Alexandra Park School vs Highgate Wood (APS vs HGW)?

chillberry · 2021-04-09T15:04:53+00:00

We're currently in catchment for HGW and liked what I saw on a pre-covid open day. I had the impression the school has improved a lot in recent years and results look almost as good as APS. But I also really liked APS and we now might have the opportunity to move into that catchment. We do like the area we're in right now a bit more than the APS area, but we're renting at the moment so don't have to worry about selling/buying and I'm wondering if a move would really be worth it. Would love to hear more from people with current experience of these schools. DC is quiet, sensitive, academic type. How do they handle y7 transition? How has their covid provision been? Any red flags?

NataLi112 · 22/02/2025 16:56

Hi @owlmummy I heard from some parents that APS groups all SEN students together for interventions, wondering if this is still a thing?

NataliaNN · 08/06/2024 00:20

@owlmummy I am considering APS or Archer for my 10 boy who has an EHCP for ASD diagnosis. Would really appreciate if anyone has any insight or recommendations. APS looks great on paper, but we were not able to get a meeting to speak with their SEND department and hear that they are understaffed these days? Grateful for any info or tips!

Meadowbreeze · 31/08/2023 23:40

sammyvine · 31/08/2023 23:27

Back in the day APS used to be very diverse. I think because the catchment used to stretch to Wood Green. Clearly not anymore since the school became more popular.

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APS catchment hasn't been more than 0.5miles for at least 12 years. This must've been a long time ago.

sammyvine · 31/08/2023 23:27

Meadowbreeze · 30/08/2023 22:45

Very. It's like they're different schools esp as sixth form is huge and forces you to take 4 a levels which not a lot of kids want. Y7-11 is mostly middle class well off kids. For that area, very white. Obviously there's still diversity but nothing on the sixth form.

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Back in the day APS used to be very diverse. I think because the catchment used to stretch to Wood Green. Clearly not anymore since the school became more popular.

Meadowbreeze · 31/08/2023 16:24

BNP · 30/08/2023 22:51

Where do those middle class kids go at sixth form?

Fortismere, Woodhouse, Camden girls, latymer or stay at aps. The unpopular part of aps sixth form is the compulsory 4 a levels, not the diversity.

elkiedee · 31/08/2023 02:56

APS offers lots of places to external students at sixth form in addition to students staying on, but a lot of school sixth forms and some standalone colleges competition for students with good grades from a much wider area. It doesn't mean that APS students aren't staying on too. My son is still deciding whether to be one of those external students from Tottenham or to travel even further west to Woodhouse College in Barnet. A lot of the external students come from families who are also quite middle class, but settled in more affordable areas (and 5/10/15/20 years later would never have been able to afford Tottenham or Wood Green either!)

BNP · 30/08/2023 22:51

Where do those middle class kids go at sixth form?

Meadowbreeze · 30/08/2023 22:45

sammyvine · 30/08/2023 22:32

How different is it in year 7-11?

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Very. It's like they're different schools esp as sixth form is huge and forces you to take 4 a levels which not a lot of kids want. Y7-11 is mostly middle class well off kids. For that area, very white. Obviously there's still diversity but nothing on the sixth form.

sammyvine · 30/08/2023 22:32

Meadowbreeze · 30/08/2023 13:51

The APS sixth form isnt really made up of APS students. It's mostly kids east of the borough from schools that don't have sixth forms. The FSM % is mostly them. It's a very different school y7-11

How different is it in year 7-11?

Meadowbreeze · 30/08/2023 13:51

The APS sixth form isnt really made up of APS students. It's mostly kids east of the borough from schools that don't have sixth forms. The FSM % is mostly them. It's a very different school y7-11

elkiedee · 30/08/2023 13:31

When looking at academic results for these schools, I think for year 7-11 you need to look more at GCSE results than A levels, because there is a lot of movement post GCSEs which makes direct comparisons potentially misleading.

Antys · 30/08/2023 12:12

very hard to believe all of you when you said that HWS and APS are similar school

one has 42% in A*-A
and the other had 26% in A*-A

drilling into key data such as Maths/further Maths / STEM gave exactly the same picture

to clarify my view: I'm only looking at the academics and we will turn down APS for the 6th form for our DD

meadowbreeze · 24/04/2021 08:53

@chillberry it was two years ago at the peak of the 2007-9 baby boom and they definitely put it as first choice. I believe the cut off that year was 0.43 or something and they just didn't make it. I believe he got in at some point in September when the grammar places were moving.

Original poster

chillberry · 24/04/2021 08:32

[quote meadowbreeze]@sammyvine oh you need to live on the doorstep. They get on average 15 kids with EHCPs, 10 looked after, lots of siblings, staff places and we are just coming to the end of the 2006-2009 baby boom so catchment has been crazy. I know a family who's kid didn't get in from Windermere road.
Long gone are the days of Tottenham and even bounds green kids going there.
Most of the kids that live around Ally Pally and bounds green now go to Heartlands.[/quote]
meadowbreeze All of Windermere Road is

OP posts:

owlmummy · 17/04/2021 15:39

My son has a ECHP so distance from school doesn't apply, or in theory it shouldn't apply.

sammyvine · 16/04/2021 19:43

@owlmummy

My son has an ECHP and went to APS, he had a wonderful 5 years there, the teaching and support for him was excellent. My daughter is currently in year 9 and loving it. Obviously it's been a hard and very strange year for all of them.

I find the demographic fairly diverse, we live about 2 miles away and my daughter's school friends don't all live in Muswell Hill, despite the ever decreasing 'catchment'.

You don't live in Muswell Hill? Going by the admission it seems you need to live on the door step unless this is only a recent thing? Like i said many years ago many kids who went to APS lived in Wood Green which is the more disadvantaged parts of the borough. By all accounts this is a thing of the past!

owlmummy · 16/04/2021 19:18

My son has an ECHP and went to APS, he had a wonderful 5 years there, the teaching and support for him was excellent. My daughter is currently in year 9 and loving it. Obviously it's been a hard and very strange year for all of them.

I find the demographic fairly diverse, we live about 2 miles away and my daughter's school friends don't all live in Muswell Hill, despite the ever decreasing 'catchment'.

meadowbreeze · 15/04/2021 08:08

@sammyvine oh you need to live on the doorstep. They get on average 15 kids with EHCPs, 10 looked after, lots of siblings, staff places and we are just coming to the end of the 2006-2009 baby boom so catchment has been crazy. I know a family who's kid didn't get in from Windermere road.
Long gone are the days of Tottenham and even bounds green kids going there.
Most of the kids that live around Ally Pally and bounds green now go to Heartlands.

sammyvine · 14/04/2021 23:17

@chillberry

"Wow. I guess it was expected but I think what was great about APS was how diverse it was....i think there was a nice balance between the more wealthy children of Muswell Hill and those less well off from Wood Green etc...."

This was what I thought when I went to the HGW open day/evening. The diverse mix of students is very appealing appealing to me.

That said, APS is still very tempting and the atmosphere felt like one my DC would thrive in (Fortismere, OTOH, felt too chaotic). I'm definitely warming up to HGW though, and I recognise that I'm fortunate to have the choice and flexibility if we do decide to move.

Yes. I know few people who went to APS and they spoke well of it. It's seems like it's one of the best non selective schools in North London. What it was known for was it wasn't like Fortismere that has a large middle-class intake, it was a more diverse since kids would live in Bounds Green and Wood Green and go to APS but obviously that has changed dramatically !

I am hearing a lot of good things about HGW. It seems it has improved a lot and like i said Mr Cozier used to teach me!
I have heard a lot of good things about Archer Academy in East Finchley. There GCSE results are amazing but from reading threads on here you need to live very close to get in!

sammyvine · 14/04/2021 22:55

@meadowbreeze

Aps- move within 0.4 miles. HGW- move within 0.8 miles. One will let your kid dye their hair blue the other will give them a cotton pad for their nail polish. A bit like choosing a vegan or meat sausage roll at Gregg's. Kinda different but mainly the same. If your kid has SEN APS is better and their science block doesn't look like a prison, but it is a bunch of old office building converted into a school so sausage roll illustration still applies. Mr cozier is far nicer but your child is unlikely to be taught by either so doesn't matter much.

I know this sounds like the dumbest question ever but 0.4 miles is literally on the same road/down the road from the school so basically thats how close you have to live to get in?

meadowbreeze · 14/04/2021 21:28

Aps- move within 0.4 miles.
HGW- move within 0.8 miles.
One will let your kid dye their hair blue the other will give them a cotton pad for their nail polish.
A bit like choosing a vegan or meat sausage roll at Gregg's. Kinda different but mainly the same.
If your kid has SEN APS is better and their science block doesn't look like a prison, but it is a bunch of old office building converted into a school so sausage roll illustration still applies.
Mr cozier is far nicer but your child is unlikely to be taught by either so doesn't matter much.

Original poster

chillberry · 14/04/2021 10:12

"Wow. I guess it was expected but I think what was great about APS was how diverse it was....i think there was a nice balance between the more wealthy children of Muswell Hill and those less well off from Wood Green etc...."

This was what I thought when I went to the HGW open day/evening. The diverse mix of students is very appealing appealing to me.

That said, APS is still very tempting and the atmosphere felt like one my DC would thrive in (Fortismere, OTOH, felt too chaotic). I'm definitely warming up to HGW though, and I recognise that I'm fortunate to have the choice and flexibility if we do decide to move.

OP posts:

sammyvine · 12/04/2021 15:28

@Polly99

Sammyvine - that's right. The catchment now goes nowhere near Wood Green. Kids from up Alexandra Park Road towards MH - who previously would have applied to Fortismere- started to go to APS and the catchment shrank dramatically. The kids who live towards Ally Pally station who would historically have gone to APS now get into to Heartlands (a new school near the station on the Wood Green side) which is basically how APS was a decade or so ago and I believe is run by the same trust. Diverse demographics, good academics and a growing reputation, and no sixth form (yet - I believe there are plans to add one).

Wow. I guess it was expected but I think what was great about APS was how diverse it was....i think there was a nice balance between the more wealthy children of Muswell Hill and those less well off from Wood Green etc.... I guess that is a thing of the past now and those with money will just buy houses near good schools like APS and get their children in.

sammyvine · 12/04/2021 15:26

[quote Crouchendmumoftwo]@chillberry. Hi I have children in year 7 & 8 at HW/APS. My children are totally different. I would not like to write anything negative about the schools. As I said HW has been very adaptive to the childrens needs and their provision of online learning has been very good in comparison to other schools. We have also had a weekly letter from the head on a Saturday updating us. Their parent comms are excellent and there is a real sense of community with a strong PTA support so they have had lots of virtual fundraising events. It has a very friendly supportive feel with lovely children. I do not think it is worth moving to go to another school. The catchment is shrinking a lot and lots of people living on the outskirts of Crouch End have to wait over a year to get in now. Some parts of the local area are out of catchment now.

My other child has made lovely friends at APS too but the school is stricter and less flexible that HW in my experience, good or bad. Both schools have lovely teachers too. I think they are both excellent as is Fortismere and other schools nearby. Most children I know at all these schools are extreemly happy including my children.[/quote]
off topic but the head of HGW, Mr Cozier used to teach me many years ago! I went to Winchmore school in Enfield and he was an assistant headteacher when I was there. It's great to see that he has become a headteacher, especially when you don't see many black headteachers in secondary schools. It's seems that he is also doing a very good job!

Crouchendmumoftwo · 12/04/2021 14:58

@chillberry. Hi I have children in year 7 & 8 at HW/APS. My children are totally different. I would not like to write anything negative about the schools. As I said HW has been very adaptive to the childrens needs and their provision of online learning has been very good in comparison to other schools. We have also had a weekly letter from the head on a Saturday updating us. Their parent comms are excellent and there is a real sense of community with a strong PTA support so they have had lots of virtual fundraising events. It has a very friendly supportive feel with lovely children. I do not think it is worth moving to go to another school. The catchment is shrinking a lot and lots of people living on the outskirts of Crouch End have to wait over a year to get in now. Some parts of the local area are out of catchment now.

My other child has made lovely friends at APS too but the school is stricter and less flexible that HW in my experience, good or bad. Both schools have lovely teachers too. I think they are both excellent as is Fortismere and other schools nearby. Most children I know at all these schools are extreemly happy including my children.