Redland Green Catchment Area Changed

Plans to change the designated area of first priority (the catchment area) for Redland Green School have been finalised following an indication earlier in the school year that Bristol City Council was intending to make such a change.

As a result, Westbury on Trym and Stoke Bishop families now find themselves in the areas of first priority for Henbury and Portway Schools respectively.

The Council has also created a new area of second priority which encompasses BS9. Places at Redland Green School will, in theory, be available to children in this area once all families living in the area of first priority have been allocated places. Westbury on Trym residents are therefore effectively excluded from the new school as the area of first priority is already heavily oversubscribed.

Please click here for a map of the new catchment area. The area of second priority can be viewed here.

For news on Portway School, which is in the process of applying to become an academy, please click here.

For all posts on this blog dealing with Redland Green School, please click here.

Individualised programmes in maths and English for all ages and abilities. Redland Kumon Centre.

Colston's Girls' Most Popular School for North Bristol Families

Colston's Girls' School has topped a poll of schools that local families would choose if they were not successful in their application for Redland Green School.

The poll took place over the last month here on the Trym Tales site and when asked, "If not Redland Green, which school will you choose?", 25% of participants stated a preference for Colston's Girls', the independent school on Cheltenham Road which plans on converting to an academy this September.

Two of Bristol's other would-be academies came joint second in the poll, with 16% of the votes cast in favour of Cathedral School and an equal number for Portway School. Whereas the former two are independent schools already, Portway is set to follow the route of the majority of academies as the new trustees attempt to turn around a historically poor-performing school. Oasis Trust are the proposed charity aiming to take on Portway, a move which local parents appear to welcome if the poll results are at all representative. More on the planned change to Portway School here.

With families in Westbury on Trym effectively excluded from the new school following the change in the Redland Green School catchment area this year, the poll results indicate a swing away from the independent schools historically favoured by families in the Westbury on Trym area, with Redland High School for Girls, Bristol Grammar, Red Maids and Badminton School receiving no more than two votes each. This is anecdotal evidence, perhaps, of the popularity of the academy model among local parents at the expense of the traditional independent sector.

Full results, which may not be representative of local opinion as a whole, are reproduced below.

If Not Redland Green, Which School Will You Choose?

Henbury	3 (12%)
Portway	4 (16%)
Colston's Girls	6 (25%)
Bristol Grammar	2 (8%)
QEH	3 (12%)
Colston's	3 (12%)
Cathedral School	4 (16%)
St Katherine's	1 (4%)
Gordano	3 (12%)
Red Maids	2 (8%)
Badminton	2 (8%)
Redland High School for Girls	1 (4%)
St Ursula's	2 (8%)
Other	4 (16%)

The poll was conducted over 28 days in March and April. 40 votes were cast by 24 voters (multiple choices were permitted). St Mary Redcliffe School and St Bede's Catholic College remain very popular with local families but were not included in the poll as their admissions policies do not make them viable choices for all children.

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Locked Out of Redland Green? Keep Your Eye on Portway - Seriously

With the new proposed changes to the Redland Green School catchment area (here) Westbury on Trym parents have been left with a limited range of options for their children's secondary education.

Until now.

Plans are apparently at an advanced stage for Portway School to become an academy - a state- funded non-fee paying school independent of the local authority.

The proposed academy - which has to be agreed by Bristol City Council - will be run by Oasis Community Learning founded by Baptist minister and TV presenter Steve Chalke (MBE).

Oasis already has seven academies in its portfolio, and reports improvements in academic outcomes and behavior accompanied by increasing numbers of applications for places at them. Oasis is also due to re-open the Hengrove Community Arts College in South Bristol as an academy in September 2008. Westbury parents will therefore have a year to asses the work of an Oasis school before deciding whether to take the plunge and apply. The proposed takeover is scheduled for September 2009 if agreed by all parties.

In recent years Portway School has had low achievements in GCSEs and a high staff turnover - only 16% of students gained five or more A-C grades at GCSE last academic year and the school has had seven head teachers over the last 5 years.

The Oasis Trust is founded on Christian principles but does not use church attendance as a basis for applications. Chalke claims that "There will be people who won't send their kids to Portway. They are late adopters, not early adopters. In three years' time they will wish they had done." The Oasis Community Learning ethos and values can be seen on their web site here.

If successful, Portway will become one of five possible academies in Bristol - others being in St George, Hengrove and with proposals underway for Colston's Girls' School and Cathedral School to become academies over the next two years.

Some of the main questions people ask about academies are answered here and details of the new Redland Green catchment area can be found here.

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