Harris Academy Beckenham. Is it good?

[Pinkm]

My DD will be starting HAB in September. This school was our second choice. I am planning to put her on the waiting list in order to get our first one (which is Langley Girls). Do you think we have a chance?? Also any thoughts about Harris? I've heard that the school is improving and now is oversubscribed. Thanks.

[MrsWhirly]

Hi, I know it’s rated outstanding. My facilities are good - my son plays football there and I have had a nose around. Can I ask how far away you live from Langley girls? We are moving soon to be ‘in the catchment area’ for it.

[PettsWoodParadise]

According to the booklet from Bromley Council in 2017 the catchment for Langley Boys was 1.05 and girls 1.3 but this could go up or down depending on siblings, new homes in area etc etc.

[reluctantbrit]

MrsWhirly - we are around 0.7 to Langley and I know children living
further out got in, so it must be around the 1m mark again.

I know that the distance for Hayes Secondary grew this year, first time in years. The Eden Park High School seem to have taken up some of the pressure in some areas but we in WW still have blind spots for girls secondary places.

But, 2012 was a bulge year, so the 2019 intake will def be larger and distance will go down. Also we (West wickham primary) had one year where 45 out of 60 places were taken up by siblings and all secondaries seem to have sibling admission before distance.

The council should be able to give you the 2018 admission distance.

[Pinkm]

We are 1.4 away from Langley girls. I do hope that she will get the school eventually. We live in Beckenham so no much choice for us except Harris and Ravensbourne. But for now I want to know a bit more about Harris. Anyone?

[blue25]

It's not got a good reputation for pupils with additional needs. There are some issues with behaviour. Langley is considerably better.

[likesstripes]

My son is now in year 8 at HABE and is doing really well. He is a very nervous kid with Aspergers and is being very well looked after and the school has been quick to deal with issues he had settling in and with a small handful of other kids in his first year. Academically he is doing very well too and he is happy. It was not our first choice as we feared the reputation blue25 mentions - happily we have not found it to be the case and our second child will be joining the school in 2019.

[PettsWoodParadise]

There have been concerns raised about the tendency for Harris schools to boot out children prior to registering them for GCSEs if they are not going to help with their league tables. It was a bit of rumour and hearsay but these stats found on the What Do they Know Website
www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/410751/response/994626/attach/3/BROMLEY%20Yr10%2011%20FOI.xlsx?cookie_passthrough=1
seem to support that information. The column headings for the 2016/17 data however on the far right side I think are mis-labeled as 2015-16, but either way it is 'interesting' to see that all the Harris schools seem to 'lose' far more students than other schools in the borough. Harris Beckenham seems to have lost the most students. I appreciate that we don't really know why the numbers dipped between Y10 and Y11 but loosing 18 in that short space of time when other schools are not does seem very odd.

[Crazy3]

We are also looking at Harris for 2019 intake. Admissions at bro let council said to me that they couldn’t let me know an approximate catchment. We live near Shortlands station. They said this was because of the banding system they apply. How do applications work then? Do you have an offer oncondition that your child take the test and then be one of the children selected for the number they must fulfill for each band? Ans what if that band is filled what happens to your child’s application at that point?

[PettsWoodParadise]

This is all in the admissions booklet published by Bromley Council. They include a date for the banding test, it is usually around November and the booklet or the school will have information on how to register for it. Based on that test the child is put in band and then offers made accordingly.

The banding distances for past years are also given in the Bromley booklet. Top bands tend to go out further as we are not far from Grammar choices so the top achievers might be a smaller group applying hence the distance going out further.

A good number of schools (but not all) need a SIF (supplementary information form) to register for Grammar tests, banding tests, faith and other priorities so do check each school’s admission page carefully.

[bollocksitshappenedagain]

We have just been through that with another Harris. Branding test is done and you are slotted into 1 of 9 bands in a normal distribution curve. Mid range bands had about 30 places I think top one maybe 6. Then basically there is a catchment for each band - in my dd case a friend further away got in as she tested in a different band.

I believe they would offer waiting list to bands below if no one in that band. So if someone drops out band 9 but no one on waiting list they will go to band 8.