Anyone close to Gayhurst?

[piattobianco]

Hello! I am new to MN, so nice to meet you all. =) We live in the catchment area of Gayhurst Community School, which seems to be a lovely school but I don't actually know anyone who sends their kids there. It would be great to get some insight into what life is like at the Gayhurst! Any comments - positive or negative, quality of teaching, kids' exposure to more 'arty' subjects such as music or drama, how often they use London Fields and the Lido for outdoor activities - would be very much appreciated.

Thank you so much in advance!

hi piattobianco

did you manage to find anything on gayhurst? i'm moving to e8 soon too and gayhurst will be the closest school to my house, i think. or else Brook, but that doesn't look too good on ofsted

thanks!

Hi! My two children go to Gayhurst. They are 5 and 7 years old. We live in Vicky park but got a place three years ago fortuitously as there was a big shortage of primary places and queensbridge was expanded to three forms which means we got into Gayhurst! Anyway it's an excellent school. It is led by liza Nicholls who is very good and head of kingsmead primary which is outstanding. She has made significant changes to the curriculum caused by national curriculum led changes. So for my little I am finding reception to be quite demanding. However and I don't know how they manage to do this but it is still fun! They do African drumming and they have pottery lessons. They make things with bits of rubbish and take toys in every week to measure etc. the teaching is incredible, every child has books recording what they have done specific to different subjects. Parents evenings are detailed and thorough. Years 5 and 6 go to the lido for lessons once a week I think. The children use London fields on an ad hoc basis but certainly every summer for sports day. I do think there is room for improvement on this front and I think the school is working on it. I would encourage you to ask to see a parent governor or even the headteacher as they are very approachable. Hope that helps.

Thank you so much for the insight, and please accept my apologies for the late reply - I am a rather irregular MN user and hadn't realised there were replies to my post! Yay! Regarding your comment on reception being quite demanding, do you find it too much for 4/5 year olds...? This is a highly subjective matter, but I find some schools too obsessed with Ofsted and therefore too academic too early... I am by no means a hippie mum, but I am just conscious of the fact that 4 yr olds are still really young, especially boys, and the last thing I want is kids being put off by school because they get too much homework or are pushed too hard at a young age. But your post definitely made me feel positive about eg how the school interacts with parents etc.

Just out of curiosity, are there many families at Gayhurst where both parents work fulltime, or do most children get picked up by mum or dad? And how is the provision of after school clubs? Thanks so much again :)