N London (state) secondaries - again!

I know of one child who has been taken out of Holloway, but another that moved from a local girls school to it.

You don’t have to apply to Islington schools, are there any schools in another borough you might be eligible for?

I’m going through the Islington schools now and can see that although we are south of the borough, very close to city of London, if I’m going by previous years distance cut off... the only two schools my daughter would get into are the arts and media one and Holloway. Anyone have experience of these please?

Avoid ColaI, there are so many issues with the school, including them, contacting parents to inform them of detentions when the child was absent. Police attend on a regular basis. Staff Do bully some of the students (yes reported). Not as inclusive as you would think considering the school they share the site with unless of course there is an imminent inspection. Parents regularly transfer their children out. Lunchtimes can be an issue, staff levels are very low and lots of behaviour including small fights have been ignored. Lots of complaints from the other school about the behaviour of students and attitudes from staff. I could go on

Central not as grim as it's made out on here. And lol at the shirts dirty by lunchtime. They aren't. Behaviour is a key positive in the school, the disruptive child is removed immediately rather than continuing to disturb others. Over the academic time, staff get to know the students very well as the teachers move years with them, unless there is internal movement/promotions etc. Smaller class sizes than other schools within the borough which is a bonus.

Yes, I would like to hear how early days have been. There was someone last year into AB who had very similar ideas to me about school vibes. Last I heard she/he had been given 6th choice and was appealing. Just wondered how it panned out..

Hi JC4, I’ll pop back, not that I’ve anything to add, and no boys, but I’m always interested in what other locals have to say.

any earlier and 2019 intake want to contribute to the thread. Still so confused about where to go in Camden! Town between ABS, WES, UCL, RH, H - all of them! ( i know I cant possibly be in catchment for all....)

I forgot to add that it’s worth noting the double catchment area, due to being one sex, aside from the extra intake for this year.

I have a child at Central Foundation Boys. It’s so strange that people are condemning it on the basis of pollution levels. I agree, as the mother of an asthmatic child, London itself is a massive concern but I’ve never heard this with reference to City Boys which is far more congested and rarely in relation to Marleybone or Westminster.
I have a boy here in year 8 and whilst parents are always be the best advocate of their school choices, I implore you to visit the classrooms and listen to the head who is utterly compelling. I could only have dreamt of such passion and total dedication from my teachers and each and very one of them is as such. I totally love the traditional building but it is being hugely modernised over the next academic year. There is also a huge regeneration project over the next few years aimed at significantly reducing congestion around the roundabout. If your priority is results, Central wipes the floor with every other Islington comprehensive, and indeed with most of the country.
Sorry to sound evangelical but it was a big decision to choose the school over City Boys and never a day goes by that I’m not grateful that I did. I have a second son beginning there next September.
Best of luck with the process which I have found utterly exhausting!

Provisional progress scores for 2017 now published by the DfE.. AB v good score of +0.24 www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/school/100053

Hi yes the girls from the previous school are stll there, I 've seen the school yesterday.

If you have a musician, particularly one who likes jazz, then Burghley has AMAZING standards. There's one incredibly talented and dynamic teacher who plays sax and is just wonderful with the kids. The Burghley jazz band/big band (configuration changes from year to year) is always one of the star turns at the La Swap schools' joint concerts. The relationships between students and staff always seem v warm and genuine.

Have you been to look around AB mrsmay ? I went last year and was impressed, went again this week and was even more so. The head seems really tuned in to what local parents want and need AB to be. The academic headlines are very good and I'm waiting impatiently to see their progress 8 scores.

I should add I wasn't that bothered about the academics at DAOS (which in any case were just fine) but the extra-curricula is second to none in most areas and I loved the way the staff treated children. Given my time again, yes I would say it's worth the schlep and the Islingtons I knew treated the journey like an outing.

Islington children are a small, if lively and vociferous, group at DAOS. Agree that bright ones will rise anywhere but seriously bright and well-tutored is not true ... mine wasn't tutored at all but just got very fast and accurate at VR and happened to be competent at maths and English via a mediocre primary. And went on to get the sort of average GCSE and A level results he could have got anywhere.

I've never warmed to DAO, it feels like it's a free private school for the Islington middle classes. Obviously if that sounds like a good thing to you it might be just the ticket. But you have to have a seriously bright and well-tutored oldest child in order to climb aboard that bus.

FWIW all the dc I've known through my own offspring, over about the past 12 years or so, have gone on to get GCSE results that were precisely in line wiht what you'd have predicted for them off the top of your head at the age of 9, based on academic ability, personality and attitude. And that was completely regardless of which school they attended - I know kids who went to tough comps who did the straight A* and Oxbridge hattrick, and kids from Owens and Latymer who got deeply average results, despite the years of tutoring and highly-selective education. The ones who ended up at Oxbridge were the ones who you could have picked out at age 8, and all the rest went on to very respectable universities with broadly similar grades.

IME the correlation between parental stress/angst/pushiness and the child's ultimate level of achievement is low to non-existent, and for some kids even negative.

Having said that, it's flipping difficult to get into DAO and I do wonder whether it's worth the schlep. It's 10 miles away...

Theoretically the DAO bar could be for Islington children but in practice it isn't, as far as I know. They have to take 20 Islington children, but throw in some siblings, maybe one statement child and there's probably fewer than 10 spaces left. And given how many children from Islington do the test and how pushy many of these families are and I daresay there are at least 10 of them in the top 65 (or realistically top 130 for a place).

I second DAOS ... why do I think the academic bar is lower for Islington children? Sure someone who has children at the school will explain. They go down a list taking the top scorers but they have to take 20 Islington children, wherever they come on the list ... I wouldn't imagine it would want to change it's number of disadvantaged children/low attaining children ... it's an uber-academic school.

If you choose to live in Islington and your DC is academically very motivated then Dame Alice Owen's could be an option. The academic and music exams are a high bar, but there is a sibling policy, plus statutory entry opportunities for looked after children etc etc. 20 plus children from Islington go there each year.

It's a warm, positive ethos, not so strict, music, sport and drama are excellent and it has an outstanding academic record (though not surprising given its overwhelmingly academic cohort). Some kids travel up on the northern line from tufnell park and the bus it to the school. It's got a beautiful setting of 20 acres, wood and lake, but it is a bit of a schlep and is certainly not a local school.

It's pretty multi-cultural, though afro-caribbean communities are not so represented. It's catchment includes swathes of Hertfordshire as well as barnet and Enfield, so friends can be spread out. In all honesty, it has pretty low percentages of disadvantaged children/low attaining children: something the school should ideally start to address with the new headteacher.

An option if you felt that this type of school matched your DC.

Cor slightly reeling from PP who 'wouldn't touch any of the Islington secondaries with a barge pole'. Really? Not a single one of them? Despite having massively improved and having well over average results for all pupils?

None of them are Fortismere, it's true, as the woman I know who was chuffed to get her kid into Fortismere from Islington would testify. She'd also testify that her kid is pretty miserable there now for myriad reasons and she wishes she'd just stuck to the local schools.

I suspect that PP would touch one of the Camden schools with her barge pole but none of the others...

I think overtly physical blokey behaviour tends to be a characteristic of all-boys' schools full stop, tbh. My ds went to a different all-boys school, and has since told similar stories wrt stuff that happened which would have made me wince a LOT if he'd told me at the time. That doesn't have to equate to Lord of the Flies style bullying, though - the kids involved in the roughhousing are generally enthusiastically consenting, and it doesn't mean they don't know how to behave when the situation calls for it. My youngest dd plays in various orchestras with several boys from Ellis, and she would definitely not be putting up with that kind of immature-boy carry-on. So clearly WE also produce at least some nice-natured, normal boys capable of playing musical instruments and having civilised conversations with girls!

I think all the schools are so different, that if you look round you will get a feel for what you think will suit you as a family. We looked at Burghley in the course of four sets of secondary transfer - none of my dc actually went there in the end, but I warmed to it much more than I thought I would, and would have been entirely happy for my dc to go there. Whereas when we looked round Ellis for my ds (years ago, he's now at university!) I just wasn't feeling the love at that time. I know other people have had exactly the opposite reaction, though.

I'd be a bit wary of the CoL academy until it has more of a track record. I know the Hackney one has become sought-after, but I"m not sure the same is true of the one that used to be Islington Green. I'm also not a big fan of the bootcamp vibe, but obv other people think it's great.

It's good to know about your friends children's experience tobe. And yes I do see what you mean about the spaces being available at AB, which I think has a larger intake anyway.

I've heard that William Ellis looses boys to Acland Burghley but rarely the other way round. Friends say they find WE a bit minor public school, one mould of boy, no room for boys outside a norm, rugger, bullying . But I have no direct experience other than being on the bus with them!

Burghley has been under-subscribed for the past few years because of the hoo-ha over the poor ofsted report c. 2013/4 and the abrupt departure of the then headteacher. So there will be spaces in the other year groups which might not be the case in reverse, iyswim?

I know two people who have boys with Aspergers-type issues at Ellis, and they are happy with how the school is looking after their ds's. But WE and Burghley are very different schools, it comes down to personal preference really.