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Secondary education

Does anyone know HARRIS MERTON or ERNEST BEVIN

7 replies

drosophila · 15/10/2010 21:28

The usual indecision here...

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springlamb · 15/10/2010 22:11

I don't know Harris Merton but I live very close to Harris Academy Upper Norwood (Crystal Palace) and Harris Academy (South Norwood). Harris UN has been an excellent school for some years. The school that is now Harris SN was a failing school with a bad reputation but it has really turned around under the Harris auspices. Friends with dc at all levels of both schools are very pleased.
Unlike local Oasis Academy school which is just as bad as it was prior to Academy.
I suppose I am saying that Harris Accademies are well worth a look!

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springlamb · 15/10/2010 22:12

Accademies? But why trust someone who can't even spell Academies!

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basildonbond · 15/10/2010 23:09

Ernest Bevin has fantastic sports facilities, all-boys apart from 6th form, rapidly improving results, gets most of its intake from the Tooting side of the catchment - vanishingly few of Wandsworth Common's white middle class (although Fiona Phillips of GMTV fame has just sent her eldest there)

It did have a reputation as having a very rough, gang culture in the playground - discipline inside the classroom pretty hot

on the open morning last year one of my friends turned up just as 5 police cars came screeching to a halt in front of the school to sort out a fight ... which put her off .. a bit ...

A couple of years ago y6 parents in my dc's school would burst into tears if they got EB rather than Graveney, but it's definitely improving and is now oversubscribed

I'm afraid I know nothing about Harris Merton so can't give you any points of comparison

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drosophila · 16/10/2010 09:36

Many thanks guys. So I could brush shoulders with Fiona if we go to EB. Thing that puts me off is the single sex thing. I asked the head to try and persuade me that all boys schools had advantages and he wouldn't. He was very honest and said his kids went to mixed schools. Not his job to sell single sex schools he said.

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CrystalChandelier · 20/10/2010 12:19

I've heard EB rapidly improving, too. DS has friends who've just started there and report very happy and doing well.

And would echo springlamb on Harris academies, which seem to have an excellent track record. Not sure about Merton, but I've looked around Crystal Palace twice and been very impressed. Lots of emphasis on technology, very articulate and charismatic teachers and bags of resources.

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alison60 · 20/10/2010 13:29

Harris Crystal Palace is very good (I have a DC there). I also have an acquaintance with a daughter in Year 11 at Harris Merton who is very happy with them. The issue you might have with Harris is that they are very much a business and have an eye on the bottom line, which is league table results, at all times. They can be rather secretive and autocratic and some parents think they are too conformist. I would suggest you take each Academy as a separate school - look around and see what you think of the atmosphere etc. And take any statement Harris make to you the way you would take a statement from, for instance, an estate agent about a house they are trying to sell you.

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gingeroots · 20/10/2010 18:48

The Harris Academies vary ,the Crystal Palace one has an excellent reputation ;the Academy @Peckham much less so .

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