Stressed over Secondary schools

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Essex girl
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Stressed over Secondary schools

Postby Essex girl » Sun Feb 04, 2018 3:16 pm

Good afternoon all...im tearing my hair out already on choosing a secondary school for my child who is only in year 5 but I want to start looking now and don't want to leave it to the last minute in year 6.

I live in Wandsworth town and would be grateful for any recommendations.

I have an interest in the following schools:
Harris academy.
Southfield academy.
St ceceillias although we do not attend church.
Ark Putney academy.

Does anyone out there know of any of these schools?

Would really appreciate any advice :D
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Essex girl
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Re: Stressed over Secondary schools

Postby Essex girl » Mon Feb 05, 2018 3:05 pm

Does anyone know of Southfield academy?
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windmill26
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Re: Stressed over Secondary schools

Postby windmill26 » Mon Feb 05, 2018 5:56 pm

Hi,have you visited any of the schools on your list? From personal experience this should be the first thing you do as you get a better sense if a school would work for your child.Southfield Academy is the closest school to us but it didn't make the list as I didn't think was a good fit for my child.St.Cecilia is oversubscribed and open spaces get assigned by distance,we are closer than you and by the start of September we were number 30 on the waiting list .On a positive note,we got assigned our 4th choice on the list and my child is very settled,happy and thriving there,sometime things just work out for the best!
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Re: Stressed over Secondary schools

Postby Essex girl » Mon Feb 05, 2018 7:06 pm

Thank you so much windmill26. May I ask what was your child's 4th choice? Kind regards :D
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windmill26
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Re: Stressed over Secondary schools

Postby windmill26 » Mon Feb 05, 2018 7:29 pm

Our 4th choice was Ernest Bevin. :)
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Re: Stressed over Secondary schools

Postby Essex girl » Mon Feb 05, 2018 7:49 pm

Oh that's great to hear I wish your child very much success. I've not looked at earlsfield academy yet and will look into earnest bevin I've never heard of it until now. Thank you for your advice :D
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Re: Stressed over Secondary schools

Postby Essex girl » Tue Feb 06, 2018 1:04 am

I mean Southfield academy! oh dear excuse the last comment. :o
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windmill26
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Re: Stressed over Secondary schools

Postby windmill26 » Tue Feb 06, 2018 12:14 pm

Essex girl wrote:I mean Southfield academy! oh dear excuse the last comment. :o
No prob! I got it :lol:
If you are in Wandsworth Town the closest school to you should be Ashcroft.Maybe you should put it on your list for the "open days".
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Re: Stressed over Secondary schools

Postby Essex girl » Tue Feb 06, 2018 1:25 pm

:x @ windmill26 thank you again for your kind advice I've really been put off Ashcroft due to bad reports and I've seen a lot of uncontrollable behaviour no offence to those children who are the well behaved ones and also to the parents out there that do like the school but it's really not for me.

I'm going to look at ark Putney Southfield academy and Harris although we live further away but worth a try :?
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Re: Stressed over Secondary schools

Postby Essex girl » Tue Feb 06, 2018 2:59 pm

:lol: @ windmill26 soz hit the wrong emoji :oops:
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Re: Stressed over Secondary schools

Postby SWtastic » Wed Feb 07, 2018 2:43 pm

Good idea to visit during year 5 as it's not always easy to manage to get around them all in year 6.

I actually found the whole open morning/evening thing a bit staged and didn't give me a realistic feel for the schools I visited. I thought it was very telling that Southfields Academy, the one school which was happy for me to visit at any time, was the one that I felt really wanted to involve parents in the child's education. I was able to have a personal tour, time with the Head to ask some questions and was able to see whichever parts of the school I wanted to visit. I was very pleasantly surprised by the facilities there and also impressed with the enthusiasm of the Head and how well the students do. I did ask but other schools wouldn't allow an individual visit outside of the open events and, actually, some were downright unfriendly to deal with as a parent, which I think can be quite telling!

Someone pointed me to the Department for Education school comparison web page and that was very helpful and quite surprising. Schools where you'd expect children to do very well were making little additional progress with them (I think the new term is called progress 8), and others, like Southfields, were in the top 3. Harris was always going to be a lower preference for us because of distance, but when I read somewhere that they'd moved a number of the children who weren't going to get good GCSE results to another of their schools so that the results would look better, I didn't bother putting them on the list at all.

It's a very personal decision and you need to be sure the school has to be right for your child so ask to go and have a look round, perhaps now before open event season starts.
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Re: Stressed over Secondary schools

Postby Essex girl » Wed Feb 07, 2018 3:06 pm

Thank you swtastic :D so good to hear another parents opinion and yes you're right when you do go along for open days it does very much seem "staged" other parents at my son's primary schools feel exactly the same way. I will try and go along to the other schools although some are not accommodating as others as Southfield academy school is the only one who's offered me a personal tour just like you said!

I will look at the department of schools comparison webpage so thank you for the info!
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Re: Stressed over Secondary schools

Postby rooting4tooting » Sat Feb 10, 2018 4:12 pm

Re. Saint Cecilia's
no selection via ability, but there are places awarded to musical children...
Also they have decided to select fewer churchy types and so the open places will increase.
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Re: Stressed over Secondary schools

Postby Essex girl » Sat Feb 10, 2018 5:42 pm

Thank you rooting4tooting :)
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