St Faith's CofE School Wandsworth - any opinions?

[holly87]

We are currently looking for schools for our dd in Wandsworth and came across St Faith's. Really attractive school as its one of few with single form entry, does anyone have experience of this school?

Lovely passionate head, very much on the up.
There has been a thread on here about it somewhere.

Actually may have been the nappy valley website

Hi yes there has been a huge push and a surge of support for this School to make it a local one of choice. From the facebook page and the nappyvalley site there have been new parent groups set up over the next few years to build up the momentum at this school. Worth getting in touch with this new wave of parents. The School has a great set up for the future and its down to the locals that are doing this to support the Head and his vision there. Just watch how this place will change..

Mrsroberduvall you were right, I found the threat on the nappy valley website. Thank you so much, it was very useful.

Parent2 I hope the school can follow through with their plans. It sounds like they're about to turn a corner....fingers crossed.

Seems like a nice school to me - nice building certainly and I was surprised - in a good way - by the playground area and the five-a-side pitch when i visited, and the one form entry can be appealing to some for sure. We have decided against it for a few reasons. May not be relevant to you OP but listing here in case they are:

• Head has been there 7 or 8 years and while he had a tough school to work with I belive, given the local area I'm a bit surprised they're not getting better results (in comparison to the 'undersubscribed local schools' - not compared with BH/HW) yet. They could have done more to garner community support before now.
• we'd prefer a non-denominational school. Actually I think the faith angle isn't too big a deal here as actually the school is pretty mixed (a good thing IMO) but there were a few things which made me wrinkle my nose. However, this is as a a total non-churchgoer and if you're at all religious I'm sure you'd see this as a positive! They do topics based around Saints days etc which I personally think would be time better spent on other things. The more 'popular' the school becomes the more the faith thing will become a factor as they'll be able to be more selective of pupils/families. If you're into the CofE thing then this is probably a good thing for you as a family. Otherwise less so.
• This is total speculation, but we keep being told how oversubscribed the local area is and I think there's a chance that all that lovely space may have to take a portacabin or two over time - the borough is going to need to put bulge classes somewhere and there aren't many schools that have the space. This wouldn't necessarily worry me (Belleville has done fine with this) but if 1-form entry is v important to you I'd ask some questions to satisfy yourself that this isn't likely to happen any time soon.

I genuinely think it is brilliant that a local group of parents is choosing to 'support' this school by sending their children there and getting involved. For those whom this is their local school, that's great. Other local schools deserve similar support.

All good discussion points and we are one of the families
We identified that from the DoE schools web page regarding results that St Faiths is pretty much at the top of the tree for 2012 and the improvement curve is there to see these last few years.
Also and more importantly we went with the feel of the place the people and passion for it plus the confidence with the local momentum to support it as it is a great little area.

There are so many new young families around yet they anticipate having to send there young ones far afield and at considerable cost.
In terms of space and the School does have playgrounds and grass areas which is unique and we were reassured that as it is volunteer aided, CoE Trustee and not Wandsworth controlled that they can not be told to take any more reception intakes so not like the others that now or will take in 3 classes.
They have just extended the two older classrooms so by the time or kids move up it will be great.
We are not Church goers but our kids go to a faith biased nursery and it really didn?t put us off in any way. The School seems very positive to promote values but we didn?t see it as a bad thing and its not forced on anyone.
More important to really go for what you feel and where parents and child will be happy and develop
It will and has taken a little leap of faith from the newer local generations but it will be up there soon with the brand name places.
There is also a nursery at the School which we did not realise and I understand this is oversubscribed for the future so the next generation will follow.

I think voluntary aided schools can be asked to take bulge classes, but not compelled to take them - i.e. it is down to the governors ultimately but there's precedent for VA schools like SF's taking them on in order to support local families in need of school places (which is what the school is there to do). I only flag it in case the one-form entry thing is deeply important for you as a family, because I suspect it is not guaranteed (especially if it is successful!).

The results are good at level 4 but less than impressive at level 5/6 but this may be historic (e.g. 9% SFaiths, 22% Swaffield, 49% at Allfarthing and various other local schools in the 30s). Boys results worried me.

I thought the lady now leading early years seems really great and I'm sure that the school will do a good job for local families and it could be a lovely hub for the Tonsleys. It certainly seems like a friendly environment with good facilities and the children all seemed very happy in the early years when we were there.

St Faith's, an informal parents evening at The Alma Monday 4th November 7.30-9.00pm (upstairs room). Grab a drink and then come on up! A chance for prospective parents to meet other local parents from their child's year intake, plus meet parents with kids in the school (incl. nursery).