Haggerston School in the east end

Hi TheCheeseAlarm,

Based on our experience at the Open Day and all I have been hearing we would be very happy if DS1 were offered a place at Haggerston. I thought the Head Teacher was very impressive and the discipline seemed good and the pupils were lovely. However DS1 has now got his heart set on Latymer because he is worried he will lose touch with our neighbour once they move. I don't want to discourage him but not sure what his chances are, there are 6 kids from Rushmore taking the test and they all seem pretty bright but obviously the majority won't get through. DS can do the NVR and Maths tests OK, English not quite so strong though and he is still pretty bad at checking over his work so will lose lots of marks on silly mistakes. I don't think we are in the same situation as you, in that your DS would have been offered a Latymer place if you had listed it as first preference.

Last year there were about 20 Yr6 Rushmore students without an offer in March (and we have 60 per year group not 75). We are listing 6 schools but I suppose we could be called unrealistic in not accepting the suggestions of the Choice Advisor to put Hackney Free, Cardinal Pole and Lammas! It's such a stressful time but if we get a Hackney school we are happy with we will only have to do this once as DS2 would just make it in under the sibling policy (Petchey isn't one of our choices). However if DS1 did get into Latymer then we would have to do it all again in a few years, when there would probably be even more children trying for a place.

My DD started at Haggerston in September has settled really well. I am very pleased with them so far, depsite a little rocky start with a touch of bullying which was swiftly dealt with by the school.

Expectations are very high and it seems pretty strict which I don't think is a bad thing.

I live nearer to Bridge and I didn't want DD going there. The behaviour is very poor IME and I see large groups of them hanging around after school most days. I have even witnessed a large group of Bridge pupils ganging up on other school students after school (which was reported to the school)

I am very happy with Haggerston and put it first choice, even above Mossbourne (too strict), Petchy (dodgy layout of building), Bridge (no chance!) and I even put City just to fill up the spaces lol

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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

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!