Haggerston School in the east end

[iamnotaprincess]

Can anyone tell me anything about Haggerston? I know a lovely girl who goes there, but otherwise nothing else. So far I am incredibly impressed with the new secondaries around here.

[photocall]

I visited last year and it looked dire, but there is a new head now and the BSF funding is going ahead I think.

The girls taking me around kept getting told off for taking detours to chat with their mates, I got a lovely insight into the detention hall and an exasperated music teacher. They've just got their first intake of boys and a boy from DS' school has gone there. He's a bright and streetwise kid and I think he'll do fine.

It doesn't get much of a mixed intake compared to many other Hackney schools - it seemed to be right in the middle of a council estate, whereas some other schools will have both council estates and houses nearby.

I saw some other certificates and notices about other girls who had got very good GCSE grades when I was visiting, so clearly some children have done well academically. I think their results will continue to improve with all the investment and new staff, but I wonder how much of it is down to fudging statistics and GCSE-equivalents.

Open evening is tomorrow night.

[iamnotaprincess]

Are your kids at a local secondary? Which ones were you impressed by, if any?

[Ctherine]

Michael Wilshaw, Principal at Mossbourne, is now executive head at Haggerstone and two of his vice principals are working there to bring it up. Results have already gone up and will go up further. Should be a good bet if you live close enough.

[iamnotaprincess]

It sounds good from what I heard. I wondered if anyboy actually had kids there.

[AgonyBeetle]

I know an MNer with kids there, do you want me to point her in this direction? Not sure if she wants to be outed, but I can ask...

[iamnotaprincess]

Maybe if she does not want to be outed, she could do a quick name change?..I only want to hear good things by the way..

[iamnotaprincess]

Gosh, I thought City would cater for most Clapton children. Thank you, I really feel we have a bit of choice, I never thought I would say so. I am also hearing good things about Hackney Free, we are incredibly pleased.

[cluttered]

I also, somewhat naively, thought most Clapton children would have a chance of getting into City, however the cut-off last year was approx 0.4 miles (depending on band) and we are 0.5 according to the recommended software. The Learning Trust choice advisor has told us that City is not a realistic option despite the fact we can walk there in less than 10 minutes!

[cluttered]

Hi dinosaur,

Yes I was not impressed by City at the Open Evening at all, the head was really arrogant, kept everyone waiting for nearly half an hour with no apology and the children do not seem to have any choices, even who they eat lunch with is dictated to them.I loved Haggerston, was very impressed by the head and the school seemed well run on the Open Morning, however the choice advisor also said that, whereas last year it was undersubscribed, he doubts that this will be the case this year. So I had hoped that City could be a fall-back option. We also thought Skinners was OK, maybe the fact that there was no building to look around will put some people off and it may be easier to get in there. Choice advisor trying to push us towards Hackney Free and Cardinal Pole but we are not religious and I don't want my DC at religious schools

[CheeeseOnToast]

I live right by Haggerston and can vouch that all of the girls I see every morning on my walk to work are exceptionally nice. Two even said 'bless you' this morning as I sneezed walking past them. Although it is in the middle of a housing estate, it is a very up and coming area and actually most of the buildings are around 50:50 private rent/ownership:housing authority. I live in one.

Perhaps my opinion doesn't count for much seeing as I don't have a child there but I've lived one minute's walk from there for 2.5 years and have never seen anything (from the outside) that has given me a bad impression of the school. No idea about standards of teaching, obviously, but behaviour seems good.

[cluttered]

Dinosaur, do you mind my asking which Clapton primary school your DC went/go to, I am wondering if it is the same as my DC attend where last year there was a real problem with secondary school places, about 1/3 of Year 6s didn't get any of their six choices.

It seems as though last year Skinners took children from quite a distance away, but I'm a bit unclear why their map has only blue dots indicating successful applications across the whole of Hackney, yet there were 450 applications for 180 places. Does this mean that the unsuccessful applications were out of borough or am I misinterpreting, does it mean that for some applications Skinners was listed as lower preference and they got their higher preference school but this was still counted as an unsuccessful application?

[cluttered]

OK, my DC are at Rushmore. Are there many boys from Millfields in Yr 7 at Haggerston? I ask because our neighbours' Yr 7 (ex-Millfields) son has a friend there.

[cluttered]

Actually he was fortunate enough to gain a place at Latymer. I don't think they initially intended to try but decided to after talking to the Choice Advisor because they were scared at our lack of choice. I was hoping to gauge our options from seeing what school they were offered.

[TheCheeseAlarm]

Hi Cluttered,

DS1 is the friend of your neighbour, we are just around the corner from you so you would definitely have been offered a place last year. We put Latymer below Haggerston on our list as we much preferred Haggerston. I'm not too sure what they would have thought of being used as our back up plan!

Millfields sent 8 boys to Haggerston this year. Our Year 6 did much better than previous years at getting places at their preference schools; only 6 didn't get a place on allocation day, two won their appeals and at least 2 of them went to Haggerston. Some of the choices people put down were very unrealistic, so it's not actually too surprising that they were not offered one of them. Only putting Latymer and Mossbourne for instance. DS1 has made friends with some of the Rushmore boys already.

DS1 is enjoying Haggerston. I have been very impressed by their prompt response to questions and emails. He's enjoying lessons and has made friends. We are happy, so far, with the choice we made.

[iamnotaprincess]

This is very interesting, has anybody already said that Mossbourne Headmaster (cannot remember his name) has been telling parents to send their kids to Haggerston? So, it is clear it will quickly become oversubscribed.