monkey123 wrote: ↑Mon Sep 23, 2019 3:02 pmBoth of my daughter's best friends moved away before she finished her primary education at Swaffield Primary school, which is two form entry, the same as Alfarthing and Floreat. It was bigger as we, (I'm Vice-Chair of Governors), agreed to take an extra form for the period where there was a bit of a baby boom. That bubble of children are now entering the secondary school system and so we are back down to two form entry. She was slightly devastated for a while, but it wasn't until she went to St. Cecilia's that I realised that it actually gave her a resilience for all of the changes involved in moving to secondary school.
So.... St. Cecilia's..... She is extremely happy there. It's small, nurturing and specialises in music (she is a music scholar). She is thriving and is well on track to do very well at GCSEs. She has made friends really easily and the new head sits on a central board for stretching higher ability children. This is something I think needed to be improved upon at the school, and so no better person for the job, in my opinion.
My son didn't feel that it was the right school for him. So we looked at them all, twice. In the end we felt that because of his love of the STEM subjects and his passion for table tennis, that Ernest Bevin was the right school for him. He did well on the Wandsworth Test so is streamed for the STEM subjects. In addition to this, the school work with a charity called Greenhouse Sports (co-founded by Mathew Saeed - author of Bounce") and so he has a dedicated table tennis coach and receives one-to-one coaching. It's bonkers! they complete in loads of sports, nationally and are very good at all of them. They even beat Harrow at Judo! I was worried about there not being enough exposure to the arts, but I was wrong. So many of the boys follow the ABRSM and Trinity music syllabus and they have drama clubs and put on a production every year.
Yes, they received a requires improvement judgement by OFSTED recently, but under the new framework that OFSTED are using, schools must be secure in every single judgement criteria to receive a 'Good' and in all honesty, I think a lot of the schools across the country are in for a bit of a shock when OFSTED come calling again. In my opinion, there is no better time to be at Ernest Bevin because of the extra resources and support that the local authority are pumping into them to ensure that the areas that they were weaker on, start to improve quickly - we have been aware of a new marking system for the boys and several other initiatives that we put in place straight away.
Ultimately, my son loves it, often waking at 6 to get in and play table tennis, go swimming, or just to hand out with friends at breakfast club, before the school day starts at 8:50. He's happy and engaged and loves going - what more do you want for your children?
Someone showed me some research recently, which points to evidence that 85% of how a child turns out is down to parenting. And so I would say, to those parents who are a perhaps a little apprehensive about sending their child to a state school...... have faith in your child and in your parenting. All of those years spent moulding and shaping and instilling morals and values in them...... as they get older, you see those little lightbulb moments, when you see them making independent decisions about the friends that they make or choices they make, and you breath, because you suddenly realise that they were taking it all in. They were listening and watching all along!
Well said. My son is also at EB and he is thriving.
