Orchard House School in Chiswick

[W4mama]

Hi,
We are considering putting our daughter into Orchard House School in September and are looking for some feedback. We think our daughter is quite bright but are more concerned with pastoral care and her confidence. We were wondering what the environment is like with regards to kindness, pressure, competition, bullying, etc. We know that academically it is meant to be quite good and the teachers are meant to be fantastic.

Also we have ADHD in the family and while we don't think she has it, its a bit early to know for sure. If anyone could comment on the SEN support, we would really appreciate it. Thanks for any feedback at all.

We are just finishing year 6 at another private school in the area.
I think we looked at OH about 7/8 years ago , but no spaces!
OH has a good reputation locally and the exam results are excellent.
Hopefully a parent will along to help you on the SEN support.
Good luck!

Thanks fabric1 for the feedback. Much appreciated.

Thanks to the teachers, the pastoral care at Orchard House School is very good but they are losing a high number of teachers this year after the transition to Dukes, which is cause for concern.

Thanks for the feedback. That is concerning. We will look out for that.

It's relatively early days since Dukes Education has taken over a few schools recently, so we shall see how it works out.
I would say their advisory board is very impressive with current/ex heads of St.Pauls Boys, Latymer Upper and Hawkesdown House.
Radnor House in Twickenham report excellent support from Dukes during Covid, and have recently been judged as ‘Excellent’ across all areas by ISI.

That's reassuring feedback on Dukes. The logical conclusion would be issues with the school management itself.

@ripple11 all well with the very experienced people on the board but they are on the board, taking a fee for advice and monetising a bit on their teaching careers but not running the place. Which means a couple of days a month at most, and probably a lot less.

Are you connected in any way to Dukes ripple11? If I was in one of their schools, I would like to hear how they prioritise providing excellent teaching day in and day out, how they will improve teacher retention and what they do to recruit great teachers. All well with a great board but at the end of the day, I want results from the board, not just great names, what happens in the classroom every day is what I care the most.

I live in West LOndon and have a few friends in Chiswick and people are also watching that the standards don't slip for 11+ Preparation. There is plenty of choice of primary schools in the area so they will need to keep up probably. Mind you also they have the other rather underperforming high school they set up near Green Park, not sure they turned around that one now that has been open for a while.

The acid test will be whether they retain the existing pension for their teachers moving forward, something on many private school agendas at the moment. If they don't, their priorities will be clear. I suspect more teachers would make the move should they not be taken care of.

@Stilllookingfor No connection with Dukes. Just giving a view that they seem to have some experienced local heads on board.
You are right in saying there is a lot of competition for Independent Primaries in West London and they will certainly have to maintain standards at OH.
Broomfield House in Kew is another recent take over which has really excellent 11+ results.
Even in these difficult unique times, if these levels aren’t maintained, word will spread pretty quickly. The ball in in their court.

@ripple11 personally I would not give too much weight to the board of a chain of schools. If this was for the board of one school only, then it would be more interesting as they can make a more immediate difference and impact to the day to day running of the school. Take Kew College for example where they have someone senior from Kings Wimbledon.
These people at Dukes board advise on more strategic level and long term matters, for one day a month, good for the schools and business in the long term but impossible to say what difference it makes for current parents - other than the marketing!

I felt compelled to write a comment on this thread and find the comments about the management of the school very odd, it hasn't changed for over 5 years and has led the school through 2 very successful inspections and the 11+ results were fantastic. It has also been nominated for numerous awards. To post a comment on teachers' pensions makes me think that this person may be an ex teacher. Do they have an axe to grind I wonder as it seems odd to mention it.
Yes staff have left but this is the same in many schools because of Covid-19 and my friends with children at other schools have confirmed this. As parents, we received communication about it, many staff returning to their home countries overseas, promotions and so on and all staff have been replaced with some amazing new people. The pastoral care is excellent because of all staff including the office staff, playground staff, not just the teachers.

The last post reads very much like someone from management at Orchard House School. Chiswick is a small place and information gets around. We happen to know from the community, both past and present, that teachers have to give a significant amount of notice when resigning so would have had to have done so before the pandemic. I'm not sure to what awards they are referring and I'm sure neither do any of the parents - insider knowledge? Isn't it a bit early in the academic year to say the staff have been replaced by amazing people? How would parents know if they can't be in school, chat at the gate or have any more interaction than online? Does the writer of the post have an reputation to protect as it seems odd to mention much of the above?

Rereading the above post, I would go as far as to say it is positively sycophantic and far too effusive to be a balanced parent, certainly none of the ones we know. It definitely comes from within the school: "very successful, fantastic, numerous awards, amazing, excellent." My goodness, someone is earning their salary!

This was also posted back at the middle of August when none of the parents would have met the new teachers. Only someone on staff would know whom had been employed for the next academic year.

I have done my research. The last integrated inspection was in 2015, an excellent result but under the stewardship of the PREVIOUS head, not the current one. The only inspection done under the current head's auspices is a regulatory compliance inspection in 2018 which states that Orchard House School meets the standards for health and safety, finance, structural integrity of the school and compliance with employment law. Current management is yet to be tested by an integrated inspection.

miaslim obviously has personal issues, think she is a past teacher with an agenda, . This will be my last comment on this thread as I think it is getting quite nasty.
I will finish by saying that we had a letter about the new staff in July, they all sounded lovely and now I know they are all lovely. I too have also done my research on the inspection. The regulatory compliance one is very important and is based on safeguarding, bullying, health and safety and all things that keep children safe at school. If you fail that you fail leadership and management. Many schools fail this looking on their websites. Integrated is more about the teachers and as they are fab, the school should do well when they do have their next inspection. Anyway, I think OHS is a fantastic school and I would recommend it very highly.

I agree with @backflicflack that some message here are oddly aggressive.
I have children at OHS, we are informed of staff changes before the summer break, the school does a very good job both pastorally and academically. The current head is great, all parents of children who have been through the 11+ process will tell you that. I would recommend this school.

Hi,
Sorry did not mean to start an argument with my question.

Thank you everyone for their responses. We did start at the school and are very happy with it. It's early days but we have lovely teacher and the school seems superbly managed. DD is happy and learning a lot. Long may it continue.

My son is very happy at OHS, the teachers are wonderful and the office staff are so helpful. I think the teachers do an amazing job in such a small space. I'm not sure what it will mean with the takeover from Dukes. Hopefully they will inject some much needed funds. My son says there are always problems with technology in his classroom. Despite that, he seems to be doing really well and is very happy.

I have just been walking my dogs behind two OHS teachers and overheard them discussing their pay rises, which apparently were lower than state schools. If this is true, is it because the school bought Chiswick and Bedford Park and now cannot afford to pay its teachers properly? We are concerned as our youngest hasn't started school yet. Will there be other compromises? Has anyone else heard anything?

@kidsdogsandcoffee

I have just been walking my dogs behind two OHS teachers and overheard them discussing their pay rises, which apparently were lower than state schools. If this is true, is it because the school bought Chiswick and Bedford Park and now cannot afford to pay its teachers properly? We are concerned as our youngest hasn't started school yet. Will there be other compromises? Has anyone else heard anything?

They are lucky to get a payrise at all, not the case in other Dukes schools. It's a chaotic organisation, all flash marketing and buzzwords, but not much substance to it at all.

Yes agree with above, I work in a Dukes school and staff are leaving in droves. I am paid way below what I would be in the state sector and have had enough.

That is a shame that all these really good schools are disappearing under private equity backed Dukes. They must be quite proud of taking over West London, I wonder if the competition authorities are looking into it soon with any other acquisition? what is their corporate/ investment strategy, since they will need to make 2x their money when they exit after all, so they need to keep growing. I wonder how much they will up their fees next year and how this compares with the teacher salary increases... I would worry about how committed they are to 11+, since they have Radnor House down the road and the Eaton House school in London to feed and nurture with good but under taught candidates that can improve their not so good results in a few years. For the money I would take Heathfield (committed and experienced HM), or even Ravenscourt Park or any of the schools in Kew (except Broomfield House which is also owned by them!). I was looking at results for all of these, Orchard House still publishes proper data but Broomfield House does not publish anymore, which is strange and wonder if that will be the case soon with the rest of the Dukes schools.

Thank you for the feedback but its not very reassuring. The teachers are what we like about OHS. We could send our children further afield to schools with better facilities but we like the convenience and the teachers make up the difference. My mother is a retired teacher and I know how important it is to pay good teachers properly to keep a strong staff. I also don't feel very happy paying private school fees if Dukes is paying state school salaries! What will they cut back on next? I hadn't realised this was the case in other Dukes Schools.

Sorry, I meant isn't even paying the equivalent to state school salaries.