Harris Academy Purley

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Does anyone have any experiences with children attending Harris academy Purley that they would be happy to share with me, positive or negative? I have visited the school during the day and for open evenings and was surprised in a good way by the school however I know that schools are obviously on their best behaviour for open days/evenings so wanted to hear some real experiences. Many thanks.

I have lived close to this school for a number of years and I swore that no children of mine would go there (based purely on observing the children!) Anyway over the years and since it turned into an academy it seems to have improved so much. The children all look well turned out, behaviour has vastly improved and the results have gone up too. The ofsted is outstanding but is really old. Although children services turned up unannounced last year due to concerns that had been raised according to ofsted (a bit off putting) however they still judged the school to be outstanding and found no concerns.

If you check ofsted you will see the report from last year and if you go on the school website there is a letter confirming that they were still judged as outstanding despite not having a chance to prepare for the inspection like most schools do. I think that's quite impressive.

Having said all that I have no experience of sending a child to this school.....yet but I am far more open to it now

Getting a 'no notice' outstanding ofsted does sound very good. I wonder what the concerns were regarding the children though, hmmm. A visit on one day surely isn't enough to find out the nitty gritty of what's really going on

Staff turnover is quite high, Harris has a reputation locally for employing NQTs until they move up the scale too far. Not sure how true that really is though.

The school was on our CAF for this September but we were allocated a higher preference. Admissions are done via a banding test which happens in December, so it is a true mixed ability comprehensive.

I would have been happy for my child to attend, fwiw.

I'm trying to find out what happened last Thursday at the year 11 revision session with the parents and pupils talk in the hall. Heard something unacceptable took place mid session in front of the pupils and parents.