Thames Christian School Post Reply

[Bibbity]

At the end of the talk the Head said something like "One last thing - Thames is a mainstream school, not a special school.  We try to be inclusive but there are limits.  Please remember we are a mainstream school."

I also found that my access to the Senco was blocked at every turn.  When I registered for the open day and asked if the Senco be available to meet I was met with a barrage of questions about my child's diagnosis and what documentation I had.  This was not put in a friendly or welcoming way.

I asked the student showing me around if I could meet the Senco (just like I was meeting other teachers). She looked baffled and then said I've had to speak to the Head to do that.  Then I asked the Registrar.  She was quite snappy with me and said "She's teaching - all day".  So I asked if she was a teaching Senco ie not a full-time Senco, and the Registrar said "no she's doing one-to-ones, all day" and then turned her back on me (!). (She also snapped at a student next to me.)

Add this to the change in tone and statements on their website over the past few years and I would say they are attempting to position themselves as more of a standard academic secondary and this of course involves ditching kids who might take up time or resources. 

[poutre]

If anyone is thinking of secondary school choices for sept 2022 - then do check Thames Christian School in Battersea - you’ll be blown away !
It’s a well led and fantastic Co-ed school with great teachers and pupils. Our child is very happy here thriving in fact because classes are small and the teachers get to know their pupils well - the children all know each other and there’s a close community spirit within the School. The Pupils are friendly and theres good friendship between them.
Lots of extra curricular club choices and a state of the art new building in Grant Rd that is a- mazing.
Sports , arts and academia are a very high standard. leadership excellent. Lovely parents too.

Thames school also has provision for a small number of dyslexic /dyscalculia children. It’s a wonderful school .

[Dud1ey]

@Bibbity, that’s a real shame. It’s sad that this seems increasingly to be the case - mainstream schools which were known informally to be supportive and tolerant of SEN pupils trying to change their image in recent years and making statements like that to deter SEN pupils from applying. It actually surprises me as well, given the amount of people I hear of looking for supportive schools for their children with special needs, there seem to be fewer and fewer private mainstream schools openly welcoming SEN pupils, but the number of kids with EHCPs/SNs is only increasing. It’s very sad. In our case the needs are not significant enough to warrant a specialist school (our child would not get a place) but we were hoping to find somewhere nurturing and kind that would support our child to achieve their full academic potential. Judging by what you are saying, Thames Christian School may not be the answer.

[Normandie76]

I also found the registrar very unwelcoming. An older lady, she questioned me as to why I hadn't brought my daughter on the day we were due to visit. "Where's XYZ?" she said in a disapproving tone. She then didn't want to show me round I felt because I hadn't brought her with me. She was cold and frosty and barely broke a smile at any point.

We did look at all the classrooms but I found it a bit chaotic for some reason, even though the children were very well-behaved.

The teachers themselves were lovely and very keen to explain what was going on in the classroom. Really lovely.

But the registrar put me off completely. She could do with going on an interpersonal skills course because they were sadly lacking on the day I visited.

The other off-putting thing was that when we went to visit a classroom for physics I couldn't see a single girl in Year 11. That was disappointing. My daughter is very geeky and loves maths and computing. When I asked about why there were no girls, the registrar said "Well it is physics".

That was the nail in the coffin.

I'm sure for the right child its the right school but the review up above just sounds like one of the staff, not a real parent.

They need to address their personal relations with prospective parents and come into the 21st century as they are quite off-putting as things stand. A shame as the teachers themselves were lovely but the team around the admissions staff are questionable to say the least.