La Fontaine Academy Bromley and Harris Shortlands

[MotherofPirates]

Anyone any experience of either of these please? Looking for a place for DD due to start Reception next September. Or any others that you can recommend? Valley is our nearest but catchment looks teeny tiny!

[chichimum]

My children are at La Fontaine Academy, and we all love it. The headteacher is really amazing - very passionate about children growing up to make a difference in the world, and the school makes an effort to combine creativity and excellence in their approach to learning. They had 100% pass rate for phonics test last year, and were ranked in top 3% of UK schools. The community is currently quite small and very supportive. It's definitely an incredible school! Go visit at an Open Day.

[Lilylonglegs]

Does anyone know how big that catchment area is at the moment? I'm hoping to apply for reception in 2018 and hoping to be successful although we live 2 miles away.

[MotherofPirates]

I gather it is expected to be around a mile though worth a try given all the circumstances.

[Lilylonglegs]

Any more parents with feedback? How much French is taught?

[Mavericke1]

It is a state school so they are obliged to teach the national curriculum firstly and foremostly.
As the school day is 30 minutes longer than other primary schools in this means that there is space for 30 minutes of French everyday. Recently, as well they gave an additional French teacher so that the children who can already speak French can be stretched a bit more.
It is good but ultimately it is a state school so they can only devote limited time and resources to to specific study of French.
The main French influence lies very much in some of the school's practices and ethos. A good example being their 'family dining' policy whereby the school closes for an hour at lunchtime and the children and staff all eat together. Children serve each other the food and are encouraged to sit down for about 30 minutes even if they have have finished or are ' not hungry'!
We're very happy with the school but bear in mind that most families have at least one parent not from the UK. In that sense it is different from many Bromley primary schools but that was fine by us :)