Honeywell or Belleville? Post Reply

[SunMum]

Hi, can anyone help with some schools advice? We are new to the area and have our son on the waiting list (going into yr1 in September) for both schools. They both seem lovely and yet quite different. I'd really appreciate any thoughts on either school and whether you/your children are happy there?

[nvmof3]

As a honeywell mum, I'm obviously biased, but we did go through the decision making process last year and our choice of honeywell was based on the following:
- honeywell is divided into two schools, run separately with separate heads and separate playgrounds which means that our son is one of 270 that his head teacher has to look after as opposed to over 700 at Belleville. It also means he is never in the playground with the "big" kids
- honeywell is a foundation school which gives it a degree of autonomy vs Wandsworth council. It could never be forced to change it's admission policy or to have a 4th class in each year like Belleville
- honeywell is more play based learning in the lower school which may or may not suit your child but suits ours
- honeywell has been a consistently outstanding school for over a decade. Belleville has caught up under its current headmaster. I've heard it said that there is a risk that if he left Belleville would revert to it's previous standard. He is an excellent headmaster and the council may want to put him in charge of a failing school rather than keep him where he is
Having said all of that, I have loads of friends with kids at both schools and we all think they are brilliant so the bottom line is that we are all very lucky to have such fab schools near us.
Good luck with the decision.

[SunMum]

Many thanks for your response. I hadn't thought about some of the things you mention so I found it very useful. Like you say, it's fantastic that there are two great schools in this area and we'd be very lucky to gain a place at either!

[Peppermint Patty]

Hi there, I thought I'd put the case for Belleville here because I was concerned the previous post was based on hearsay and might lead to some misinformation.

My child went through Belleville from reception and left yr 6 last year, so while I obviously can't compare it with Honeywell, I can clear up some myths.

Belleville became an outstanding school in 2003, so it's misleading to suggest its success is recent. . Mr Grove is a great head, but in my experience he has little involvement in teaching. He's backed by a really strong second tier of deputies. And the staff turnover always appeared to be very low.

It's not likely to be under Wandsworth control for long - it's just pushing through a consultation on achieving academy status, which everyone expects to go ahead. And frankly no school can ever guarantee its head will stay put - inevitably they leave or retire. But even if Mr Gove were to leave, there would be a queue of excellent candidates wanting to take up the reins of such a sucessful school.

It's a big school, true, but it's unlikely a new starter would get swamped by bigger children in the playground. Playtimes are staggered - they're out at different times - and in any case the lower school has a separate playground from the upper school.

Size can be a strength, of course. What we loved about Belleville was that, in many ways, its size allowed it to be a holy grail in terms of inclusion: lots of highly motivated, committed and affluent parents with the resources and determination to contribute to the school's success, AND a good proportion of children from less affluent backgrounds that Ofsted pointed out do better there than at other local schools. Not all parents regard inclusion as important, of course, but it was a deciding factor for us.

And Belleville's size meant it had facilities not usually available to primary school children - dedicated and specialist art, science and computing teachers, for example, and a huge choice of after school clubs.

But the biggest benefit was in year 6, where the children were split into four classes of 20. That allows them to really concentrate on preparing for secondary school entrance exams. Again, Belleville has the resources to accommodate that final year of small classes.

I would say always try to gather the facts, rather than relying on 'I've heard it said..." type information. Why not ring Belleville - or any school you are considering - and put questions directly to the head? In my experience they are only too willing to talk to prospective parents.
Good luck!