St Mary's CoE Primary School, Angel Islington

[Dangermouse10]

Hello,
Does anyone have children that attend St Mary's CoE Primary School in Fowler Road or have any knowledge of what it is like? It gets consistently good test results and sounds like a lovely small school but it is under subscribed, which seems extremely surprising! I'm having trouble finding much information about it and I'm not able to tour it until later in the year so would love to hear from anyone who knows anything about the school, thanks.

[Terentia]

Hi

I don't know anyone with children there at the moment. I know of two families who had children who briefly attended before getting their first-choice schools. Neither of them disliked it, just preferred other choices.

I imagine that it's a bit in the shadow of William Tyndale, which it's quite close to and would be the first choice for many local parents. It does get good results, though that may be easier for one-form schools. The proportion of children receiving free school meals is 37.8 per cent.

I often see St Mary's pupils in Astey's Row park behind Essex Road and in South Library so you could visit those places to try to get a feel for the parents/kids.

[Dangermouse10]

Hi Terentia
Thank you so much for taking the time to reply - I really appreciate it.

[L4s2vstb]

Hi all,
I'm looking for thoughts on St Mary CofE in Islington, as I can't find much existing commentary.
I'm not sure how to interpret the Ofsted report so am hoping for people with actual experience/knowledge of the school...

Thank you!

[Terentia]

Hi there. St Mary's is a small school so you might not find anyone on this board with direct experience.

Earlier on this thread I mentioned that I know two parents with DCs who attended but moved on. One was only there a matter of weeks. The other (whose DC was there for a year) told me that she liked the school but felt there were some problem families which made things a bit difficult.

I have also met one mother who sends her child there and is happy with it, having chosen it over William Tyndale.

Is there something in the school's Ofsted report that gave you pause, or is it just Ofsted reports in general you're not sure how to interpret?

Finally, I did find this recent article:

www.islingtongazette.co.uk/news/education/autistic-boy-discriminated-against-at-st-mary-s-islington-c-of-e-primary-school-1-5918954

[Blunttruthadvocate]

I live on Halton Road and I would rather home school my child than send him to that pit. I sit in my living room and the scummy mummies and their foul mouths stand there at 9am in the morning shout and brag loudly about how they'd hit other kids parents and they are just base. I have had to go outside a few times and tell them to zip it and move along as my son wasn't even starting nursery yet and they're gobby mouth's kept waking my baby. It is just a cess pit at the end of a cul-de-sac and no way my son is ever setting foot in there, Jesus Christ himself could turn up and I'd still say nope, absolutely no way.

[L4s2vstb]

Thank you both for your helpful and very honest comments.

What worries me somewhat is the Ofsted comment that a small number of families, well known to the school, are struggling with attendance and that welfare services are involved to help with that.
The school clearly achieves fantastic results for these kids, but I just wondered how all the support provided for those kids (who clearly need it) then impacts on the other children.

Which possibly then ties back with the article you linked in @Terentia.

And definitely useful to know what language would have to be mastered to fit in with the schoolgate crowd .

For completeness sake though I have now met parents who have children there and say the family has a nice family atmosphere and their kids are happy there (although possibly underchallenged in the early years (parents are keen for kids to do well)).

Food for thoughts...