Cameron Vale School, Chelsea

[IWantToMakeTheBestDecision]

Does anyone have any personal experience with this school? I see they've changed head yet again and very suddenly. It still has the old head's name everywhere. What happened?

I imagine there’s a lot to change, gave them a chance! The site has changed tho.

We met her when she was at Princes Gardens - very personable, the children loved her, parents had a lot of respect for her too.

Well I'm asking what happened because it's unusual to change Head without any notice. The new Head looks fine - clearly someone appointed because they're a safe pair of hands. But I'm asking if anyone knows what happened? There was upset a few years ago when the previous head left quickly and yet it's seemingly happened again.

I don’t know. My background is on the City and people can go pretty quickly there.

bump

Why not go and have a look at open day? I have noticed a few heads changing around (my friend is a HT).

Hi,
The previous Head was Ms Saul who I understand for personal/health reasons decided to leave after 3 years and this had been the plan for some time. Most Heads move every 3-5 years these days. The new Head Ms Melrose is fantastic and I think had a period of gardening leave after Princes Gardens, hence the timing of joining in Jan and not at the start of the year. It's a lovely growing school - I have my young children there. Hope this helps.

it is my understanding that Miss Saul left due to returning to Secondary education… at least that’s what everyone was told!!! If the new Head has recently been on gardening leave… doesn’t that suggest Princes Garden school got rid of her though?

She want on sabbatical after 5 years setting up and then managing Princes Gardens. Highly sought after Head is my understanding

A sabbatical is an extended period of time away from work. Which means the person then returns. You said garden leave… so which one is it cos it sounds a bit fishy to me!
Toots12345… you seem to know a lot about what’s really or apparently going on at this school. Why does it all sound so strange? This is the third Head in 2.5 years isn’t it? Have your children been there throughout the change of Heads? What is the truth of how the school is actually being run! Do you know much about this group of farfour education?

We went to visit Prince’s Gardens recently. They have just announced they are opening Brighton College Prep Kensington on that site in September.

The previous Prince’s Head, who is now at Cameron Vale, was only there for two/three years, not 5 as suggested above. Clearly Brighton and the new Head (who has a Brighton background) have been brought in to stop this school from closing too.

We were at an Open Morning focussed on Brighton Prep Kensington. It was incredibly busy and we were told most year groups were already waitlisted. They are going from the one class entry Princes Gardens to three class entry as Brighton College. They’ve also announced a nursery and Year 7&8.

I guess take from that what you will, but I’m not sure it was a “chosen” sabbatical

Cognita who owned Princes Gardens Prep seem to have sold it to Brighton college as they could not sustain the losses is what I heard.

My niece is at Princes Gardens and they only joined because the former head was so good and they are now looking to go elsewhere.

There seems to be loads of turbulence from Brighton college (what do they know about running a london prep, might go the way of Godolphin and Redcliffe!) with some parents leaving and classes currently remain very small, so surprised to read that each year group will go from current class of 10-15 to 60, doesn't make sense. It is also a huge building with plenty of space - so why would they have waitlists? Sounds like marketing to me!!!

We went on a tour of Cameron Vale and were very disappointed. I think Toots12345 must work there because I can't see any parent being impressed by it. It's ramshackle down and dilapidated. We were shown a top floor computer room in the eaves with mould up the walls. Everywhere was very tired- looking and just looked in need of a lot of upgrading. I wouldn't be surprised if I read in the paper one day that the class 3 ceiling had collapsed on the children.

On the ground floor though there was a very swish nursery and a baby room which had been newly completed. It felt like everything was geared up to the nursery. The nursery had the entire ground floor and the rest of the school was on the upper floors. The hall was laughably small. A nursery with a school attached. Some years only had 3 children in them so they must be very lonely.

Really useful - when did you do the tour? We are going next week to hopefully see two schools Cameron and Hampshire. Any thoughts on Hampshire?

@makinghay11 I'm not going to answer the first part of your question as I don't want to be identified by people in this board who I'm pretty sure work there! As for the second question... I really liked the Hampshire School and the new head - he was so dynamic and had wonderful plans for the school. The building was very impressive - great facilities - a wonderful library, a very large hall with a stage, music room, art room, science labs, large playground with climbing frame etc etc, all in good order, looked well-kept. But I was very worried about how empty it was. I can't see how it can possibly make money. And as it's owned by a company I'm worried they might close it. I thought this before the Redcliffe Gardens closure and so now I'm even more concerned it might close. But I did really, really like it. And writing this now makes me think maybe it might be a good choice for us. I was very put off by comments on Mumsnet about it - but looking at the comments again now I think they were posted by the same person who praises Cameron Vale so maybe a bit of professional espionage! I'd love to hear your thoughts after you've been on the tour. It's so useful to hear different viewpoints. Are you going to visit any other schools?

Okay, so kind, will let you know next week! Thanks

Cognita still own it. They had representatives there at the Open Morning.

I don’t know the full story but we are at another large London brand school. We have received an offer from Brighton Kensington and others in our DSs class have received waitlist offers. We also know some who were turned down. Some parents in our school who wanted Reception places have been told there is no space available. Why would they waitlist or decline at this stage in the academic year if they had spaces?

@Milliesmu my information is from last summer so maybe there has been a real shift. Interesting. Thank you for letting us know.

Rumour is Brighton just failed their inspection that even the most underfunded state school has to pass ... let's see if true?!

😂 how completely ridiculous! You clearly work for a rival school that is likely threatened by their success!

My children are there, we’ve had the highlights from the ISI report about to be published in order for them to open the school under the new name and with the additional year groups. No failure there, I can assure you.

For anyone who is interested, my kids LOVE it. Teachers are amazing, new facilities great. There is no other campus like it in the area. They’ve just picked up a nomination for Best Independent School in London too. Don’t listen to these people who clearly work for other schools….

I can second this - we ended up at Brighton. Do not regret it. Fantastic school, very happy children, fantastic approach to curriculum. All the core that we’d expect plus individual approach to language choices (3 different plus Latin), chess on the curriculum from Year 1, swimming from Year 1, Forest School, dance from Nursery all through.

I heard they have 200 plus families coming for Open Morning (which our children have been asked to attend) This is going to be a huge waiting list school very soon, already is in some year groups.