Eastbury or Barking Abbey school?

[Christine1970]

Anyone else choosing a secondary school for their children at the moment? I started out by thinking that Barking Abbey was the automatic choice but am having doubts after going to it's open evening and the one at Eastbury. They made a huge effort at Eastbury and there's clearly a lot of investment going on there into new classrooms etc. In contrast Barking Abbey's open evening was disappointing with little effort put in. I know Barking Abbey still has the best exam results out of the two but Eastbury seems to be catching up quite quickly and could surpass the Abbey if it maintains it's current rate of improvement. Any thoughts?

I think you're right about Eastbury catching up. Most of the schools in the borough form cluster groups and share what they call 'good practice' anyway, so it's likely that over time there will be very little to separate them.

Does your child have a particular interest or talent, like sports, science, art, music etc?

If so, it might help to make your choice with that in mind and choose the school you think might be best in nurturing it?

Having said that, the borough is so overcrowded that it's likely you'll be given the school nearest to home anyway.

This worked out well for my kids as they were given Robert Clack, which was our first choice. Luckily for you too, you're near some excellent schools.

Good luck

He enjoys maths, French and music. He talks about enjoying sport but I don't think he has a great natural ability at any particular one. The easiest option, of course, is to stick with the already proven one, Barking Abbey, which is closest to home anyway. There was such enthusiasm from everyone at Eastbury though. In terms of results this year the Abbey had 63% of pupils gaining A*-C in maths and english, up 1% from last year. Eastbury had 61%, up from 54%. It's obviously starting from a lower level and still behind but if the trajectory continues...

I think in that case I would be more likely to put Eastbury as a first choice.

They're obviously determined to improve and it's clearly working. I too would have been encouraged by their attitude and enthusiasm at the open evening.

Also with regards to Barking Abbey, a large intake of their pupils are from Asian families and without wishing to stereotype, it's factually correct to say that many Asian families absolutely value their children's education (not that other families don't).

This often means that before the children even step through the door of the school, they will be more likely to succeed than the children of unsupportive families. So sometimes a school can be fairly average in terms of teaching and learning, but still end up near the top of the league table for exam results.