Archbishop Tenison’s School, CROYDON / other Croydon secondary comps

[xigris]

Hi

Just wondering if anyone has any experience of this school, please? We’ve looked at it and liked it, our child has some SEN issues but no EHCP. They’re bright and have good social skills but will definitely need some input from the SENCo team.

Would love to hear some experiences / opinions please!

We’re also planning on looking at Coombe Wood School, Shirley High and Orchard Park if people have any views or experiences of those.

I’m finding this all a bit overwhelming if I’m honest and would love some input from you wise mumsnetters!

Many thanks

Where in Croydon are you?

I think I probably live quite close to you. I don’t have any experience of Archbishops Tenisons; I have one dc at Coombe Wood and another at Quest.

My advice would just be to go to the open evenings and chat to staff. You will soon get a feel for what you think of each school. Some schools also have tours during the school day, it’s also worth doing those as well. I would ignore all heresay about a school - so many people have fixed views of Quest but our experience has been very positive.

I recommend you visit Meridian High School depending on where you are in Croydon. The school has recently had Ofsted (Jan) and is Good in all categories. It has an Enhanced Learning Provision for students with a primary need of ASD or speech language and communication needs. Its inclusion leader is an inclusion award winner for this year's teaching awards.

It also has a SEMH provision and is only the second secondary school in the country to become a Thrive School of Excellence.

Due to these provisions, they are able to provide a range of support and intervention for SEN students and not having an EHCP is not a barrier to accessing the interventions they have. They have an open evening on the 27th September.

As Sprog says of Quest, Meridian has been written off by many because of its past history but it has been transformed over the last few years.

Coombe Wood has two feeder primaries with their students getting priority placement and last year their catchment was less than 0.5 miles. Their open evening is on 20th next week. They have a unique curriculum for year 7 to ease the transition which is interesting and academically ambitious.

Tennison's have criteria for church membership in their admission policy so that might be something you need to consider.

I recommend going to see the schools on open evenings but to really get a feel for SEND support go to the open mornings which you often have to prebook.

Croydon council website used to have an interactive map that you could use to check which schools were closest and cross reference it with the last admitted distance for those schools in previous years. There is no point in looking at and getting your heart set on a school you've got no chance of getting a place at - as a PP mentioned, Coombe Wood has two feeder primaries so the last admitted distance was less than 0.5 of a mile last year; likewise Riddlesdown is 1.5 miles (with no feeders) etc etc.

I agree with @SprogTakesAQuarry in that you need to discount other people’s viewpoints to an extent, my DC go
to Shirley High and OMG the pearl
clutching from some of my friends! They’ve done well academically and the teachers are so lovely and supportive. We’ve been so happy with it and so have our DC. The new(ish) head is great.

This document gives you the information on last year's admissions to Croydon Schools towards the end. https://www.croydon.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2022-08/Secondary_School_Admissions_2023-24.pdf

Is Riddlesdown too far? That's supposed to be good.

Hi! I probably saw you there 😁

Its the first school we looked at so following with interest.

You probably did @GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing! What did you think? I really liked it. The two Yr11s that showed us round were so sweet. The teachers were all very approachable too. My only concerns are related to the smallish site and that they’re increasing numbers to 150 / year group.

Where else are you planning on looking?

And thank you @Misknit. That’s really helpful

Hiya,

My son does have an EHCP. along with a few other disabled children they have been mentally abused in this school. To say it been traumatic is an understatement. They council are looking into this.