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Original poster

Vineyard School quality?

8 replies

AF100 · 08/02/2020 22:23

Moving to Richmond with 8 yo DD and 5 yo DS, looking into schools. Love the area! Any feedback on The Vineyard School? For outstanding school, not so impressed with exit results from last year. How is the head teacher? Any feedback on quality of teachers and community?

OP posts:
BinghamLondon · 09/02/2020 15:21

Where to start? The Vineyard School was truly the outstanding school in Richmond until a few years ago. Since then, The Vineyard School has suffered a remarkably intense exodus of talent: Longstanding beloved teachers, top pupils and the staff who built up the school. Very sad trajectory for a great school in a wonderful area. Many have tried to raise the alarm, but no action by the council or governors. Heard that Ofsted downgrade may be around the corner.

BinghamLondon · 10/02/2020 23:31

To my point, Radish is the caterer for The Vineyard School and was just downgraded for hygiene:
www.richmondandtwickenhamtimes.co.uk/news/18219419.catering-company-responsible-food-richmond-school-needs-make-major-improvements/

Original poster
AF100 · 11/02/2020 23:37

Ah, ok. I had heard nice things about Vineyard School last weekend.

OP posts:
mipakpak · 31/05/2020 12:41

Hi there, anyone else has any thoughts / experience of Vineyard? I'm surprised despite very good academic results parents' opinions on parentview (Ofted) have been rather poor
parentview.ofsted.gov.uk/parent-view-results/survey/result/2192/9
What's going on there? I've heard the current head's not very popular (anyone knows why?) but even before her parents complained the school's not managed well enough.
When I visited the impression was rather nice but very hard to judge on an hour's tour.

BinghamLondon · 05/07/2020 01:09

For clues about the school, look at the survey results.

LEADERSHIP: 54% of parents gave the lowest possible marks to leadership. That means an absolute majority of parents think the leadership could not be worse. In politics, that would require a general election. In companies, they would change the CEO. In The Vineyard, the board of governors lets all of the most talented teachers depart without any change of leadership.

ACADEMICS: Academic results can, in large part, be attributed to the parents who are highly educated professionals. Even pre-COVID many had taken to home schooling due to the plunge of quality since new leadership took control of the school. Evidence of that from the numbers is that 42% of parents gave the lowest possible marks on whether their children received an appropriate level of homework for their age. The background on that is that the new school leadership dropped homework in favour of letting children do home projects if they wish.

Original poster
AF100 · 28/07/2020 16:40

I have now learned there are very few children in the year for my DD. Why are there so many spots at The Vineyard now? I was originally told that people moved near the school to get a spot.

OP posts:
ShradhaBB · 07/04/2021 22:17

I have the same Dilemma! Such mixed reviews and information online. All data for past years for consistent downfall in all areas of the school. @AF100 did your DD start at the Vineyard school? How has the experience been? Any insight would be highly helpful !

moonflower325 · 29/06/2022 09:03

Hi Bingham,

I am trying to ‘raise the alarm’ again - I have two DC at The Vineyard and it would be useful if I could gather some more info. Please PM me!

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