Reviews on The Vineyard School, Richmond

[Kcharles]

Hi everyone,

We are moving between countries and have been offered a place in The Vineyard School, Richmond for our child and I wanted to hear feedback from you folks. I see it had an outstanding rating but it's quite old 2013, so was wondering if it was still holding or not. I saw some older reviews from 2020/2019, mentioning that the head teacher and teachers changed a lot, and it wasn't that good anymore but then again another head teacher came and didn't see further reviews after that.

Would also appreciate some feedback on what are the much sought after schools in the Richmond area. I know deer park school, marshgate, orlean, please mention others too.

Thanks everyone for your thoughts.

As on another thread, my son was in Year 4 of Marshgate last year and the class teacher Miss C was absent for over half of the school year, the class was swung between numerous substitute teachers without parent meetings to follow up with the progress.
Throughout the year the parents have been communicating with Headteacher Mr. B expressing concerns, no remedial measure observed. He was formerly the Deputy in Barnes but just can't compare to the last Headteacher.
Things seem smooth so far since September as my kid moved on. Marshgate is still a good school in the area despite the fluctuations, kids seem to enjoy school life overall.

Did nobody come back to you on this? Maybe it’s too late but fwiw we have loved the Vineyard since we joined in 2018. Yes the old head was not popular but the new head is fantastic with a gentler more child led approach. The range extracurricular activities is amazing, everything from football to Mandarin and choir, but they are popular and get booked up quickly. There is a year of on site forest school for YR/Y1. There is a school orchestra. The community is diverse and international with an active PTA that raises money for extras like playground equipment. It has just been through Ofsted and the result was Good (with personal development rated Outstanding) but it was explained to us that the Ofsted parameters have changed since the last inspection and that very few Outstanding schools will retain their Outstanding status judged against the new parameters. The head seemed to be really happy with the judgment anyway.

@Kcharles was just curious if you ended up going to Vineyard and what your experience has been? We’re hoping to move to the area so would love to hear your impressions.

@riverside244 thanks for the really helpful overview. I was curious if you had any advice about the admissions process? We just found out we might be moving to the area so are worried we’re too late to get into school.