SW London schools: info on Graveney, Chestnut, Hurlingham etc

@77summers I'm sorry to hear that.
Our current primary school saw an exodus of families, because their approach was very much "my way or the highway". I know a couple of children who have special needs and the school doesn't care, so I am not surprised that other schools behave similarly.

Could I please ask you to elaborate a bit more, without of course doxing yourself?

What is the CAT test? A test to move students to a different set? But I thought Graveney uses sets, not streams, so at Graveney you could be in the top set for one subject and the middle set for another?

I have spoken to younger siblings of younger colleagues, who went to Graveney fairly recently, and their main feedback was that, if you get in via the Wandsworth test, it's a good school, but if you are in the bottom sets it can be pretty rough. One said it was like having 2 different schools on the same location, the other played it down and said that in every school there will be differences between the top set and the bottom set. Would you agree more with the former?

If you are looking to change school, have you looked into Harris Battersea, Southfields Academy, Ark Putney? They are all undersubscribed, but Harris Battersea is the only outstanding. An outstanding undersubscribed school is rare.

Lambeth also has a few undersubscribed schools; no idea if that's because they're not good, or if it's demographics.

@spoodlesee Could I please ask about your experience at Graveney?

There must be a special place in hell for parents who don't bother updating schools!

I don't know for sure.
I hear that most families who were admitted into private schools should know by now (end of March) but I have never looked into the details.

@Fellontheground "My specific needs"??

I never realised that wanting to avoid an environment which institutionalises and normalises the emotional abuse of children was a "specific need"

@Fellontheground Why would anyone "harp on" about the risk of emotional abuse, after this exact scandal broke out in not 1 but 2 schools, not in another continent but in the same city, not last century but very recently, both rated not requiring improvement but outstanding, and both with very similar ethos? Yes, it is truly beyond me why anyone might want to harp on about that. I am such a bad parent. Thank you for bringing me back to planet Earth.

For anyone who doesn't know what I'm talking about, here are some links with the details.

My concerns are not the paranoid fears of something which can never materialise.
My concerns are that there have been scandals of emotional abuse in two London schools, both rated outstanding; both scandals are fairly recent, and both schools have a very, very, very similar ethos to Ashcroft - hence my concerns.

But, hey, I shouldn't be concerned and I shouldn't antagonise as much, right?

Holland Park School in West London:

It was rated outstanding and was notorious for academic success but draconian discipline. After numerous complaints, an investigation "found a culture of "fear, favouritism and inequality". The findings included inappropriate response to the case of a teacher who had a relationship with a pupil, inappropriate use of the isolation room, destruction of material related to the Ofsted inspection, fialure to support students who had been victims of peer-on-peer sexual abuse.

The headteacher retired. The school was assigned to a different academy trust. No one was held accountable.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-61325597

More than 100 former students complained about serious failings in pastoral care and safeguarding, including illegal off-rolling of students.

they experienced a “toxic and abusive” environment in which some pupils’ emotional and psychiatric needs were neglected, that difficult pupils were taken out of school during Ofsted inspections, and that the school’s leadership encouraged excessive use of shouting as a form of discipline, which left young people feeling “anxious and unsafe”.
They allege that young people were also publicly shamed and humiliated. In one instance they say students’ photos were displayed on plasma screens around school to highlight their behavioural or academic failings.

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2021/sep/08/the-trauma-stays-with-me-ex-pupils-of-london-school-tell-of-toxic-and-abusive-environment

Mossbourne in East London

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czjd383z9lyo

The school, rated outstanding and notorious for its strict discipline (see a pattern?) faces similar allegations of a toxic culture.

teachers told the BBC they joined seminars on how to instil "healthy fear" into the pupils, and that many teachers left the school with a number of mental health issues. Shouting and screaming at students was commonplace.

Allegations included Mossbourne teachers being trained in “healthy fear” and “screaming” sometimes “centimetres apart” from children’s faces, several reports of children fainting in line-ups while being shouted at, and children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send) being punished unfairly and “pushed out” to other schools. Many former students said they had suffered mental health issues due to being afraid in school which had lasted long after they left

For clarity, we are not talking about 2 disgruntled parents, but about hundreds among current and ex teachers, students and parents coming forward.

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2024/dec/07/london-academies-emotional-harm-mossbourne-schools-observer-investigation

@Wimbledonmum1985 I respectfully disagree.

Only someone who hasn't seen on themselves or on their loved ones the effect that these environments can have on the mental health of a person would speak like you.

I do sincerely hope you will never have to find out the hard way.

And anyway saying that one wants to avoid an environment which may be conducive to the kind of emotional abuse which has been well documented recently in two London schools is not "antagonistic" - not anymore than a woman saying she doesn't want to work for a man who may assault her. But you do you.

I'd be curious why you think I wouldn't be happy with any of them.

Have I said anything which is unreasonable, or have I shown unrealistic expectations?

Have I rubbished all these schools or have I said that quite a few seem, in fact, like very reasonable compromises among all the things which are important to us?

I seem to remember that, on the contrary, I am looking into the details but not fixating on any of them, not fixating on which languages they teach, whether they use streams sets or else, and I have said very clearly that I have to be realistic, that choices are likely to be limited so we cannot obsess over tiny details as long as a school is reasonably good and we have reason to believe our child will be reasonably happy there.

What I have done is to show absolute intransigence and contempt for schools like Ashcroft, Holland Park, Mossbourne etc and their methods. I do so because emotional abuse has been well-documented at Holland Park and Mossbourne (this is a fact) and I fear that the same may happen at Ashcroft (this is an opinion) since the ethos is so similar.

This seems to have triggered a number of parents who want to delude themselves into thinking that whatever they have chosen for their offspring is the best option on the planet, and so feel threatened by someone who dares have a different opinion. Of course the presence of so many of this kind of parents, acting as enablers, is exactly what allowed abuse to happen at Mossbourne and Holland Park.