Heathside School Hampstead, London (Help!)

[Jane000]

Hello all,

I’m new here so I hope that I’m posting in the right thread.

Our two children are both signed up to start at Heathside School in Hampstead London from January (we are relocating from the US) but a friend over there has sent me a link today to an article in a local paper that has given me serious heebie jeebies about the idea.

She also sent me a link to the report referred to in the article which makes for seriously frightening reading if it is true.

Can anybody who is a parent at this school (or who knows the school well) tell me whether this is all a whole bunch of scare-mongering or whether they’d advise that we find somewhere else double-quick?

Hope you can help - other than that, we’re looking forward to moving to the UK!

We put an application in to Heathside last September, paid the fee and were given a day for our son to go for a taster day.

From start to finish it has been a really appalling and disheartening experience. There was no one to meet him bar the receptionist who was too busy with other things to show him where to go. At no time was I introduced to any teaching staff, deputy head or Melissa. In fact no one greeted him or me, no one met me at the end of the day or saw him out safely. He was immediately sent upstairs without me and I was told I couldn't go with him. On reflection, I am horrified that I let him stay there.

Since then we have had absolutely no correspondence from anyone about my son, his time there, the next steps or even fee structure. We have sent the admissions officer over 10 emails, first of all to ask for feedback and next steps should be want a place for him, then more recently for our registration fee to be returned if they are not going to even talk to us about the possibility of a place. We get messages back from a harrassed admissions officer saying she's really sorry but Melissa needs to respond. She doesn't.

We are appalled at this blatant stealing of people's money and basically playing with the expectations of parents and children. Honestly, I wouldn't trust this school with my children. If they don't care enough for the kids people at this stage how they deal with looking after their education over years is not a gamble I'd be willing to take.

Macdonald, my son did a taster day there last year and we had a very similar experience. When I picked him up the teacher he had been with all day literally had nothing to say to me and seemed put out when I asked how it had gone/how his day had been. Zero feedback. DS hadn't eaten the entire day; I asked why and he said that he had left his packed lunch in one room and didn't know how to find it. Noone and checked/asked if he had eaten his lunch. We finally got feedback which said that they felt DS wasn't right for the school. I replied to say that I completed agreed but that I had a few questions about how DS spent his day and lack of supervision etc and was told that the head would cal me. I hear zero. I too feel awful that I left my precious boy in that environment, even for a day. I also question why on earth parents would chose that school over ANY state school. The facilities were evidently rubbish. The teeniest classroom I have ever seen, mess everywhere, no sports hall or outside space; teachers who are so up their own bottom that they can't be bothered to speak to prospective parents. Truly shameful. I truly hope it gets closed down for good.

As a parent of a child currently having the time of her life in year 7 of this quirky but wonderful school I sincerely, sincerely hope it does not get closed down for good. We would all be devastated. She had a wonderful taster day back in 2017 and has just grown in confidence, maturity and spirit every day since she's been there. In autumn 2018 the school was massively fire fighting which meant things were even more chaotic than usual. But things are calmer now and getting better every day.

Reading this week's Ham&High front page and today's Daily Telegraph, I can understand now what all of the fuss has been about.

I have to say that I do find myself wondering how any school could carry on after this.

Another Heathside parent here. My child has attended the pre prep for the last three years and I can vouch for the wonderful community, the excellent standard of teaching and the varied curriculum. The school is working hard to address the problems that were raised but a lot of the issues raised by the press have been rectified.
The children are so happy at Heathside - the loudest voices of complaint come from outside the school.

Hi. I took my child out last term from the prep school because he use£ to cry every morning - and yet to me it seemed like a happy school. He had been begging to leave for a while and was happy from the moment we moved him to his new school. Teachers are not great. We had reports back every term saying how brilliantly he was doing academically etc etc. His new school (which is not a hot house) say he is well behind all his peer group and diagnosed dyslexic. My eldest did a trial at the upper school and came out saying the teachers had no control and the kids ran riot and did not want to go. I’d stay well clear.

We're probably amongst the last but we're taking our children out of this school at the end of this term. Too many things going wrong and the school is now in administration. Whilst this does not necessarily mean that it's bankrupt, it really does not fill me with much confidence about the future.

The Department for Education do not appear to be very impressed either - this notice was published this week.

This is all very sad for so many different reasons - and I know that there are still many parents who support the charismatic headmistress - but we have to put our children's education before loyalty.