areas have really good schools in Reading:
- Earley
- Woodley
There are very good state schools in Wokingham area as well.
If you have girls, then holt school which covers most of Wokingham, Winnersh and Earley can be best bet as it is rated outstanding and is girls only state school.
You can try for Reddam house private school which is near Lower Earley and Winnersh and a very good private school. Lower Earley has all primary and secondary school state schools which are either good or outstanding. Happy to have conversation if that helps. In Lower Earley Aldryngton Primary School is outstanding. Hawkedon is second best and coming up as good rating and closer to outstanding. Radstock was close to outstanding school but has gone down but still good. Others like Hillside and Whiteknights are also good schools. Most of these schools are over subscribed.
In private school category, Reddam house for co-ed is very good and Crossfield for boys and Abbey for girls really good.
For secondary school state school, Maiden Erlegh secondary school and bulmershe are very good state schools.