Is Cambridge primary school really excellent?

[Alizeex]

I'm attracted by the university reputation and the local community environment, so I'm thinking to register my daughter to the Cambridge university primary school. However, I read lots of negative feedbacks online from parents regarding the quality of teaching and bullying. I'm very concerned.

We are currently living in London, so moving to Cambridge is a big decision for us. Now I'm not sure if it is worth doing so. The catchment area just cover the most pricy properties sold by Athena. It will be difficult for us to afford a two beds apartment there comfortably. But if the school is really excellent as its ofsted rating, we are willing to invest in it. The thing is the new property price is way above the average price in neighbourhood. If the school is not as good as it meant to be, I'm also concerned the price of the property will drop in the future.

In Sutton borough of London, same price can afford a three bed house with a garden. And a lot of good schools nearby. Cambridge on the other hand has rich history in academic excellence so I'm very struggling and not sure where is the best place for my daughter's education and growth.

Can I please have your opinions? Thank you

@Theydidntwin thanks for the reply. I wish I visited the school earlier as no chance of visiting now during the pandemic, so it's hard to get a feel for it. But perhaps if I do get to go I'd have been seduced by the beautiful architecture and the "sales" talk.

I also heard about those things that you mention. It's been a hard decision but I think we will go for another (independent) school.

In my opinion, the school and head master are dreadful.

We pulled out children out and it was the best thing we ever did. They are happy and thriving and learning.

I wish we had never sent them there and the only parents I knew who liked the school and thought it 'wonderful' were parents who were to my mind very gullible and impressionable.

@bielka sorry to hear about your negative experience of the school. What were the reason(s) that you pulled your DC out, if you don't mind me asking? Glad to hear they're thriving at school!

Just sharing my own experience...
My DS, 5, started in reception at UCPS this year. Everything seemed to be going fine at first.
At a parent/teacher review (2 months ago), we suddenly heard that our son's social skills were not great and that he would occasionally knock off the construction of other kids instead of politely asking to take part in games. We were taken aback but also noticed that our son would not want to engage with other children at the park, and sometimes be scared of other kids. When we discussed this with him, he simply replied that the other kids would always say no to him when he asked to play with them.
I asked him if they were children he would play with. He did give me a few names... To develop his social skills, I started to book playdates with other parents.
Through these playdates I learned that there had been quite a bit of kicking going on at school, with one parent resorting to asking their child to kick back because repetitive kicking by the same child had been going on, reported to an adult, but not delt with. That's when the kicks stopped... For them....
It wasn't long before my son started to display signs of anxiety- chewing his polo-shirts to shreds and compulsively licking his face, touching his nose. We fell off our chair when we learned (from our son) that he had been repeatedly kicked by a child with other children cheering around. There was also name calling. It turned out that a friend of my son was becoming part of "the group" and "the group" did not want him to hang out with our son anymore.
We immediately reported what our son had told us to the teacher. They took it seriously and things seemed to improve for a couple of weeks. Yesterday, our son came back home with a proper bite mark... This time, he said, he had spoken to an adult. We reported it again. The teacher explained that the adult had not heard our son and that next time, he should "tap" the assistant to make sure he has his attention. When I asked my son, he said he shouted but there was so much noise that he could not make himself heard...
Yesterday, we also asked the teacher to ensure that he could go out at the same time as his friends (only one third of the class goes out at a time- the children have to grab a vest which is a fairly random process). The teacher told us that they have a "everyone is my friend"-policy and so they could not agree with my request.
Meanwhile, they have "successfully" delt with the compulsive chewing by offering him to chew on a plastic toy instead of his polo shirt- a plastic toy that they now have to remind him to pull out of his mouth before speaking because of how bad the chewing has gotten!
I understand that adults can't be behind every child's back. I am not angry that things did happen behind their back... But at which point do you draw the line? Also is it normal to expect a five-year-old to verbalise bullying behaviour as it happens? At which point do you bend "theoretical principles" to adapt to the reality of a child suffering?
We never thought we would face such problems in reception and we look forward to a long break from this dystopia.

@Tartinechocolat I am so sorry to hear that you’ve had such a terrible time. I hope things settle for you all soon.
I’ve tutored 3 or 4 children all from different years at the university primary and all the parents were unhappy with the school. Which is a very small proportion but significant that they are in different year groups and didn’t know each other.

Thank you! It is tough times. I will keep MS posted! I don't want to be unfair on the school- the other two reception classes are doing just fine. But in the one my son is in, there are a few kids struggling emotionally- my son being one of them... I just don't understand how they don't see it...

@tartinechocolat that sounds awful for your son. Have you considered moving him? I think I would in your situation.
Girton Glebe is close by and a much smaller school. I believe the current reception class has plenty of spaces... Might be worth a look before the end of term. Best wishes for your boy.

@CarrotCakeMuffins
We are considering the option, but hoping we don't have to take such a drastic measure... Our son does have a few good friends at school so he is ok with going to school-for now at least. We are thus continuing to hope for a resolution- and started taking our son to a martial art class 🥋. But let's see.... what we read on this thread and other threads about UCPS does scare us... Sadly, our experience is so similar until now.
In any case, I am no longer relying only on the teacher. I am now trying to talk to parents directly (which is not ideal- but it feels like it is the only option we have left...- and thankfully all the parents I have talked to have been nice and receptive so far).
We are meeting with the school again next week... The next step if they continue to minimise the situation will be to take this to the governors...
Latest update: At the pick-up, the teacher brought up our son's lack of "social skills" again (n.b. I know all parents are biased, but first time the school reported on our son's lack of social skills was a few weeks before our son opened up about the bullying behaviour... So we are taking it with a pinch of salt). He interrupted "So what are you doing about it, as everyday he seems to get hurt?!" I am not sure we are on track towards mutual understanding 🙄

:( Hope things improve for you and your DS. x

@Tartinechocolat so sorry to hear about your DS! Sounds horrific, especially for someone so young.

To the best of my knowledge (and, sadly, from experience), once your child is the victim of bullying, things won't improve long-term. The Governors are not likely to get involved.
The atmosphere at that school is brutal yet their PR machine is second to none. Like someone else said in one of the threads, would you have tolerated this if it was simply Eddington Primary rather than the University school?
My children are no longer at that school and they are thriving.

Honestly, we really did not put our son in that school for the name... It was the closest for us (both to home and work) at the time we applied... Mayfield would be our preferred alternative, geographically speaking... If anyone has their DS or DD there, we would love to hear about their experience of this school.
Girton (where his cousin is-but probably too far for us), Arbury (where we now live) are also on the list.

I've heard good things of Mayfield.

@Tartinechocolat your story sounds awful, very sorry for your little one. I would consider removing him from this setting, especially that he is so young, and just starting school...Regarding this school, it does not seem to have a major association with the university despite its name - except being a great setting for experiments by the Faculty of Education. I imagine it is still finding it ethos and settling if you will...

Mayfield is a great school. It has a strong ethos of diversity and inclusion. In my experience, the teachers genuinely care about the children and their wellbeing.
@Tartinechocolat, happy to chat if you’d like to know more.

Mayfield is lovely. Much nicer than the university primary from what I've heard from friends.

I'm sorry to hear people's experiences with University of Cambridge Primary School.

We removed our son from the school before covid. He didn't have any very bad experiences as such, but I just was not comfortable with the closed nature of the school (children not allowed to talk about what happens in school with their parents, parents not encouraged to talk with teachers, parents kept away, secretive atmosphere), the Twitter happy, surface image headteacher (agree with another poster about him being a narcissist), and the stories my son was telling me about his friends being hit/kicked/punched out of view of teachers, as well as children doing inappropriate things (poo'ing in the playground 'woods' as an example) with little consequence, and the poor academic progress of many of the children (with many seeking tutors even from yr 1 in order to get them up to parr with kids from other schools (if UCPS get good SATS results it will be because most of the kids have tutors, not because the teaching is any good))

This was the first primary school we had any experience of, so I didn't know if my unease with the school was about me not knowing what primary school is like and having unrealistic expectations, or if it was the school actually being very poor as I suspected. So decision to move my DS was very hard. Ultimately we decided to move DS to a different school, and as soon as we did, we realised how good schools can be and how terribly.poor UCPS was. His new school was welcoming, a culture of openness was encouraged, there were bullying and SEN policies to ensure all children were well looked after and safe, behaviour was well managed, the head was hands on and lovely (no tweeting, just a lot of hard work), the teachers wanted to talk and share the work the children were doing, and my son seemed so happy! and all the children seemed to be thriving. Academically my son came on leaps and bounds and I noticed the volume of work being completed (by looking at books coming home) was double what my child produced at UCPS.

I have been reflecting back a lot over lockdown, on our UCPS experience. We nearly didn't move our son out and kept thinking it would get better and maybe it's not so bad etc... I'm so glad we moved him. My only regret is not doing so sooner. He's had help to catch up his writing (was never taught at UCPS it seems) and is now doing great! He reflects on his 'naughty' classmates and 'shouty' teachers from UCPS from time to time and wonders how they are doing.

I am sad UCPS didn't work out for my son as I had high hopes for the school, and loved the idea of the school which is portrayed on twitter and on the website. Sadly though the school does not promote 'compassionate citizens', tolerance and respect as it claims. It needs to work on behaviour management and improving academic standards, ensuring a happy place where children can genuinely strive (not where they are bribed to be good when Ofsted come round, which is what happened).

That's so sad @NewUser2021 but I'm glad your child is in a good place now.

Thank you for your message @NewUser2021. I found your message very helpful and I really relate to the doubt that you describe about changing school...
We had a very open and encouraging discussion with the teaching team last week but our bubble closed the day after that because of a COVID case... So, there will be just one week to experience if things at school are improving before the summer... My son misses school and his friends (which means it is not all black) but I am so worried about his emotional development... The morning the school closed, as I was rehearsing with my DS the steps he should take in case there was an "incident", he told me "when I tell the teacher, the others say I am a liar"... I replied the teacher was smarter than the children and would know the truth but inside I was hurting that he would start to think that and that the school would continue to apply bog standard conflict-resolution techniques when there is a power imbalance between kids.
The lack of communication with parents is also something that I have experienced. Kicking or biting does not seem to be systematically reported to the parents... Also I have often fallen short of understanding the context of any incident as they cannot comment on the behaviour of another child.
Let's see what the last week at school will bring...

Hi - my kids don't go to the University Primary School but we have a few friends whose kids do. Honestly, they are very split - about half say what some people here are saying (not liking the closed culture and bullying and a sense of being sold all the time are the main complaints). Others seem to really love it - the highlights on that front seem to be the building and the scale of the school.

Our kids go to St Paul's Primary (other end of town) which is a 'Good' school so not as high ranking on Ofsted but recently built brand new outdoor spaces for young and older kids, has around 20 kids per class (so amazing teacher attention, at least for now) and is a very close community, both within the kids but also the families. Happy to share more on it if useful, but it may be that it's in the long place for where you want to live.

Tartinechocolate - just wondered how things are going for you now we are back to a new school term?

@NewUser2021
Thank you for asking, and sorry to be so slow to reply! In short, "No news is good news" as the saying goes. Our son is much happier this year: he is more enthusiastic about playing with other children and more engaged with his learning. His Year 1 teacher is fab (strict and warm), and I think it has benefitted the class as a whole.
There have been a few bumps along the way... Earlier this year, I learned through my son that he was now part of the boys' group because he was "the best girl-catcher and protecting the boys' ship", and on that week, he went two or three times in "reflection" for not listening. We had a chat about it and discussed how you have to play with someone, not against them, make an "apology" drawing for a girl he had upset, etc. Things have been fine ever since.
At last, his chewing is still there but not as bad as last year. Now, I buy him some "chewies" [in an earlier message, I was criticizing the school's move to give him chewies but after reflecting on it and talking to his dentist, I decided that was the best for now].
ccl: I feel more relaxed about his well-being, and things are almost back to where they were for him... I still feel that I have to rely on my son or other parents to learn about what is going on at school.

@surchaman yes, St Paul would be too far for us.
The two alternatives would be Arbury and Mayfield.

I will also repeat what @Tartinechocolat says. Had similar experiences. My child has been bullied and we never had support from school.

Every time I tried to speak with anyone about my child's problems at school, I feel like the answer was "things are excellent in school and we are the problem" and I always felt discarded. You really need to push hard to get a response from school to your email.

Also the communication/transparency is a big issue imho. There was an incident with previous after school provider. they forgot one child at playground next to the school and a parent found him & brought back. Then the school changed provider but the whole event was never communicated on the right time in right style (I can't remember if they explained the incident or not, but how they handled the whole thing just felt so clumsily , plus one of the staff member from that provider still works in the school.)

Another thing is the school playground. It is a mayhem. Kicks, punches, pushing. My child used to talk about fights and clearly not enough school staff to intervene. I'm so surprised the school managed to get an Outstanding on Ofsted.

I would also agree re Twitter of school. I wish they spent more time to actually solve the problems than making it look all bubble and sweet on Twitter.