Chestnut Grove

[urbanmamaa]

Can anyone give me the low down on Chestnut Grove School? I live in SE24 and am not in a safe catchment for any local schools except Evelyn Grace which seems too disciplinarian for my son who is arty and a bit non-conformist. I've only just become aware of CG's arts scholarships (initially wasn't looking so far afield) but have missed all their open days.

Has a good reputation and many of the primary school kids in Clapham aim for it, but that's all I know (I too missed the open days this year).

The nappy valley set around Wandsworth don't seem to like it though (hence their new free school ....)

If you missed the open days you can get a pretty good idea about it from going there as the kids come out of school. Its pretty shabby inside with almost no green space outside. It is on the up in terms of achievement (people say this is partly because of the area going up market and the kids getting easier to teach). I have lots of pals who's kids go there and are very happy with it.

I have a friend with a child in CG - they are very happy with it.
Are you too far from Elm Green and Charter? Both supposed to be quite good on arts. Or Kingsdale - you have as much chance as anyone else in the lottery?

I like the sound of EvelynGrace's small school structure, and the wealth of after school activities. All the secondary schools are very disciplinarian these days, aren't they? Cracking down on the behaviour that has put parents off sending children there.

What year do you need to apply? Would he get a music scholarship to Kingsdale?

Just bumping this up to see if anyone else has any experience of this school. I did like the feel of it on an open day, but know very few (ok, only two) families with DCs there (who seem happy enough with it) .......

I have a good friend who has a dd there, a dd who needs lots of pastoral support - they are v v happy with it.

It's definitely on the up results wise but the building is pretty grim inside

Have a friend whose very arty son goes there. Thinks it's fab. Have a look at the art on the website - very impressive!

the children coming out at pick-up are much less scary than they used to be!!

it used to be that lots of local parents went along to the open days and really wanted to support the school but then got cold feet when it actually came down to putting it on the form, but a lot more local children are going there now

the school's just had a uniform revamp and they've obviously got a house system going as last year they were all pretty scruffy in sweatshirts and polo shirts - this year they've gone for a much more traditional uniform look - ties in different house colours, shirts, jumpers, blazers - the pupils must be backing this as they're all wearing it

unless they've changed in the last couple of years, they only used to set for maths and science - one of ds's (very academic) friends went there and was terribly frustrated as she said the only subjects where they managed to get any work done were maths and science - she left at the end of Y9

however many of the children have quite low or unrealistic expectations of themselves - one of the teachers there told me most of her class wanted to be premiership footballers or x factor contestants ....

the police are seen outside at the end of the day far less now

a lot still get rounded up on the high st and in Sainsburys when they are supposed to be at school

Thanks for all comments.

Looking ahead to sixth form. I got the impression from a couple of the pupils that I met that many go on elsewhere (Graveney?) rather than stay there. Just wondering if MNers had a view on the extent that is in fact true.

Hi, We are looking into secondary schools for my daughter who is in y5 atm. Chestnut Grove popped up as my dd is very arty. The comments in this thread and some other reviews I found on other websites are a bit worrying though.The recent Ofsted report clearly says outstanding and the stats do sort of back it up but does any of you have anything to add please? Thank you.
Elisha

It's never been a first choice school in the area. Parents will be trying for Graveney or opt for private schools. That does not mean Chestnut Grove isn't good. The teaching may be as good as or even better but that is never very apparent to parents. There will however be a far broader mix of pupils.

We liked it when we looked round, the new head who was deputy before seems ambitious. My daughter got a place on the language test which we didn't take. However if we didn't have other options we would have been happy, it was 2nd on our list after Kingsdale which was a long shot. I was a little concerned that it was a bit vocational rather than academic. At the open day they were proud that in 2014 they had got their first pupil into medical school. I felt that the school was on the up.

It's been seen as a good fallback around here if kids don't quite make it to Tiffin, Graveney or the Sutton Grammars. It does seem to be doing quite well.

We went to the open day earlier this week and found the school to be warm, approachable and ambitious. We are in a feeder school for the Bolingbroke Academy which has always been our first choice (no cash for private) but CG exceeded our expectations and the new building is eagerly awaited.