Hampton Court House- views please!

Good morning @HappyLily
HCH parent here - I completely agree with @Springhassprung123
The school is unique, incredibly special and academically rigorous, but its not the right choice for every child. My DD is really bright (top quartile) and got in to far more selective schools locally, but we preferred a small school with a family feel. Both my children are doing really well socially and academically, and we are very pleased that we chose HCH for our family. It really depends what you want from a school.

Hi@HappyLily
Just chipping in before @MrsSeeGreen
I'm a current HCH parent and both my children are happy, thriving academically and absolutely love going to school. The teachers are great and really know my children. Your right about the Head of Art, she is just wonderful. I also love the Head of Drama. We saw the Upper school play yesterday and it was hugely ambitious and an incredibly powerful performanace. The new Principal who joined last year is superb too and the school feels in such a better place than 18 months ago.

Yes - there is a PTA. They are called the Freinds of HCH and are very active and welcoming. They organsie the winter and summer fetes and a whole range of things for parents and children over the year. The regular Cheese and Wine evenings for parents are really good :). The Friends raised huge ammount of money too for Charity through the Saphire Ball.

Yes - the children do go on trips. There are excusions throughout the year and some really quite exciting experinces further up the school. This year my oldest in Year 9 is off to the Artic at Easter!

I hope this has helped to answer some of your questions - I'm sure @MrsSeeGreen will be able to talk more. Good luck in finding the right school for your DS :)

@MrsSeeGreen I just went to visit the school and would love to know if you still feel that way today after a term adn a half. It has been difficult to get a feel for how the changes have now settled and what the results have been since the whole upheaval.
I am also unclear as to the academic take at this school. I could not get a feel of how the children get challenged to push themselves whilst knowning their limitations. All the children were having assessments , so we also didn't get to see the teachers in action (so to speak) and see the student- teacher interactions.
We forgot to ask about "where is the parent" in all of this. Is there a PTA? Do the kids do school outings/trips etc . There is a lot of talk about the teachers being specialists in their fields - but yes are they trained to teach? The Art teacher was the one that stood out (the one with media background).

Any insight would be gratefully received. Especially as our DS would be entering with your child in to Y4 next year if we went ahead.

Also how is the French coming along - is it already a second language in your home?

That's interesting. Are you a current parent at HCH?

As others have said, some teachers are unqualified and while they are incredibly intelligent, they are unable to control classes and their ability to explain concepts to children in a structured way is lacking. I think the results in external exams (GCSE/ A Levels) are still reflecting previous good years of teaching under the old head. I was referring to end of year exams lower down the school where whole classes are scoring around 50% where previously they were scoring 80% plus. I agree that the new Principal appears to be grabbing the school by the scruff of the neck and dragging it back to some form of order and accountability. However, the fact that they now appear to be taking any child, even when they don't fit the (slightly quirky, geeky, quiet) HCH mould, has been the cause of increased bullying of the previous students by new and boisterous ones.

Sorry should read last set of exams of kids before new owners… the current Y5, 6, 7 are like the Wild West

This was the last set of parents from the old school before it was owned by new owners… it’s like the Wild West there now….

@FatMax whivh exam results have been bad? The last 3 years puts HCH in top schools in the country? I know change is unsettling but I’ve just never come across such a happy, respectful school- KV the principal must have sorted it since your experience?

HCH got the best exam results ever this year & is now in top 50 of independent schools in the UK. My DD & DS just started in y10 & y3 and are sooooo happy. The new principal is incredible.

We have a daughter in HCH. Under the old Head it was an amazing place. Two acting heads on, and a year under Mr Rainbow and the place has spiralled into chaos. Poor teaching, bad exam results, bullying, no discipline in class, poor communication with issues not addressed, very fast staff and pupil turnover etc. And now Mr Rainbow has announced his resignation. Honestly couldn’t recommend the place now, sadly.

They’ve parachuted a principal in over the top of the headmaster in a part time role and he hasn’t even acknowledged her existence on any Comms - the new principal was a side note at the very end of the weekly newsletter - he’s now just a poster boy for a school that he’s managed to ruin in a year.

The teaching has really fallen apart this year - - in most subjects there hasn’t been homework all term. Little or no communication from teachers and no mention of what to revise for end of year assessments.

Teaching hours are being reduced next year and lunchtimes increased to 1 hour and 20 minutes. Where no doubt this extended lunch time will increase the opportunity for bad behaviour. The school has a huge percentage of kids needing SEN provision and this causes chaos at times - there has been an accept all policy which isn’t working.

Head is introducing a new qualification for Y7 onwards - which is student led research - this is all well and good but with no research facilities or library or a chrome book working option it’s a badly thought out plan.

Latin and mandarin being dropped so it’s place as a school for languages is lost. French immersion works well for the lower years but joiners after Y5 get totally lost in the French immersion and it just doesn’t work.

There are very few clubs, no drama, no school productions and no after school care provision or homework club. Not enough science and too much French.

The school has lots it’s USP, it’s soul and it’s reason to be - it’s now a nice building run by a nice but useless chap.

The school we toured around a few years ago isn’t the school we got this year. It’s a mess

We were leaving too (school felt unstable since the new Head joined last year) but we met the new Principal last week. Hugely impressive, highly experienced, and really gets HCH, such a relief!!!! Have withdrawn notice and cannot wait for HCH to become the very special place again that our children love and that we chose for them to grow up in.

Hi
We have just pulled our child out of HCH. A couple of other children have left too and a mass exodus of teachers.
The new head is smiley and friendly but seems to be lacking experience running a school and doesn’t seem to have much respect from his teaching staff.
Our experience was a lot of bullying in year 3 and nothing was done about it, teachers hired for their academic achievements (which is great) but not much in the way of teaching skills, lack of control of kids in the classroom, children wandering around, being disruptive and teachers not doing anything about it
The junior school is all about learning french so about 75% of kids are international, then it seems they move to a different school for secondary so you get a change in classes.
The classes are super small so they can’t play sports games like football etc as so few kids in a year group.
Shame, as it sounds like with the previous head it was a lovely warm welcoming school with a real family feel.

(In fact my dd got in on the 10+ to KGS and we didn't find any school we liked as much so that was that! There were several in her year who did the same )

Only problem with Halliford is it’s such a short day 🤪🤪🤪🤪 finishing before / around 4. So I’m not in love with it prefer a later finish!

I also have a son at halliford and am very impressed with it - Claremont is also worth a look. It’s definitely worth doing the 10+ for kgs. Hardly anyone gets a place but it’s good practise for then11+ and gets them used to exams and the format and pressure of interviews. Reeds, St. John’s and Epsom are also worth a look but are much more expensive . They have amazing sports facilities though. Also check out St. George’s in weybridge
HCH not particularly arty. Of the 3 I know that go there , only one is arty/musical - the other 2 are definitely not!

Halliford definitely has a bus network. We have friends with a DS there who gets the bus every day.

www.hallifordschool.co.uk/admissions/school-transport/

I’ve got 3 sets of friends with kids at HCH and they are very happy there. It’s quirky but becoming increasingly popular. Recently bought by dukes education and the children at HCH now do some team Sports with the radnor kids . Very small classes - typically 1 class of 15-18 in a year but the kids play with pupils above and below them
In school so no shortage of friends. They do have to learn French (lower school has maths lessons in French) but this stops In year 6 I think. If you have a sporty child who is very team based (rugby, football etc) then perhaps not the right school for you, but quite strong on individual sports. Before they got bought by dukes they sat around 78th school in the times parent power league for exam results but dukes don’t put their schools on the list, so they have gone now. We discounted it purely on class sizes - we wanted something a bit bigger. I’m a bit confused as to whether you have a boy or a girl? Halliford is a boys only school (and only take from 11) and surbiton is girls only at 11 but there is a boys prep that finishes at 11.
Also don’t discount any school without looking at the bus links. Most schools have a decent private bus network to get children to school without public transport

Might be worth looking at Claremont Fan Court in Esher

I'm local to HCH and have also heard that it's "quirky". Check to see if Halliford have a bus service that's close by, they cover quite a large area with the school bus as do Reeds in Cobham.