Highgate Wood or St Aloyisius

[sandstorm11]

My son currently attends an outstanding RC junior school, but when it comes to a choice of secondary schools in our area we are very limited.

He is very bright, quite academic and so far very motivated. His sting subjects are maths and ICT, but he also has an artistic flare. He enjoys arts and music.We have been to see both Highgate Wood and St Aloysius College, which are our local schools.

HW seems to have a really nice atmosphere, good mix, great facilities, but I was not impressed with their GCSE results and the very laid back atmosphere and approach towards the children. I just did not feel it was academic enough...

As far as St Aloysius is concerned, their GCSE results are better, there seems to be more discipline, but the proportions of pupils from minority ethnic and more disadvantaged backgrounds is much higher, which is what worries me.

Can you please help me with some advice, do you have children in any of those schools?

Many thanks

Personally, I'd choose HW over St A any day.

St A's GCSE results are better because they do lots of BTECs and similar, which are notionally equivalent to a certain no. of GCSEs, but are much less demanding.

HW is on the up, attracting a larger proportion of parents who might previously have gone private or moved out of the area. The same is not true of StA.

If you really think the discipline at St A is better, try hanging out around the bus stops at Archway at chucking out time.

Have you looked at Acland Burghley, William Ellis or Finchley Catholic High?

I think you have just confirmed my gut feeling! I got a really good vibe from HW, which is not what I can say for St.A. So, thank you very much!

As far as Finchley Catholic is concerned, we are not Catholic and also we are not in their catchment, so our chances of getting a place there are close to zero.

I had not heard of William Ellis and Acland Burlghley, so just had a quick look on the net and I think WE seems like a lovely school, but I am not sure if we will fall in their catchment, as we live in Crouch End and I would imagine this is a school, which is heavily oversubscribed?

Yeah, Crouch End is a bit of a schools black hole. I assumed you were in the Whitehall Park area, which probably does just about fall in the WE catchment area. I assumed you were catholic as well, so FCH not an option. You could look at Bishop Douglass, but I'd have many of the same reservations as with St A.

Otoh I'd be reasonably confident about sending a child to HW, cos all the reports i'm getting back from the kids that have started there are positive. And the ones I know are all nice, motivated children, and most of them have younger siblings who will be starting in the next few years. So it should be on the up.

I do know some nice boys who go to St A, but most middle-class catholic families will go to any lengths to avoid it, tbh.

I keep hearing good things about Highgate Woods.

It has for a number of years been an improving school, so getting better.

There pastoral care seems good.

Cannot comment on the GCSE score thing.

Crouch End would not get you into either William Ellis or Acland Burghley. The William Ellis head left suddenly at the end of last term so catchment may widen next year but I doubt it will go that far.

But as you say your ds is academic then you might want to consider him for Latymer in Edmonton. He will need some practice tuition for the exams tho.

Also if your DS's primary school is in Islington you could also apply to Dame Alice Owens.

Highgate Wood suffered a real blip in GCSE results last year, dropping to 44% inc English and Maths. Not sure why as agree vibe from school is good and parents in younger years generally seem pleased. Given its intake should really be doing better results-wise imho.

Thank you all for your comments, they are very helpful, as sometimes, although our intuition often tells us what is right, we tend to doubt ourselves.

As sweet16 says, I really do not understand why HW's academic results are still relatively poor. The children that I saw, during the open morning, all seemed very nice and quite happy there, the school has a lot to offer.... Perhaps they are not motivated enough?

As far as the academic side is concerned, we have considered both Latymer and QE in Barnet and he will be sitting the exams. We will also try the independent - Highgate and UCS, but as you all know competition for these schools is unbelievable, so we just want to have some options.

Two comments on Highgate Wood's "blip"

1. Last years results at GCSE will reflect intact in 2004 or 2005 (depending on what is meant by "last year"

Things can certainly change over such a period.

1. Worth asking to see if there is some explanation for it. Could be just a one off. It happens, as long as it is against trend you should set your mind at rest.

On Independents; if you are looking at Highgate and UCS you should also look at City of London School, as it may be easily enough reached from where you live.

I don't think that HW's GCSE results are just a one off, that's the problem, but I think they are on the right track for making an improvement, so hopefully that will be reflected in their academic results soon.

Does anyone have children in HW? Are they happy there? What do you think should be improved there to make the school better?

With regards to City of London, we went to see it, but we are still contemplating as to whether our son should sit the exam. He is having to do quite a number of rigorous tests and we are trying not to push him too much. City of London was his least favourite, so we will see.