Raising kids in Hackney

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WE have 2 DC (very young). Primaries around us are good, but secondaries are not. We are lucky to live in a small but nice house. But we are currently weighing up whether to move out of the area that we love, to get a bigger place - better secondary schools etc.

Has anyone else been in this position. I'd love to hear your thoughts and experince!

Hackney has a pretty good range of primaries and secondaries tbh. Not all perfect, but I doubt it is anywhere.

3 children in their 20's that were born and raised in hackney. All did fine at the local secondary school, and there are far more good/ outstanding schools now, than 15 years ago.

We have primary aged kids and just made the decision to buy here as we love it so much. We make (a bit) of an extra effort to get out at weekends, Woodbury and Walthamstow have lovely wetlands, Epping forest is 30 mins by train or car.
We might have to make the decision again for secondary (2 bed flat!!) but for kids living in London is amazing!

Which secondaries are you near? They can't be too bad - mostly the Hackney ones are really good.

Thank you so much for all your replies. If I'm honest it's probably as much the knife crime that worries me as much as anything. Realise I sound totally mail here!!

Fair enough about knife crime, but seriously schools are decent around here - it's at risk with lots of education cuts redistributing funds, but that's not just restricted to London.

Knife crime, I guess that's partially inner city living...

Yeah that's true imip. Can't work out if I'm being a bit snowflakey about it all.

Hi Just joined and looking for somewhere to post about my 13 year old daughter and going out on her own, but got attracted to post about Hackney as we live here too. We chose to take her out of Hackney New School as we just did not like the total discipline of the school or the 'street' culture of the kids, and she is now home-educated.

Interesting, thanks Jacky. How do you fee more generally about her growing up and going out around where you are?

I've heard similar problems about HNS, but seriously I know so many kids in Hackney secondaries. They walk to school alone, go out with their mates and have a normal life. The schools are mostly strict, so no tolerance of gang type stuff. From all I know, it's a great place to go to school. People are moving into the borough to get into Hackney secondary schools!

I don't like HNS at all, but there are plenty others close by that I rate much more. People are also educating privately to GCSE and then getting into 6th forms. A couple of academies, in particular, are quite popular!

I know of people happy with Clapton Girls and the Mossbournes (good if you are up for the strictness).
It depends which are your local schools as to whether they are (currently..!) good. So much can change in 5+ years, obviously.

imip I am interested that you don't like HNS. Is that based on experience? I don't know any parents so I don't get a chance to compare notes with anyone.
My daughter is 13 and at HNS. We are so not happy. She will get good marks because she is bright, but she is not 'street' enough to have many friends and be happy. All in all not a good choice for us. Jacky22 your daughter could well have been in mine's year. Well done for making a decision and getting out!

love i've viewed the school, along with others in the borough as dd is in y6. On many levels it just didn't compare, esp facilities. Not a strong behaviour policy. I felt the emphasis on music was too strong. I saw the kids move around the school, and most of all I see pretty poor behaviour outside the school in local parks. Bridge also put me off for that reason, though I know many like the school. Dd is not socially strong, and much like your dd, I just don't think it would fit.

Also, a class came to my local gym and it was disastrous. The pe teacher basically just focussed on doing exercises himself, one girls was walking backwards on the treadmill! The kids not participating in the class and still in uniform were just on their phones

Ironically, the school is uber desirable in primary!

My 2 went through William Patten primary and one went through SNS secondary/Sixth form, the other is following and in SNS sixth form now. Couldn't fault either school really. I think Hackney gets a rough press

Wow imip, that gym behaviour and experience sounds terrible. Just awful.

Really interesting. Thanks everyone. Can I just ask how you feel more generally about your children growing up in Hackney more generally...going out on their own, knife crime etc

I used to worry about teenage groups/gangs hanging around mcD’s, fights, and tell my teen to avoid and not get involved (am sure they got too involved), now I worry about mobile ph theft/crime and acid throwing! Always something to worry about.
Try and encourage positive behaviour and knowledge about getting out or avoiding trouble. Teens are prone to hanging around, I tend to try not to think about what they are doing as I know it’s mostly just hanging around...lol. Encourage good keeping in contact via phone..

I think the sad fact is that more knife crime tends to happen on estates. Not exclusively, of course, but I hear this anecdotally from parents at school and from police. My dd has just started venturing alone, but many secondaries have a policy here of no phones no cash, precisely to deter muggings. As a pp poster, I'm more worried about acid attacks, phone jacks. We've seen knives brandished. At night, in the parks.

I think it's a wider problem of lack of opportunity, lack of aspiration, poverty that causes knife crimes, and sadly it's more evident in estates and parks. Living in a house in Hackney, in better streets, you're in a little bubble. It's a sad state of affairs, but it's been borne out in conversations with police. I've witnessed a couple of crimes, none affecting me personally. But providing witness statements, police have suggested as much to me.

Have you all stayed in Hackney through choice? Obviously it's really great in so many ways, and if we didn't have children there's no way we'd be thinking of leaving. But we're in the position where we could both work in another city where things are generally probably a bit safer and we could afford a much bigger house. We just can't decide what to do and feel like times ticking as we've only got a yeR before registering for primary school.

Choice (b4 kids), then stayed... 😀

I think that a lot varies according to where exactly you are, even down to which street. But that is London.
I am in an extremely safe part that gives me no worries about my eldest dd, but I am in a bubble.

I've definitely stayed through choice and all my children have been through hackney primary and secondary schools. they've all got great friendship groups... some from primary, and the 2 at university in the north have to come home during the term for their hackney "fix"!They've also learnt about life in broader terms outside their "bubble" out in the local area, including how to stay safe etc. I should also say the oldest is 1 year away from being a doctor following his hackney education.

Thanks so much for all your replies. Great to hear such positive experiences. And congratulations Stokey, sound like your kids are doing brilliantly.

Thank you. i just wanted to make the point that they can still achieve great things in hackney schools. I've worked in 3 schools over the last 15 years, and I do believe you have to buy into the increasingly strict behavior policies that are around now. I personally think they work well generally.