Hill House rated unsatisfactory

[jeanne16]

I was shocked to read this. Any parents from Hill House available to comment?

Opinion amongst local parents seems to be divided - have a look at the discussion over on the Kensington & Chelsea MN Local Site.

Lots of focus on the leavers' results.

I do believe the prior inspectors missed faults. I think they probably did a more through job this time as the school was subject to an emergency inspection last May following some serious concerns about child safety that were raised in a survey completed by pupils. So this report was bound to go into great detail as serious concerns had been raised. . If you look at past reports there are not fantastic. Welfare of children fears going back to at least 2009.
I do believe the main focus of parents there are leavers results. Sadly if a child is not keeping up he will have to leave Hill House so those leavers results are bound to be good.

I know nothing about the place but I was surprised they were inspected by Ofsted, and not the Independent Schools Inspectorate. Anybody know why that is? My assumption (which might be utterly wrong) is that ISI are a bit more lenient than Ofsted.

It sounds as if OFSTED got really pissed off that the school ignored their earlier recommendations and put the pressure up. And I've even heard a conspiracy theory that investment firms increasingly moving into private education sector and this one is laying foundations for a hostile takeover. Parents with kids in HH I personally know are very happy with the school, kids progress well. They don't pressurise kids until year 3 so the pace until then is dictated by a child. I know a boy who is there now and who didn't speak much English before starting and he is doing really well.
I think OSTED needs to concentrate on state schools with low aspirations for their pupils rather than a private non-selective entry school with children for whom English is not their 1st language that manages to get kids into very competitive entry secondaries and with bursaries to boot.

It's always been an oddball of a place. My DS did Judo with a lot of HH kids that were full blown nasty brats (not the schools fault obviously) and I knew a lot when I was growing up, equally odd and bratty. We used to take the piss out of their uniform and the fact that they all used to go out in the streets tied to a long rope (and I'm not talking about the little ones). It doesn't surprise me in the least. I doubt it will make any difference to the school.

Interesting links from the local tsarina; thank you.

I was wondering if the list of offered scholarships referred to a) the number of scholarships, b) the number of pupils offered scholarships, or c) the number of scholarships taken up.

A couple of brilliant children offered for example both music and academic scholarships at two or three of their candidate schools (and yes that does happen) can skew the impression left by the figures quite a lot if the school uses system a).

If those who are falling behind have to leave because they can't keep up and no extra help is offered to them then by the time entry to secondary schools comes around, all that will be left are the ultra bright. So there is that....

Also, as I understand it, all but one pupil of the 11+ stream have had a private tutor...

I think you'll find nearly all Prep children aiming for selectives and super selectives in SW London see, or have seen tutors, as the exams approach.

Sneaky advert there, MONICA. Have reported you.

I know nothing about this school, and am only reading out of curiosity, but to those of you who say that it's a great school despite what ofsted say, what do you make of the staff survey results, which seem to suggest that the teachers feel very unsupported in their professional development?

It seems to me that a good school should look after its staff and invest in them. I would be worried if the majority of staff didn't feel this was happening.

Those who are falling behind do not have to leave the school. That is complete nonsense. I know pupils who are not academically strong but Hill House has continued to do the best they can for these pupils. In fact you can see from the list of secondary schools that not all of them are top academic schools.

Babyb I imagine it's become a newsworthy story because a famous, prestigious school (that Prince Charles went to - hence even more newsworthy rightly or wrongly) has been found by a schools inspection to be inadequate in all areas with severe safety concerns and is threatened with closure.
Kamp i agree. I'd be v interested to know what parents make of the teachers survey showing great disatisfaction. And for that matter the pupils survey last year that highlighted serious safety concerns in the pupils responses.
Jeanne no they do not HAVE to leave but they are told "your child isn't keeping up" and are offered no extra support to help him/her keep up. Sink or swim it seems. Seems likely the parents will then look elsewhere.

like virtually every other prep school ....

Leak isn't the right word. Ofsted reports are public, as are the equivalent reports from the Independent Schools Inspectorate. Whenever a school does particularly well or badly it tends to make the press. When parents are paying eyewatering sums of money for a school which Ofsted believes to be inadequate, that's bound to be newsworthy.

is it a whole school report? I though Ofsted could only inspect private schools up to y1? so the report can't be talking about leavers destinations?

I doubt very much if Ofsted has talked about leavers' destinations at all. That will come from the Head's and parents' responses. I don't think the Ofsted report has been published yet, so can't confirm.

“Nonetheless, pupils are successful in gaining places at or scholarships to the secondary school of their choice"

not from the report? how have people read it of it hasn't been published?

Odd that ofsted inspected the school, it usually only inspects early years provision in private schools.

Yes its a whole school report not just early years. And it was published 4 days ago. Here's a link to it which also includes the emergency inspection report from last May. reports.ofsted.gov.uk/inspection-reports/find-inspection-report/provider/ELS/100518

Ofsted report was published on 10 March 2015, which is when the story hit the news, just like any "inadequate" Ofsted report of a school hit the news in the last months (the free school in Suffolk, one Islamic school, for example). Ofsted does inspect private schools by the way, not just early years, although they can opt to be inspected by the ISI, but Hill House didn't (probably for a good reason).

Of course there will be interest in this from non HH parents, this is the biggest prep school in London after all, and many on here are London parents looking at options. I don't see anything strange in the interest by others in this story. Many on here may not have children there but have friends with children there.

But I do agree the report looked very biased. I can understand the part about safety procedures, and there may be gaps in teacher training or marking, but "inadequate" is a really really bad rating for the quality of education. I am sure there is many a "good" rated Ofsted school with far worse teaching. There is probably quite a bit of tutoring going on (as in any London prep school), but even with a few hours of tutoring, you won't get children into King's College Wimbledon or Latymer Upper if the rest of the education is "inadequate". The children learn reading and maths in Reception just like in any other prep school, they do French, History, Geography etc, they are set by ability in higher years, so clearly there is differentiation by ability and the school must know where the children stand in order to set them.

I find it interesting as DH went there, as did a lot of his friends. We looked at it for DC but went elsewhere, mainly because of facilities and location.

Part if me thinks 'eek, safety issues!' but part thinks 'is it nanny state gorn mad?' Child of the 70s speaking here.

Ofsted does inspect about half of independent schools. ISI only inspects independent schools that are affiliated to the Independent Schools Councils. All others are inspected either by Ofsted or one of the other independent inspectorates.

Why shouldn't a school comply with safeguarding regulations? They are there for a very good reason. It's not 'pointless box ticking'. It's really basic stuff, like ensuring staff know their responsibilities for acting on suspicions of harm to a child.