Thame's schools are a real strength, and there are few enough of them that parents can know all of them. Three state primaries. One secondary. Nearly nine in ten schools across the county are rated good or better. It's a short list, and most of what's on it is worth getting into.
The three mainstream state primaries in and around Thame are Barley Hill Primary School, John Hampden Primary School and St Joseph's Catholic Primary School. Their pupils average 105 in maths in the end-of-primary tests. With only three to choose from, every parent at the school gate has an opinion on all of them.
Lord Williams's School is the only mainstream state secondary in the area, and its pupils average 46 on Attainment 8, the government's measure of results across eight subjects at sixteen. It started as the grammar school paid for in John Williams's will in 1559 and became a comprehensive in 1971. In all that time, the town has never needed a second secondary school.
Ofsted has graded 121 schools and settings across Oxfordshire, and 108 of them are good or outstanding, about nine in ten. Eleven of those are outstanding, 10 require improvement and 3 are inadequate. Another 151 settings across the county haven't been given a published grade yet. These are county-wide figures, so they show your chances rather than promising anything about one classroom.
Living close to Barley Hill or John Hampden won't guarantee a place. Oxfordshire County Council allocates places using its published admissions rules, and being the house nearest the gate doesn't let you skip them. St Joseph's Catholic Primary, as a faith school, sets admissions criteria of its own, so read its policy before treating it as the local option. Offers arrive in spring, and the families most surprised are usually the ones who measured the walk and never read the rules.
Schools are one of the best reasons to live in Thame. There are only a handful, the results are solid, and the county's inspection record mostly backs them up.