Morning!
This week we went to visit Greycoats, as did some of our friends for their daughters.
Perhaps the problem is that we had very high expectations, but we left sadly underwhelmed, as did the other families who we know who also visited.
Compared with St Marylebone, it was much more tired, shambolic and the girls far less engaging. We all agreed that each of our guides couldn't get rid of us soon enough. They literally raced to each room threshhold, waved a hand at the doorway and said "maths", "art" etc. and ran off without us. No time to ask questions without splitting off from the tour group and the guide herself was entirely unforthcoming, gave no personal colour / input to the experience. At the end the guide said "yay, only one more room to see then I'm done!". Honest maybe but naive and bordering on impolite. But they are just kids, so I can kind of accept that... but even the teachers in the language department seemed utterly disengaged which is crazy considering languages are supposed to be the schools 'thang'. Music and art were most impressive. The maths teacher talked about natural ability being the deciding factor in success (which goes counter to all new research into the 'growth mindset' and to encouraging girls to take on male-dominated subjects). The head's speech was an hour long, very dry, very formulaic and unmemorable. The only messages I can recall are: "we work hard and we believe in you being kind, not just talking about being kind". The slides in the head's presentation were illegible (funny texture on the screen / water damage) and the lights were reflecting off it while the images themselves were dark... the only caption that was legible was "we went on a trip to France" which was the level of interesting and articulate that I would expect from a Y1 pupil. The speeches from the girls were delivered in well-to-do voices but were utterly 'vanilla' and had no soul or anything to interest or inspire or relate to. Anyone else feel the same way? Not sure how this will translate in to a real life school experience there.
Your thoughts?