Hill House rated unsatisfactory

[jeanne16]

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

Whatever your social class I think there is a tendency to stick your head in the sand if someone suggests you have made a mistake when picking your child's school.

Whether a school can improve depends on whether a head teacher can accept that there are issues. In a state school such a damning report usually resorts in the entire leadership team and governors being sacked. In a propiator owned private school it is impossible to sack the owner. Governors do not have the same level of clout in most private schools.

Hill house parents are in a hellish position.

The report is really scathing about the owners and leaders of the school. The inspectors clearly have no faith in them to put right the many, many, issues they found wrong. Therefore I totally agree with ReallyTired that parents are in a very difficult position here. Not all of these issues can, or will, be fixed by the leadership at the school. They are so far out of step with practice in the best schools, independent or state, the work required is huge. We hear so often that the state sector can learn from the independent sector, but this is a school where there is no performance management, a significant number of regulations are unmet and is a school that has no idea if its pupils are making progress plus a huge number of other problems. Ofsted also say too few parents filled in their questionnaire for it to have ant impact, so parents are not fully involved with the school as they should be.

I am well aware from the few parents I know who sent children there that it is a marmite school, but the report is horrendous and I actually get the impression that the owners are not seeking to make improvements to make a point. This appears disastrous for the staff and a significant number of children and I wonder if turmoil might now ensue as teachers leave. Parents do not seem to have noticed the absence of things that parents in other schools take for granted whilst clinging to the belief that this school is wonderful. If nothing else, it is a wake up call to parents! Get knowledgeable and get involved. Just out of interest, can ofsted close a private school? What happens if ofsted come back and find there has been no improvement? Will the owners no longer be fit and proper people to run a school? Just musing and I don't know the answers. Does anyone ?

millym the parents are definitely not involved with the school. The school have always insisted parents keep their distance. The leadership are also in denial about the problems so they are unlikely to go about fixing them. In some cases, such as child welfare and safety, the leadership are so old school they are not even aware of what the terminology means.

Yes, DofEd can close an independent school if failings identified by OFSTED are not fixed in a timely manner.

Links to DofEd docs about this

I don't think there's precedent for it happening, for even though OFSTED inspects more independent schools than people realise, it's really rare for a report to be as bad as this (and, it seems, coming after previous inadequate reports and that might be the reason why OFSTED appear to be close to calling time on current leadership of the school).

medi the school is family run so I can't imagine how they could call time on the current leadership. But I don't see how the current leadership could fix all that's wrong in a timely manner. It would involve a compete overhaul of the school. I'm surprised by how many of the parents are leaping to its defence when the report has uncovered such serious failings. Though it's been said they don't want the school's reputation to take a bashing as they feel it will affect what secondary school their child gets into so they feel obliged to close ranks and deny ofsted's findings.

Why would an Ofsted report affect the secondary schools they get into? The pupils will sit the entrance exams as usual and if they pass with high enough marks, they will get offered places. The parents must be protesting because they believe, possibly naively so, that the school is fine.

I teach in a secondary school and I can tell you that parents have no idea what goes on in schools, either good or bad.

"medi the school is family run so I can't imagine how they could call time on the current leadership."

Of course they can close a school down! It isn't legal to sell education in an unsafe context.

They think Hh''s (previous) good reputation helps gets their kids into good schools. Dunno if that's the case.

Well yes they can close it down. I just meant they'd struggle to change the leadership. Though I do think it would benefit from appointing a proper headmaster and leadership team.

Parents protest when their child's school is rated as inadequate whatever their social class for the following reason.

a) They don't want to admit that they made a bad choice of primary. (Especially if they are paying for the privilage!)

b) They have no other school to compare with. They have no idea what level of work children in different schools are capable of achieving. (I am sure that many bright children in inner city state schools would do well in entrance exams IF they sat them.)

c) An OFSTED inadequate school is still better than most of the schools that we attended as parents.

d) What is considered a good school is subjective. OFSTED have a narrow definition of what is good school and the parents may have chosen independent education to avoid the style of education offered in your average state school.

If the school is to stay open then the owners need to be open to change. Possibly the owners need to employ senior management who is outside their immediate family to help them through the changes. A state school in that kind of situation would be partnered up with at least one other outstanding school. Hill House would have to have something to offer the partner school.

It is all down the owners' pride. One solution might be to sell the school to a chain so that the new owners can make the necessary changes. 900 kids is quite a massive business.

I don't think they have the power to force a change in the leadership like they would in a state school, but they can certainly shut them down if they don't either change the leadership or step up and do something about the issues raised.

There is nothing in that report that isn't fixable, some of it quite quickly. But it will need the leadership to stop burying their heads in the sand and make the effort. Given that some of the more serious issues from the no notice inspection in May hadn't been dealt with and could have been, it does raise the question about how well the current proprietors can do this. That clearly didn't pass the inspectors by.

Cruikshank, i teach in a state school and i send my children to private schools. I can assure you most of the parents at the state school are not dissimilar to those at the private schools with which I'm familiar, with the sole difference in some cases being family income. there are "poor" children in private schools and "rich" children in state schools, so even income is not always a differentiating factor.
I find it very odd, indeed, that you feel yourself to be so very different!

Having said that, I do agree with your comment about what parents at HH should do with regard to the ofsted report and am sure, as bb said above, they will take precisely that sort of constructive action (being, as I said, not dissimilar to the parents at your children's school....).

babybarrister that's a good start and one that's needed. There is a massive difference between a failing state school and a failing private school. The failing state school will have faced social, historical and economic problems that the private school did not. People will not judge a child who suceeded at a private school to have suceeded against all the odds. Opinion just doesn't work that way.

In reagrds to ChristChurch not HAVING to take non-c of e kids and not ACTUALLY taking them is very different. My mother is an athiest and a couple of my classmates were muslim. There is no way any school could find 30 practicing C of E children to fill the spaces every year. The Church would be over the moon if this were actually the case.

You can go to most state schools in areas like Kennington, Clapham, Stoke Newington, Wandsworth etc and you will find a very good representation of London. In other areas like Chelsea you will not, but you will find that the school is very much a representation of the area itself.

My children are at private school and even with one of my daughter's best friends being the longterm caretakers daughter. It is not very representative on ANY level. No offence but I wouldn't try to argue otherwise.

Private schools are different and I wish the school and the parents all the best.

Latest Times article says "Instead of questioning the school, parents have closed ranks and denounced Ofsted" Denial ain't just in Egypt.

Having been a governor of two schools which were required to turn around a poor ofsted report (I was an additional governor appointed because of my experience) I can say that the huge amount of issues listed by ofsted at HH is not a quick fix. It might look easy to a parent, but believe me, this is climbing Mount Everest in terms of turning a school around.

If it was me, I would consider selling. Or bringing in experienced senior leadership. Where such people will come from is a other issue. There would be a financial cost in doing this and an increase in fees would, I think, be necessary. There is also the problem that this is not just about writing policies or sending the staff off on training courses. You have to embed a new way of doing things. No-one appears capable of introducing a performance management policy let alone carrying it out. No-one checks the quality of teaching. This begs the questions, does anyone know what excellent teaching looks like? How will this lack of knowledge be tackled? It is absolutely fundamental to the success of the school. How will the school insist that children's work is marked in a constructive fashion to enhance learning? In a school this size, this will be a huge job. Although the parents do need to get a grip, a lot of issues in the report are technical issues for teaching professionals because parents cannot introduce performance management or embed a method of progress checking that informs lesson planning, for example.

I do advise parents, however, to try and find out how good schools actually do this so you have a view of what the revised HH should look like. The school should now produce an action plan, so I would expect to see every issue under close scrutiny with a detailed plan as to how improvement will take place, costs, when it will be completed, who is responsible and what success will look like. Are the current owners capable of doing this?

ReallyTired is absolutely correct that when parents only see one school, they are rarely well placed to judge the education on offer there and they also support the institution that they chose and have spent a lot of money on.
That is why failure on this scale is so devastating.

Maybe in Chelsea the pews are full of toddlers whose parents are playing the long game .....but not in Clapham, we went to two sunday services in the summer and there were three or four children in the whole church, if that. Most of these have already secured a place at a non-demonational state primary or private school! The one that was at Grey Coats was the daughter of one of the old established church wardens.
Maybe there's less competition in Clapham. I can't think it's all that different to most of London to be honest though. Rumours of course are another story.

Milly I think the parents need you in the meetings with them! The heads are VERY resistant to change and very certain their way is best.

From looking at the website Hill House has no governors as such. Hill House has no governance in the way that a state school has. The only hope is the that the heads will sell the school as a going concern. The department of edcuation can order closure of a private school if the owners are obstinate. Some extreme muslim private schools have fallen foul of the department of edcuation. Closure is a last restort.

With the school having 900 children and lots of very wealthy ex pupils is there any possibly that the parents could form a charity and buy out the school? The parents could set up proper governance and take the necessary steps to bring the school into the 21st century. If the school closes then the Townsends would have to find a huge amount of money in redunancy payments.

There is a very saught after C of E in Clapham. Another very sought after catholic one. A lot of competition for places. I think the key factor is that there is a more diverse mix than there is in Chelsea and most people in Chelsea can easily fall under the blanket of C of E, even if they only ever set foot in the church for weddings and funerals.

You're not planning on abandoning HH at this time though are you? I get the impression you like the school and will be active in getting changes.

I looked round HH for DS1 a few years ago. I took my DSis who is a primary school teacher with me. She asked to see books, stayed put looking at lessons when the tour guide tried to move us on, looked at the facilities....and told us not to send DS there. She was shocked anyone could just walk in, that there seemed to be no record of the DC moving around, that the reception provision was so shoddy. There was no signing in to say we were on the premises. She concurred with the Ofsted report that certainly in the first few years, schoolwork is behind where she expected it to be. The displays were not great and the books we were shown were not impressive.

However, that was just my view from a tour a few years ago.

I wish the parent body well, but was surprised at the knee jerk petition supporting the school - surely the parent body now has a chance to say enough is enough - and demand change in the areas where child safety and teacher support is needed. That is the only thing that will make an insular dynastic proprietor act - if they think they are going to lose bums on seats, which is after all what your DC are to them (and DC at any independent school I hasten to add). These are businesses.

It is shocking how so many hh parents are jumping to the school's defence, spending 90% of their efforts on contacting press, complaining to ofsted, calling on MP's, staging protests and only 10% of their energies, if that, on actually questioning the owners on how they are going to address these serious failings.