William Tyndale and Thornhill in Islington -- current opinions please!

[sanserif]

I've just been on tours of both. Liked different aspects of each. The Thornhill HT seemed much more focused on teaching and learning, food looked good, but the school's quite shabby and the EYFS outdoor space is tiny. With funding all dried up, it seems likely it would remain shabby. William Tyndale has had a brand new makeover and has apparently just got a grant to expand their science curriculum. I also prefer the no uniforms thing, not that it's the most important thing. According to Mumsnet threads I've already trawled, WT is 'arty'. Didn't really see that going around, at least not any more so than Thornhill which has artists-in-residence and seems committed to using drama as a teaching tool.

Would love to hear comments from parents with kids in either of these schools -- what you like, what could be improved, how you think it's different from the other, etc..

bump

I can't speak for WT though I hear good things about it, but mine are at Thornhill as it was by far our most local school. We're very happy with it and academically the older one (and all friends) did very well in their ks1 sats. Personally I love the uniforms thing as it's very flexible (can wear jeans etc) but eliminates lots of arguments in our house as well I think making the very diverse mix of pupils seem more homogenous. I thought the artists in residence thing might be a bit affected, but it has made the most extraordinary difference to my eldest and did do what it set out to do i.e. enthuse them around the term's topic.
The HT is very approachable and I like the fact that he's reflective and thoughtful about how to get the best out of children. He has mentored other heads in Islington.
It's difficult to make judgments when you can only experience one school for your own particular child/children, but all I can say is that mine are all happy, enthusiastic and surrounded by friends. Yes the EYFS is small, but they do use it very much as an additional room and so are always out there, plus in the larger playground when it's not busy.
I'm sure your children would be fine in either - it's a good choice to have (if you do have it, both were v oversubscribed last year).

PollyParanoia ? do you have any experience of Canonbury? bearing in mind it has pulled its socks up dramatically in recent month! Have spoken to lots of people who have kids there and love it but thought a view from someone not at the school might be more objective in some ways. (Trying to choose between Canonbury and Tyndale at the moment) - we're not close enough to Thornhill to get a look-in. Deadline is looming and I'm still obsessing about which is the best school for DD1 (see other thread!)

Yes, I'd also be interested in hearing about Canonbury. Bitzer, interesting that you found it friendlier than WT -- that was my impression as well and I also felt the same way about the respective Heads.

I also really liked the Reception area at Canonbury though not sure why but I thought the Head there was overly obsessed with impressing OFSTED and would therefore maybe focus to much on SATs and English and Math to the exclusion of other stuff.

Bitzer, I am exactly in the same position as you (Tyndale v Canonbury)! My instincts say Canonbury even though it looked quite shambolic when I visited and I fear for my DD feeling overwhelmed compared to her small nursery, but my OH favours Tyndale which has brand new facilities, is well established (i.e. no hiccups) and seemed less chaotic. What did you think of your visits? I would be interested in hearing other opinions.

PP, thanks for the info on Thornhill. Very useful. I actually don't have to apply until next year but we're going to move house so am getting prepared early. Decisions, decisions! Any William Tyndale parents out there?

The trouble is that I've only got hearsay. People are very keen to set themselves up as experts on local schools, but you only ever know about your own for your own child - even within the same school you can have such different experiences.
Anyway to generalise completely
a) gut instinct is very valuable
b) unless you've a really good reason not to, go for the nearest
c) we opted for a school that had been considered poor for a few years but was on the way up (Canonbury was the school everyone wanted when we were looking) and I think this has worked well because it's in on its toes. Schools at the 'top' can be complacent (and therefore suffer dramatic falls as Canonbury did). So going by that reasoning, if I were Bitzer I'd go for Canonbury.

Strongly support Pollyparanoia's comments.

I do not know any of the schools well, but have heard nothing ill of WT or Thornhill. Regarding Canonbury a LOT of resource was put in by Islington following the last Head's self distruct, which is a sad event now well in the past.

What's the head at WT like?

Sorry just returning to the thread.

PP - v helpful indeed, particularly re your comment about complacency at the top.

BranchingOut ? The hearsay is that HT is v efficient but a bit single-minded. But I have no personal experience

I am watching this one with an intrest.

I have 2 children at WT and would say that the rumours about the head are true, she is very efficient and single-minded! She puts the interests of the children and the teachers first and the parents come a distant third, not necessarily a bad thing. I am surprised that sanserif thought the head at thornhill was more focused on teaching and learning, I don't think it would be possible to be more focused than the WT head!

I think that the school has lost a bit of its charm following the refurbishment. There used to be a fabulous curriculum garden which has gone. Hopefully that will gradually come back eg there is a new garden which isn't up and growing yet and will soon be a new wildlife garden.

I think that WT is very well run and is an extremely safe environment. My impression of Canonbury is that it is more chaotic than WT, when I looked round 3 years ago it was scarily chaotic but i'm sure that's no longer the case. I have a friend whose daughter has been bullied at Canonbury and it wasn't dealt with quickly or well - I can't imagine that happening at Tyndale. I think the Canonbury parents are probably more friendly, at WT there are definitely some years with more sociable parents than others. My impression is that there are more SAHMs at Canonbury which might be why. I don't know much about thornhill, only heard good things about it though.

Our experience at Canonbury was shambolic, but that was because we had the misfortune of being there when the head was dismissed because of his persistent porn-viewing habits, and his hand-picked drama teacher turned out to be a rapist preying on 11-year-old girls (was jailed and eventually killed himself-dramatically). The school and CEA refused to deal with the psychological effects on the kids. But one hopes that all is past history.
From the parental perspective, it was fascinating to observe the social classes interacting, or, rather not. The socio-economic mix was fine for the pupils - even quite beneficial - but the parents acted like two tribes speaking mutually unintelligible languages.