Dreaded primary school application results for DS2 arrived with the disappointing news that he has not been offered a place at our 3 local schools: Atwood, Gresham, Ridgeway. Instead he has been offered a place at Harris Primary Academy Kenley. Although this is crow fly the nearest school to us, we had not considered it for a number of reasons:
- DS1 attended Atwood where he has received an excellent education (will be attending one of the Sutton grammars in September);
- Kenley is on the other side of the A22 for us and thus more difficult to get to than the schools I listed in Sanderstead (particularly with DH daily commute and mine!).
- Frankly "put off" by the demise of Roke and the Harris takeover, which we have been following in local newspapers over the last few years.
Apologies in advance for all the questions I am about to fire but whilst we are going on the waiting lists for our preferred schools, we now have to seriously consider DS2 attending Harris Kenley in September.
Has anyone got any first hand experience of the school that they would like to share? I have read all the threads around the Harris takeover - I am more interested in what's happened to the school under Harris' control (or any of the other Harris primary academies). How effective have they been so far? Have the parents noticed any difference? Is there still a high turnover of staff and have those that have replaced the 66% or so that left of a suitable calibre / experience? How are the children doing? Are those more able suitably stretched? Any insight on outlook for this year's SATS results? Checked the school website hoping to gather more insight for instance on curriculum but same high level generic info is posted across all of their primary websites!
Would also appreciate any insight on the waiting list movement likelihood for Atwood / Gresham for Mitchley Avenue side of Riddlesdown. Still shocked we did not get the schools first round - guess the demographics had a bigger impact on allocation of places from when we last went through this process with DS1! I tried to locate last year´s admissions results map on Croydon Council website without success.
Many thanks!