Good state secondary schools in London

[spacemonkey]

Do they exist?

My son is in year 6 in Islington at a fantastic primary school, but all the local secondary schools look absolutely grim. I need to make a decision about which schools to apply for for next September and I really don't know what to do. The only decent schools around here are RC, for which we do not qualify.

Any recommendations? I'm willing to move again if necessary to another part of London if it means being nearer better secondary schools for him.

Thanks for all the advice frogs and tm. I went to Islington Green open day today and was very pleasantly surprised. Head seems positive and committed. The school was clean, bright and has a number of good new facilities (refurbished hall, new cafeteria, new ICT facilities, new performing arts studios). Their GCSE results are on the up (up by 15% since 2002). My mum came with me and she was impressed too. Ds was in a bit of a mood, so I haven't had such a good response from him

Good news, spacemonkey. My ds was in strop too - I think its fairly common.

glad it wasn't just me with a stroppy ds then copper

it made me feel quite downcast, I was hoping to see a bit of enthusiasm from him

Glad you feel a bit better about Islington Green, sm. It's amazing how many schools around here are having new building work. And whoever manufactures whiteboards must be raking in the cash - they are everywhere! Sorry your son was in a strop. Mine tends to play up, especially in th science rooms where there is just so much to fiddle with. Bunsen burners, taps, test tubes - he is like a moth to a flame.

Most Bromley state secondaries are pretty good. There aren't actually any grammar schools - only Newstead Woods and St Olaves, which are known as (girls and boys respectively) "super selective" schools (reasoning that all the other secondaries have some form of selection/streaming. Very over-subscribed entrance exams, though.

Dear parent,
should you need access to past papers for 11+ entry and interview questions, I have available past papers for selective schools, including:
Dame Alice Owen's School (Potters Bar), St Albans School (Boys), The Latymer School (Edmonton)-like gold dust these!, The Haberdashers Askes (Boys/Girls), City of London School, St Columba's School (Boys)Herts, St John's Senior School (Enfield), Merchant Taylor's School, 11+ Interview Questions.
I only charge £5.00 (+£1.00 P&P)for 3 papers, assorted or specific which includes the interview question paper. Recently and to a lot of parents' horror, The Latymer School which is an excellent but heavily over subscribed school charged £25.00 for past papers to parents who attended the open day! However, past papers provide excellent practice and enable your child to develop their timing which is crucial. Contact me at: [email protected] or leave a message on 0208 368 2868.
Regards.

Dear parent,
should you need access to past papers for 11+ entry and interview questions, I have available past papers for selective schools, including:
Dame Alice Owen's School (Potters Bar), St Albans School (Boys), The Latymer School (Edmonton)-like gold dust these!, The Haberdashers Askes (Boys/Girls), City of London School, St Columba's School (Boys)Herts, St John's Senior School (Enfield), Merchant Taylor's School, 11+ Interview Questions.
I only charge £5.00 (+£1.00 P&P)for 3 papers, assorted or specific which includes the interview question paper. Recently and to a lot of parents' horror, The Latymer School which is an excellent but heavily over subscribed school charged £25.00 for past papers to parents who attended the open day! However, past papers provide excellent practice and enable your child to develop their timing which is crucial. Contact me at: [email protected] or leave a message on 0208 368 2868.
Regards.

are the interview question papers easily available to outsiders? just wondering where you got these from.

I know written test papers for the 11+ are available all over the place, but am surprised that interview question papers are available too.

don't know much about selective school tests, however.

I know your prices are very reasonable but as this is an advertisement, I think you'll need to pay mumsnet also.

I have been reading this thread with interest. I am a teacher in North London and taught until quite recently at one of these schools listed by 'pastpapers'. I do not agree that these schools' past papers should be sold on in this way at a profit to this person. My advice is, if you want past papers, get them direct from the school.You will get a bigger and better selection.My other advice is think carefully about whether you want your child to sit exams if it means paying out hundreds for private tutors, because believe me it is heart breaking to watch kids struggle for 5 years and constantly feel they are failures.I would only send my dd to my old place of teaching if I knew she'd pass the exams with no tuition of any kind.I have seen so many kids struggle right from the off because they scraped a place after 18 months of private lessons.

If you phone the schools, they will tell you which company's papers they use (NFER, Athey etc) and whether they use the standard or multiple-choice papers.

You can then go to any big bookshop and buy practice tests of the appropriate type.

Donnie, go on, give us a hint which school it was! Would love the dirt on Latymer in particular. Everybody seems to think it's the holy grail, but they were very snotty on the phone, which has put me right off, and weren't prepared to even let Y5 parents look around.

Spacemonkey - I'm in Islington, though still have primary age children. But I have friends with kids at secondary in the borough. This is what they say about them:

Islington Green - certainly hugely improved. A neighbour of mine started there in September (his older brother is already there). He has always been a really nice boy, good fun and popular, and so far he seems very happy there and hasn't changed into a horror or recluse.

Central Foundation (at Old Street) - the boy I know who went there has just started at 6th form college having got 9 good GCSEs. He too is a lovely boy, very "normal" and totally well adjusted.

Arts and Media - I know one child (a girl) who didn't settle at all well there and left a couple of years ago. Another friend has a boy just gone into y7 and they and him are very pleased so far.

I know no-one at Highbury Grove but all reports I here say don't even think about going there.

Of course all these are only one opinion, but may give you some help.

PS Sorry if I've repeated anyone else but not much time to read all postings just now.

well Frogs, don't wanna give too much away but the school you mention is not the holy grail! the head, who is relatively new,is unpopular among the staff and is obsessed with results to the exclusion of pretty much all else.But then again the results are excellent and so are the teachers, so it depends what you want! as I said, a bright child can thrive in a school like this but too many parents IMO coach their kids to within an inch of their lives and just scrape a place, only to flounder thereafter.
BTW Posey, I did teaching practice at Highbury Grove. Put it this way, female staff were advised not to walk down corridors alone but in pairs. This was a few years ago mind you, but it does have a deserved (IMO) reputatio for being very rough.

In response to queries, the past papers I have are those that have been sat by previous candidates for entrance tests. The reason I have these is because I have coached 11+ for years. The interview papers contain typical questions asked at interview and I have compiled this over the years and include even the trick questions that selective schools ask when looking for reasons to decline a candidate. The reason I offered these papers at £5.00 was to cover photocopying etc... and also to offer parents an alternative to buying the standard NFER and ATHEY packs that WH SMITH sell. VR and NVR are standard whatever test you sit, but individual past papers that have been sat by candidates over previous years are very hard to get hold of.

Very interesting, donnie, thank you for that titbit!

Supports the view from a friend who declined a place there for her dd after getting a very unsympathetic response to queries about special needs support (her dd has a visual disability, but is otherwise very bright).

We liked Henrietta Barnett much more lots of very bouncy girls and they only headteacher I've encountered who took questions from the floor after giving her talk very impressive. But if you have any inside info you'd be prepared to share, I'm definitely listening!

My neighbour's lovely daughter has recently started at Pimlico school and absolutely loves it there.

Frogs-have a very good friend who went to HB, her sis is in y10 there at the moment. Friend loved it and reckoned it wasn't pushy (and friend would be first to admit that she and her sis are bright but not super bright IYSWIM).

yes, Henny Barnett is a nice school, although a bit middle class for some people's taste.I know some people who work there and like it. I would say it's nicer than Latymer!some people are quite keen on mixed schools however, so again it depends what you want.There are good state schools in Barnet, including selectives, maybe that would be an option.Also look at how accessible by public transport these schools are, some are right in the tube/bus network and others are nowhere near a tube so that is a factor too.

I went to Henrietta Barnett. In hindsight it was a great school. At the time I would have gone anywhere else that was co-ed

Thanks for those snippets -- we liked HB a lot, and I was particularly impressed that the head went out of her way to emphasise the pastoral care and how they don't push people who might not be coping. dd1 has spent primary school climbing the walls with boredom, so ideally we're looking for a school that can take that energy and do something useful with it. I don't think she'll be that fussed about the absence of boys, as I suspect she regards them as a lesser form of pond life.

Having said that, HB have 1200 applications for 93 places (!), so we won't be pinning all our hopes on it.

An old thread, so hope someone's still out there. Any advice from last year's parents on the Henrietta Barnet exams? The school tell you absolutely nothing (which exam board, do they do essays/comprehension etc)!
Any idea how far down the waiting list they go?

Thanks!