High View Post Reply

[stayathomemuminsw11]

Ellesmum-I really feel for you. When does your daughter turn 5? Legally, she doesn't have to be at school until the term after she turns 5... So, if she is September-December birthday, she doesn't have to go until Jan next year, Jan-March birthday, doesn't have to go until April next year, and if she is an April-August birthday she doesn't actually have to go until September next year (she'd then go straight into yr 1).

I only mention it, because she could potentially be at home or carry on at nursery (if she goes to one) and stay on the waiting list for other schools, and you never know, she may get a place sometime during the year, or in year 1? Where are you on the waiting lists for other schools?

I agree that shouting at kids in Reception is pretty unacceptable. Raising your voice maybe, but not shouting.

Also not good that there is no 'settling' in or similar, like you say, everyone I know whose kids are off to other Wandsworth schools are having some introductions of some kind...

Good luck!

[supergirl]

Hi Ellesmum

I understand what you are saying and whatever the situation a teacher should NEVER shout to a child. Raising voice... Perhaps, but in my book like yours shouting is a big no...
You should definitively talk to the head and raise the subject.
Also in regards to settling in periods i was under thr impression that ALL schools in wandsworth have a settling in period. If they havent contacted you yet you should br proactive and call them (i know i would but i can be a real pain in the ... if i have to ) and ask what are they planning to do and when. Raise the shouting subject with the Governors too and contact the PTA. You need to approach the parents if you want to have a full picture...
Otherwise what are your options? Home schooling?
Sx

[ellesmum]

She's still only 3, so I know I have some leeway, but the annoying thing is that she is so, so eager to go to "Big school" and my heart breaks for her that it might not be possible for her to do so for anything up to another year. Both myself and her nursery have worked so hard to get her ready for school, working on her language, her confidence, etc, to ensure that she can not just keep up with some of the children who are almost a year older than her, but exceed them in some areas, and it will be a real disappointment for all of us for her not to start when she's actually completely ready to do so. Although she loves her nursery, she is eager to move on and won't tollerate another year there, especially not after all her friends have left (none of whom are going to HV). The second thing is that from a financial point of view, it will cripple me to keep her in nursery for another year. Plus, with the extra money we spend on nursery/private, we could simply move closer to one of the "better" schools because we rent. The problem is that the lease can't be broken until December at the earliest. Whilst it will mean giving up work, I would rather keep her at home until a school place comes up.

[FraggleRocks]

So sorry to hear about your experience Ellesmum - of course you are upset. I would really recommend trying to speak to the headteacher. We found her very good (just one opinion though). I am shocked that she didn't say anything to you - is it possible that she was not aware of your visit? (Which just isn't good enough - the office should have made sure she was aware and should have arranged for a face-to-face meeting for you). Best of luck with it all.

[ellesmum]

I will try to call her this week, or will approach her at the information evening next week if not. I have been in contact with the school several times to ask about the settling in and was told that a letter was being sent out, but when we got the letter, it was just about the information evening. It's like banging my head against a brick wall, and, whilst I have no intention of sending DD off to school, forgetting about her and declaring that it's all the teacher's job, I also don't want to be having to spend vast amounts of energy chasing them for information that should be imparted without excessive parental pressure when the time I spend chasing could be better spent having quality time with my child or working.
I'll be honest, I'm emotionally drained from trying to sort this out. It's all I think about, and it's driving me crazy trying to think of a way to "fix" it. As others have said, I have no issues with my daughter having a diverse education - that's what living in London entails, and she herself is diverse - but I don't want to constantly have to fight for everything for her. Currently, she is a bit ahead of the game - she can count, she can do simple maths, she can read a little, etc - and I'm worried that if I'm not there at the school every day pressuring them, are they going to help or hinder her? Also, will she fit into a school year which, in all probability, will be made up mostly of children from the nursery who have spent the past year together? Will she make friends, and "nice" friends at that. At the moment, her behaviour (at least at nursery!) is exemplary, and she makes me very proud. I do not want her learning bad habits from others, although I accept that she probably will, wherever she goes! Right now, the school is not inspiring confidence that they can adequately meet her needs, and in 6 years' time when I have to go through all this again for secondary schools, I don't want to be thinking "if only I'd gone with my gut instinct when she was 3"

[FraggleRocks]

Fwiw, I know that only a minority of YR have been inthe nursery, and all of the HV kids I've personally come into contact with have been children i'd be happy to have my child mix with. I've only met a handful directly though. If I were you I'd have a very frank discussion with the head. Perhaps see if you can meet the reception teachers as well?

[LauraBrown]

I have read this thread with interest as I was also hoping someone with proper experience of the school would post.

As you have admitted yourself ellesmum, you are obviously feeling very emotional about this whole issue. I am concerned therefore, that an extremely negative picture of HighView is now being embedded in people's minds and will remain on this site for future readers.

Annabel - would it be possible for you to get in contact with people at the school to give them the opportunity to respond to this extremely harsh criticism where someone would be 'devastated' to send their child there and apparently observed an incident so awful in a Reception class that she as an adult felt 'shaken' by it? These are very serious comments and I feel like it is incredibly unfair on the school to not give them an opportunity to reply.

[ellesmum]

I'm more than happy for all of it to be taken down, but people asked me to elaborate on a previous post, so I did. I have also not given the whole story, but will be more than happy to give a statement to the school if they request it.

The negative view was one that I received from Highview itself. I have admitted that it might not have been indicative of how it is EVERY day there, but during our time viewing the school, that is what we experienced.

Please, do not patronise me, Laura. My child also witnessed the incident, and it was her reaction that also left me shaken, and she is the one who would have to be there day in, day out for the next 7 years potentially. We entered the school feeling very positive, having heard positive things from other parents with children there which boosted us, and left feeling as though the world had crumbled. There were other things which also made us feel this way, which I will not elaborate on, but the reception class incident was the most serious. If you believe it is OK for a teacher to shout at a 4 yo child, that's your call, but I don't believe it is.

Oh, and I have also been hoping that lots of parents with children there would jump to the school's defence, reassure us that we were just unlucky and saw them on a bad day, but they haven't. Is that indicative of how little the parents at the school care? And I don't mean that in an accusing or rhetorical way, I genuinely want to know whether the parents of the children there care about their children's education or whether I would be a lone voice protesting in the background. Do your children go there Laura? Would you send them there?

[LauraBrown]

To be honest, it's hard to imagine you entered with an open mind given your first post on this thread where you talk about feeling devastated, gutted etc etc.

But that's not the point. When people come on this site reviewing local businesses negatively, people always say that they should have first raised the issue with the company in question (before putting on a public forum) as poor reviews can have such a negative impact. This is clearly even more true for all our local schools which are not Honeywell or Belleville. And, it's always good when local businesses come onto threads to explain what went wrong or how they are addressing whatever issues someone has raised.

I think in this case, I would like to see a bit of balance and, apologies if you find it patronising, but it is clear that you are very emotional about this (having left the school 'feeling as if the world had crumbled') and so perhaps your view is a little influenced by how worried you are feeling generally about your daughter's schooling (access to "nice" friends etc)

Perhaps if you do raise your issues with the school directly, you could post on what they have to say? Totally understand that it might not change your view though, of course!

[FraggleRocks]

Ellesmum - agree it would be nice if HV parents had jumped in to defend the school but that they haven't may simply be a reminder that NVN is still a relatively small forum not entirely representative of the whole of the local area. About 80,000 people live within a 1 mile radius of HV while the number of regular posters on NVN numbers in the dozens. It may simply be that these parents don't consider themselves in Nappy Valley and so don't hang around on here. That shouldn't be taken to mean they don't care about their children's education.

Sorry, I don't want to take away from your experience as it has obviously affected you and you have every right to be concerned about your child's happiness at school.

I'm just slightly bugged by the fact that I have seen people on here mention HV's 'reputation', suggesting they have some insider info but so far you're the only one with the conviction to share what is meant by that (for which, thank you).

[ellesmum]

Laura, as you will see from reading the previous posts, I had actually started feeling more positive about the school within a day or two of the admission results being published, so we actually went in there with very open minds. We have viewed 6 of the schools in Wandsworth prior to visiting HV, and whereas, for instance, DD was confident and relaxed enough at Honeywell to walk into the reception computer class, grab a chair and sit down whilst declaring that she would see us later, she was clingy and nervous at HV, even more so after the incident in reception.
Like a business, I was after "customer reviews" and drew a blank. Unlike a business, I can not take my custom elsewhere (at least not at the moment) - this business has been imposed on me. I relaxed for a while, having heard some positive things which at least allowed me a bit of a reprieve from the stress and to get on with other aspects of my life, but then we went to the school and were genuinely shocked at our experience. If we had had any big concerns, we wouldn't have taken our daughter with us. If we had believed we would encounter any negatives along the way, we would have chosen not to have her witness them, too, but we merely wanted her to see where we believed she would be going in September. We went in there wholeheartedly believing that that would be the school she would be attending - I had even bought some uniform for her. That is how sure I was that we were just preparing her for what was to come.

And, what is wrong with wanting my child to have "nice" friends? I would want that for her at whatever school she went to. Am I supposed to say that I don't care who she hangs out with, just to be politically correct? I want her to have friends, and I don't want her to have to change herself to fit in. I also want her friend's parents' to be approachable and "nice" too, because it makes dealing with any little problems that crop up so much easier to deal with. That is the reality of school and to pretend otherwise is naive.

FraggleRocks - I too had heard rumblings about the reputation (although it was mainly via the sympathetic looks I got from private school mummies when they heard that not only would my child have to go to a state school, but possibly even HV), hence my first flying off the handle reaction. I, like you, could find so little on HV. Their website does not appear to have been updated for at least 2 years, and they didn't have any organised open days, a prospectus, or anything else I would have expected from a school in the area. We had the same sympathetic looks when we went to see Swaffield, but they also had some parents with children at the school available to answer questions, and they helped to dispel a lot of the myths about the school. I would be happy for DD to get a place there, that wouldn't be a problem at all. It's not Belleville or Honeywell, but it's a school which is a bit further up the road of improvement that HV is. As I also said before, my intention was never to put anyone off HV, but I was asked what the experience was and I gave it, in edited form. As you say, silence doesn't help the reputation any more than it does to speak out. The reputation exists, and the only way it will improve is if there is open dialogue. And whilst I haven't done that directly with the school, they haven't exactly made themselves open and approachable to me. Two and a half months on from getting the place and we've had one letter from them.

[supergirl]

Ellesmum you have all my sympathy, i would feel the same as you if i had walked in a reception class and heard the teacher shout. But i also know that i would be on the case to get answers about why it happened regardless of the child's behaviour and what are they going to do about it because this is unacceptable.

Without being an helicopter parent, i disagree with you when you say you dont want to use your energy and time pushing the school. I work part time but i would. I am very distanced but very aware of everything that happens in my child nursery. And i intend to carry on like that.

If HV hasnt given any satisfactory snswers then hassle them. Unless you have already made up your mind and will move in the catchment of HW or BV...

If you want to meet parents contact the PTA or the governors... Hang around at thr schoolgates. I know you shouldnt have to but maybe thats the only way.

Also it makes me laugh when you say private school mums gave you the look... FGS why do you care about what other people thinks... It is all about what works for you and your family.

[supergirl]

Ellesmum you have all my sympathy, i would feel the same as you if i had walked in a reception class and heard the teacher shout. But i also know that i would be on the case to get answers about why it happened regardless of the child's behaviour and what are they going to do about it because this is unacceptable.

Without being an helicopter parent, i disagree with you when you say you dont want to use your energy and time pushing the school. I work part time but i would. I am very distanced but very aware of everything that happens in my child nursery. And i intend to carry on like that.

If HV hasnt given any satisfactory snswers then hassle them. Unless you have already made up your mind and will move in the catchment of HW or BV...

If you want to meet parents contact the PTA or the governors... Hang around at thr schoolgates. I know you shouldnt have to but maybe thats the only way.

Also it makes me laugh when you say private school mums gave you the look... FGS why do you care about what other people thinks... It is all about what works for you and your family.

@laura: i second what you said. Anabel could give the school a chance to respond please? Thanks. Sx

[MGMidget]

The information evening should give you the chance to talk to some other parents of incoming children as well as teachers so hopefully you will have a fuller picture of the school after that. I too hope we hear from some HV parents on what they think of the school!

[FraggleRocks]

Good luck for the information evening - I really hope it eases some of your concerns.

Not sure it will help but I just wanted to reiterate something I said before (and a couple of other people have also said) that the children I have met who attend HV (albeit not many of them) have ALL been sparky, bright, friendly and 'nice'. They may not live in million pound homes like some (by no means all) of their contemporaries at BV/HW, or go on skiing holidays, or have mums who spend their time hanging out on chatrooms but they were 'nice'. The OFSTED inspection specifically talks about the children being kind to each other - which is a great compliment in my mind and one of the things that appeals to me about the school.

I'm sorry my children won't be moving up at the same time as yours, my eldest is in next year's intake (realistically HV is our only option which is why I'm so interested in hearing the truth about the school). Not sure if you'd think we are 'nice' though. My children's behaviour is far from impeccable!

A bit of googling this morning also tells me that the school is advertising for a mandarin teacher - that would be really interesting. Good indication of the school trying to do some innovative things I think. Yes website is rubbish - typos on the first page! But then Belleville has a full time PR person whereas I guess HV is focusing on the teaching in the first instance. I agree that their 'marketing' needs to improve.