Gower school islington

[BeenieBaby]

Anyone have any experience of this school? We're keen on a Montessori education, but this school seems to have a bad rep, we weren't sure why... Anyone know firsthand what it's like?

@stockbridge It seems your view is "Me and my child are treated fine so that must mean there are no problems." Nice.

If you've read this thread you would see that there are a LOT of grievances against management, mainly EG. As another poster said, it is a business first and foremost. Management chooses who they "like" (parents, children, staff) and treat them according to this. This could change on a termly basis, btw. Clearly you're one of the lucky ones.

You're right though, there are some absolutely brilliant teachers at TGS. This however does not include management and whether you like it or not, there is a LOT of mistreatment happening.

I'm seriously struggling to match what i'm reading with our experience as a family. I can't make sense of it...

So far we have had an absolutely brilliant experience, they have been great with our child who is really happy and engaged, and it really saddens me to hear some people haven't had the same experience, but I must say all the people i know seem very happy too. Staff have been fantastic, I just haven't heard or seen any of this awful stuff I'm reading.

I think it's important that people share the good and the bad and can feel safe in doing both, so here's our experience.

We love it.

@cupcakeking that's not my view, and I don't think I said anything that implied that!

My point is simply that my experience, and what I hear of others', is that this is a thriving school where the children are happy and achieving well. Surely that's a welcome thing to hear.

The Head never greets anyone. EG will walk right past you and not acknowledge you. This I find rude and shocking. No common curtsy.
I have mention this to numerous friends that have children in other schools and they can not believe it.

That’s so very different to our experience. So very, very different. EG has always made a point of acknowledging parents whenever I’ve seen her. Maybe her mind was elsewhere when you saw her? I’m just trying to account for such a massive discrepancy in experience...

When you say the head never greets you which if deliberate as you feel it is would indeed be utterly rude. My experience is that can’t get out without a warm hello. And sometimes I’m in a rush, EG always engages.

Not all but a lot of this thread really is at odds with our experience. Bizarre.

I have been watching this thread for a while now and can say I have also heard at another time a child was called a twit in front of his peers (who proceeded to laugh at them) by the head which must have been a rather unpleasant experience for the poor child.

It seems to be a very "do as I say not as I do" environment.

I find it alarming that your experience IS that different and that you are so quick to defend @facetothesun ... I must say I smell a rat. The pages and pages and pages of accusations and experiences from parents and staff speak lengths to what goes on at TGS.

It's common knowledge that the head is ignorant and thinks she is above everyone else but what's more important is the dire treatment of staff and children.

Staff have been and continue to be treated atrociously by senior leaders in that school and now it's being outed that children are too... being called a moron, twit or merely being pushed to the back because they're "different" is not acceptable. And trust me, it happens.

Relax, If it helps your suspicions maybe it’s worth sharing our real names. I would be open to that idea. If you are too, to prove my child is at the Gower and put your mind at rest.

I have not been rude to you or accused you of anything suspicious. I’ve simply and politely shared our account.

Anyone posting anything positive is in my view bullied or has their comments undermined. Ironic considering the nature of the conversation.

My experience is a honest open account of life at The Gower. I have nothing to hide.

I am truly sorry if you haven’t experience the quality we have. But I cannot help the facts regarding our experience.

As this page is getting full and won’t allow you to post soon, I have created a new one for all who want to continue this discussion
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3185847-Gower-school-discussion-2?watched=1

Dear Facetothesun

I wish to remain anonymous for a variety of reasons. If you are happy with the School, then great.However, if you asked what primary state schools do in the area you might be amazed: proper teaching by fully qualified teachers...for free. With actual teaching 5 days a week! That doesn't happen at TGS. It is a 4 day week. Check what happens on Fridays. I am only trying to stop parents being ripped-off.

Hi Pleasant6,

I am reposting here was we have moved the conversation back.

Pleasant6
Do you know who the governor of the gower school is? EG's father! Why does she make herself accountable to no-one? Wake-up, people!

Without outside governors there is no healthy, open trusting conversation. Open your eyes.

Then I said:

I meant meeting among us, nothing to do with EG. My post was met with suspicion and it does get a bit nasty on here from time to time.

There a lot of regular posters, I thought if we all met we could put suspicion to one side and give more room to each others very different views. This was nothing to do with forming a governing body. Though I agree that would be wonderful, but not the point that I was trying to make.

I'd like to be able to post my opinion and not face such hostility and suspicion. I'm really happy to meet with anyone.

I think it's very easy to forget that there is a human sitting behind the screen, it's just the nature of social media, but that doesn't make it any easier. To sit and have a coffee with someone face to face well that changes the quality of the communication. I'd like to understand how there are people having such an awful time when this is not on my radar when I am the school or that of the parents I know. Hope that makes more sense?

To add having read your comment on this page:

I appreciate there are a variety of reasons why you may to wish to remain anonymous, that's absolutely your right, I would not question your motives. But equally lets not treat people with really good experiences with such a hard time, it's really not nice to be on the receiving end of it.

Anyway, I need a glass of wine, a large one :) it's been quite an evening. Maybe pick this up another time. Have a good evening.

I am a long term lurker and first time poster. I don't propose to prove my independence and just wanted to give my opinion as another TGS parent.

I wholeheartedly agree with @facetothesun. Before choosing the school (which we took very seriously as financially it is a bit of a stretch for us and we wanted to make the "right" choice).

This thread terrified me when I read it but tried to approach the open morning with an open mind. We were absolutely blown away by how happy, confident, curious and kind the children and the teachers were.

Our experience to date has been truly wonderful, committed and supportive staff and a very happy DC. I would urge anyone considering TGS to visit yourself and to make your own mind up. Our experience of TGS is an overwhelmingly positive one.

On the issue of comparative state schools, we don't live in Islington but do have friends who teach there in state schools (primary and secondary). We also have a lot of other teacher friends who work in state schools in other London Boroughs. Universally, they are all incredible stress and overworked (many have had to take sick leave due to mental health issues brought on by this environment). I wonder whether this is just endemic in teaching (and obviously it shouldn't be). However, our reason for choosing TGS was that all of the OFSTED "outstanding" schools did not provide challenge or support for pupils at the upper end of the academic spectrum. I don't want to come across as one of those "my child is a genius" people but I know that my DC is very bright and I have personal experience of being in a school that couldn't accommodate my educational needs (hence why my parents moved me from state to private at 8). TGS is full of really bright children who also exhibit high levels of empathy. I honestly couldn't wish for a more supportive and stimulating environment for my DC to be educated.

@dontcallmemummy8
So glad that your experience is a positive one. You're right, there are lots of good teachers at TGS but there are also lots of overworked, underpaid and down trodden staff.

Your positive experience could quickly
Change as have many in the past. Please just bare this in mind. When an under achieving child is labelled SEND or when a child is called a moron or laughed at and ridiculed by senior staff because they are different. Just remember this thread

There are schools where ALL children are valued and praised by senior staff.

What makes it worse is that TGS is the school of EG. There's no room for change.

Dontcall, my children attend/have attended one of the Islington Primaries disparaged by Ms Gower a few pages back and not even one of the outstanding ones.

Two of them have done 11+ and honestly their results are just as good/better than the ones touted on the Gower website (i.e. they got the most academic North London schools). The big difference being that we only applied for three for each of them so if they'd appeared on the Gower list there would only be three offers apiece - we got the academic ones but not a whole long list of the schools considered less academic. There's one poor child on the leavers' destinations list with 7 offers! What was he doing applying to that many schools? That strikes me as bad advice because he's evidently super able so didn't need all the insurance.

I would say my kids are academic but not super academic so despite their successful entry at City etc I guess I don't have experience of a 'very bright child'. I'm not sure how Gower would have dealt with them any better than their very mixed primary - does it really cope with bright kids in an especially brilliant way? .

Hi @lotsofsighing, I am going to be optimistic and assume that your reference to "very bright child" is not some form of veiled criticism. I am basing that on the views of DC's former Montessori teachers, reports from their directress, health visitors, GPs and current teachers who we call friends. Of course that could be proved wrong but I know that my DC would have drowned in state school and Montessori is the right environment for him.

It occurred to me, as I was up late working last night, that the suggestion that the AMI and the ISI are somehow in cahoots with TGS is something akin to a conspiracy theory. These are both respected and independent bodies. Is it even rational to suggest that they would jeapodise that standing by giving an inaccurate report?

It wasn't meant to be an insult at all - they are bright but I wouldn't describe them as very bright so I genuinely don't know if they would have been served as well by their state primary if they were. However, they seem to do as well as any child at the Gower so I was suggesting that maybe kids (of their level anyway) do well enough in any environment. I'm talking kids who are in the high middle of the heap at a secondary school like City not at the very top.

I do think that private schools (not Gower in particular) can feed this line about how bright and sensitive children will be crushed in state schools and in my experience that hasn't been the case.

Which goes back to my question, which I'm asking out of interest not snark, what do you think Gower does especially well for bright children?

Hi @Lotsofsighing, that's good I didn't jump off the deep end! Thanks for clarifying - somethings get lost in translation especially on forums.

Pre TGS DC was at a very well regarded Montessori School (that is "pure Montessori" as in like Maria was there). That model meant that they were able to follow their interests and they weren't set (or kept down from) what they could achieve on the basis of age/ability. My impression of TGS kids, when we visited, was that the children were able to pursue their interests to their level which was higher for their age group than contemporaries. It was certainly higher than mine at that age and I did well academically and professionally (sorry for boasting about paper medals).

My DP had a really tough time at primary and secondary as a high achiever who had his interests and abilities capped. I don't think TGS "caps" and I get the impression (and of course I could be proved wrong) that children are allowed and encouraged to follow their interests as far as they want to.

It could well be that my DP just had a bad experience (and I hope things are better now for today's kids) and that I have an unrealistic rose tinted image of TGS and my own educational background. Happy (in relative terms) to be proved wrong on that. But the difference between my state experience and my private experience was staggering - rather than being discouraged from following my own learning trajectory I was supported and allowed to reach my potential. On my own personal and current evidence, I thought I could see a significant mirroring of my experience at TGS.

Hello? Does anyone care about anotheronewritesagain’s experience? She was teacher at the school and she just shared some very upsetting information about her time there.

I hope she posts again. It is important to know what really goes on behind closed doors.

Why was @anotheronewritesagain post been deleted by MNHQ? There was absolutely nothing offensive about it. Seems to me like somebody may have complained, for whatever reason

Unfortunately I missed anotheronewritesgain's post, so no idea why it could have been deleted.

@donotcallmemummy8 you are making an interesting point about the ISI, I do not think anyone is suggesting that they are in cahoots with the school BUT if a school is good at ticking all the right boxes and staging the school just right for an inspection, it will show in the report. The issues raised here are not going to be evident in an inspection.

As I said on the other thread, not at all discrediting or doubting the wonderful experience your child is having and the dedicated teachers, just be aware of the underlying dysfuntionality, for the years ahead and the sake of the other children.

123yellowblue I was merely expressing something of my experiences as one of the lower school Montessori teachers and how badly I was treated by senior leaders when I worked at TGS- by one member of
Staff in particular who has now left. I took a grievance out and the grievance was allowed to be shredded and ridiculed by the staff member in question. Nothing ever came of it. I actually told ISI this on the inspection... didn't see that in the report.
After that I was quickly pushed out with my confidence crushed and I left very quickly.

I witnessed the mistreatment of many, many staff during my time there. Never seen anything like it in my whole career. :(