High View Post Reply

[FraggleRocks]

It would be great if the school would come on and comment. I suspect they won't though. My experience in Wandsworth is that the council has a bit of a backwards approach to allowing their staff to comment on social media and I suspect this extends to school staff. I might be wrong though. Perhaps Annabel knows or could check it out with the council.

[ready2pop]

Ellesmum - you have my sympathies. I have no experience of the school but would feel the same as you given the experiences you've had with them.

Kudos to you for not moving to get into the catchment area of BV or HW - in the same situation that is exactly what I would be doing (I'm going to get flamed for that I know).

With kids as young as 4, I think half the battle is to make them comfortable and happy with the school environment. Partly that will come if you are confident about the school, but they also need to take steps to actively do that and it doesn't sound like HV is.

Will ask around and try and find some HV parents for you.

[supergirl]

Hi everyone

Doing a bit of googling too and i found that. Read it if you havent yet!

http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/primary/904 ... lOnOnePage

Sx

[ellesmum]

Thanks for that link Supergirl. Such conflicting views though, which just adds to the confusion! Total polar opposites

I'll be honest R2P, I do wish I'd pushed DH harder to move right next to the school we were happiest with when we had the chance, but at the time, he was adamant that he was only going to pay X amount for rent. Ultimately, it will prove to be false economy. Our current home is too small anyway, so we will be moving, and if we're moving anyway, we will look at moving closer to a school we feel comfortable with. At the moment, we're trying to decide whether we will try to move closer to HW/BV (preferably HW, purely because she felt so comfortable there during our visit), or closer to Allfarthing, which we were not so keen on BUT her nursery friends are going there and I would rather she had the comfort of familiar faces. My concern is not so much about league tables because we as her parents can help her reach her potential academically as long as she is happy wherever she ends up. Academic results are not everything, some of the most successful people I know didn't excel at school, but I want her to be somewhere that she feels confident and happy. HV did not get off to a good start with her, and that is where my problem lies. If it had just been her dad and I who had had the bad experience, we could talk it out and move on, albeit cautiously, but she's only 3 and scared.

[sweetpea14]

I was very upset and disappointed to read the comments written on here about High View Primary School! From what I have read most of the comments have been written by parents whose children have never been to High View. My child is in Year 6 now and has had the best education i could have hoped for. Since starting in the nursery my child has had brilliant teachers every year and has been encouraged to meet her full potential in her education and emotional development. She was once a very shy little girl who has grown into a polite, sensible and confident young lady. She loves school and is very sad to be leaving. In all her years at High View I have never once had any concerns. I went and viewed Belleville and Honeywell when she was a baby but i felt they both lacked in the personal touch that High View has to offer. I am glad I went with my own instincts and opted for High View! The school also now has a new Head Teacher who is improving the school even more and I am sure it will become a very sought after school. Dont listen to rumours! come and see for yourselves!

[pickle]

I completely agree, i have 2 children in High View and they have both been here from nursery and i have never had any problems with them, also i find the parents to be very friendly and i have made some very good friends since my eldest started nursery. They never like taking time off school even when they are ill. I have found all the teachers to be professional and approachable at all times. As for the new head i have always found her approachable and i think she is definitely going to be improving the school to a higher standard

[billy]

Well said! I have a child at High View and have always found the staff to be friendly and eager to deal with any issues that might arise. The new Head is certainly going to raise the profile of the school. What a shame parents listen to gossip and rumours instead of finding out for themselves. I would highly recommend High View to any parent. My wife and I also viewed other schools in the borough but none impressed us as much as High View. The staff are very dedicated to the children and work really hard.

[ellesmum]

Thank you for your replies. We're about to go back for another look, and my fingers are crossed that we can address some of the issues we had before and put our daughter's mind (and ours) to rest a bit. It's good to hear some positive feedback on the school though, thank you. We must have been very unlucky to have visited and experienced what we did, but we'll have to mention it, because it did not reflect well upon the school.
Thanks again!


We've just been to see the school again, and this time it was much more positive. We talked about the incident we witnessed and the horrified looks we were given suggested that it's certainly not an acceptable form of discipline at any time, with or without visitors in the classroom. We were also told that there are going to be changes to the staff by September, suggesting that the person we witnessed shouting at a child would soon be leaving anyway. Miss Hussain appears to be very keen to keep pushing the standards up, and sounds firm but friendly, and the rest of the Early Years team appeared to be very professional, too. We still have a few concerns, but they would only ever be addressed by actually sending our child there and seeing how it goes. On the plus side, the class is smaller than BV, HW or Allfarthing (27 children currently, likely to drop slightly by September apparently), so there's more chance of individual attention, which could be an advantage both academically and emotionally. I just wish there had been more information available about the timetable of what is happening between now and September, because nobody seemed to be able to tell us anything other than that a letter would be sent out next week regarding settling in days, but they couldn't tell us what would be in the letter! In summary, though, I'm no longer scared about sending DD there and feel like she will get on OK, but I do wish that there was better "PR" in terms of clear, concise information available, a prospectus maybe, and an update of the website to give current school information rather than backdated info from 2010 and passages in Latin! It's been next to impossible to find out anything but very basic information on the school, but updating the website to include parent's comments about the school would be really, really helpful for new parents.

[Pud1]

It would be completely inappropriate for the school to come on here and to start trying to address issues on a public forum. What a thought!! Surely the voice of the school must come from the current parents who are, thank goodness, starting to comment. They are the ones who can tell the true story of this school. Keep the positive comments coming parent!

[JThomas]

I'm glad you're feeling happier about things and I'm sure your daughter will thrive at High View. I do think that people get in a bit of a frenzy about Honeywell and Belville, overlooking plenty of other perfectly good primary schools.

I know a couple of parents have posted, but I wanted to draw your attention to another postivie post about High View from a parent in this thread:

http://www.nappyvalleynet.com/what-happ ... 17568.html

And, chiming with your point about smaller class sizes, an interesting view on going to a "less sought after" school in this thread

http://www.nappyvalleynet.com/so-talk-t ... 19277.html

Best of luck for September.

[LauraBrown]

Great to see High View parents giving the other side of the story.

To the poster who thought it ridiculous to imagine a school defending itself online, see this thread where the Chair of Governors of Wix is sticking up for the classic stream of that school:

http://www.nappyvalleynet.com/campaign- ... 19233.html

On the topic of poor parental communications, this is certainly an area where, once you join the school, you could quickly make an impact as part of the PTA/Governors. I know of many local schools where the PTAs are currently being developed by keen parents where perhaps things may have been a little dormant in recent years. It's not even a chore to be involved in this stuff - it's actually a fun way to make friends with, perhaps, typically a broader group of people from your local community than you would otherwise encounter.

Good luck!

[FraggleRocks]

Ellesmum, thanks for returning with your more recent experience - that is very reassuring. I'm also really pleased to see current HV parents commenting too. Not perfect, but I don't suppose anywhere is. I hope it continues to improve from your point of view and that your daughter enjoys summer and school too once she starts.

It definitely sounds like there are plenty of HV parents, and potential HV parents, around who value their kid's education (of course!) which I think some people were concerned about it. That makes me feel more confident about the school and that the 'reputation' issue is mostly rumour.

Totally disagree about schools not commenting on public forums. Engaging with public debate is the only way to manage reputation these days.Any organisation that doesn't is going to struggle in the world of Twitter etc where rumours can become 'fact' in people's minds very very quickly.

[ellesmum]

It appears as though whilst the school hasn't been commenting themselves, they are aware of this discussion because the website has been updated and appears to be in the process of being given an overhaul to provide more information to parents. A very good move on behalf of High View, and I am glad that they are working on their public profile. It makes it so much easier and quicker to get information if a website is well maintained. Good on High View!

[FraggleRocks]

Still got some way to go on the website I think - have just had a look and still lots of empty forms and things. I'm sure if they got their IT-bod to look at it properly these pages could be switched off from public view which would certainly look more professional.

Thanks for keeping us posted ellesmum. I really hope your daughter is getting excited about starting school and has had a chance to spend some time at HV.

It is interesting that the HighView thread has dropped off the Most Read section of NVN (see to the right). When you look at the number of people that have read this thread, versus various other threads in the Most Read list, it has had loads and loads more views than (for e.g. 'Douglas & Gordon bad experience'). I wonder if the school or the council has asked for it to be removed from that list. Or if NVN is fudging the figures.

[FraggleRocks]

ooh. Sorry. After I wrote my last post it has popped back up to the top of the Most Read list. Maybe just a bug in the NVN system then. Ignore me.