secondary schools north london

[malmontar]

Hi all,

I was wondering if I could get some insight into this. We are in a very fortunate position in that our DD has an EHCP and we can choose any school we feel would meet her needs. She has Developmental Language Disorder and generally functions very similarly to any other average child her age. Her maths results are fine and she really excels in Art and Sports. She does need a lot of help in english for obvious reasons but most of that is funded via her EHCP. I think any school in this part of London are pretty good in those aspects so I'm mostly looking for something that has great pastoral care. We are looking at Alexandra Park and Wren Academy at the moment. Any other suggestions would be great! Thanks

Have a look at the Archer Academy in East Finchley. My friend put it down as her ‘named’ School for her daughter last year. Her comments were that she found the school great to work with, with regards her daughters SEN and as it is smaller than most N London secondaries, very nurturing and not overwhelming.

I’m not sure the Wren Academy is known for its pastoral care? Great results and provides a high standard of education, but I think it’s reputation is more for discipline than pastoral care.

Thanks, I'll add it to the list of open evenings. This is it, I've been trying not to get swayed by % of GCSE passes as for her that's not really the most important thing, well be happy if she gets maths and english. It's really difficult to find how well schools are doing with their SEN care. I will narrow it down to 2 and have a look at the inclusion dept at the open mornings. Thanks v much

Not sure how its pastoral care has been affected but Alexandra Park chose to become a multi-academy trust maybe a year ago. The head has hugely increased his own pay and parents are asked for voluntary contributions - I think the story I heard was £50 a term. Although it's a MAT the last I heard was that no other schools have joined it.

I would check that anything you've heard about a reputation for pastoral care actually still applies, given such recent changes as well as overall funding cuts in education. If the school/head are concerned about selling the school's academic image, pastoral care might not have the same priority that it did a couple of years ago.

Just had a quick look at APS website and can't see much about special needs provision/pastoral care. Last OFSTED inspection was outstanding BUT it was SEVEN YEARS AGO!

Are you actually in Muswell Hill?

Thanks for that, it doesn’t really surprise me that they’re asking for money tbh, I think most beads in that area know what kind of cohort they’re getting and the parents will be willing. We would not. We’re in Tottenham so she would have a 30min bus journey every day. She has a few friends that will be going from her swimming team. From their ofsted though I could see that they have 12 tas and 12 teachers that are ELKAN trained. This is basically why I would send her there. If there’s so many members of staff that are trained in teaching speech and Lang needs than it says a lot about the school and how communication friendly it is. But I need to double check that when I go and see the senco. They’ve also got a new incision block, 2 sencos and 20+ Ta’s but I wouldn’t really count that as they have a lot of ehcp children. Last year more ehcps applied than they could accept- this is what the Haringey sen team told me. But I’m still keeping my options open, so I welcome any suggestions

Sorry inclusion block

My son is about to go into Yr 10 at APS and I have never been asked for a voluntary contribution to the school. They ask you to contribute to the Hardship Fund but that is entirely voluntary and it's not pushed at you at all.

My son has a Statement (currently being transferred onto a EHCP) and the pastoral care has been excellent. Everything we were promised has been delivered, without me needing to chase it. He is extremely happy there and very well supported. He's had a few little issues which have been dealt with well and quickly. Communication with Sencos, his class tutor and all his other teachers has also been excellent.

The only thing I would say is if you are in Tottenham you might have a bit of a fight to get in, we are in Harringay and we had to go to Appeal. It is very competitive even with an ECHP.

Hi,

Thanks so much for that. That’s really helpful info. I’ve been told it’s really difficult. The thing is, they’re the only communication school at secondary school level in Haringey. I’ve spoken to the sen team in Haringey and on that basis she would have priority over others with physical disability. I’m just concerned that she will feel different to others as she’s not from a well off family. We’re in temp accommodation so they could move us closer to the school or further away at any point, so her address isn’t set. We’ll be looking at gladesmore too as they’re very good with Sen too. Just a very different cohort.

I volunteer for ipsea too so I’m going to try my best to argue my case and get her in I’m just struggling to figure out what school will be best for her. This whole ‘you can choose a school’ is in a way more stressful than having to settle for the local option. Her biggest struggle is language so she will do best wherever she is happiest. I just don’t want her to feel different to the well off kids of Muswell Hill

I’ve been looking in our area. It was very interesting downloading the SEN policies from the school websites. Some are almost copies of the SEN COP which is like our primary school and so I now consider a red flag: it ticks all the legal boxes but very little is put in place without endless chasing! One school had an ASC unit which was not mentioned on either the school website nor in their policy docs!! A small handful have been written by someone who knows what families need. We’ve yet to meet the SENCOs to see if the policy is still relevant but it gives some insight. Those with the generic Sen policies also seemed to have a huge focus on consequence/sanction based behaviour policies.... just comparing page numbers in the documents told me a lot

I noticed the same. A lot of them sound the same. There is a language unit in lea valley high school but it’s so far from us and it’s meant to be outstanding. On their policy it’s described as a language unit for children learning English, I only found out they also cater for language disorders with an ehcp when I called the senco

Great that an APS parent can advise you as obviously knows much more than me, and I'm pleased to know that APS has support in place for your daughter's particular needs.

I'm in Tottenham too and have heard really good things about Gladesmore, although we just looked at the two nearest secondary schools, Park View and Gladesmore. Park View had a more welcoming open evening. For DS2 who is a bit different from his brother, I will probably take him to look at both schools again and possibly at Greig City Academy in Hornsey, as it's the only school with a sixth form that we're in with a chance for (obv girls can also look at Hornsey Girls).

Even for APS I imagine there are lots of kids there who don't come from very wealthy homes - it's on the N11 side of Muswell Hill, Bounds Green postcode.

Best of luck OP with finding the right place and getting your daughter into it.

The catchment has shrunk so much that they’re mostly n10 side now. We’ll see at the open evening though. I’m open to Park View, we’ll go to that too, I think it’s got a worse rep than it deserves and I think DD will do better where there is less pressure. She tends to shut off when she has a lot of pressure to do something. I wasn’t thinking of Hornsey but DD is completely against the idea of girls School. We will see.

We are not in the same income bracket as a lot of N10 but I haven't found it to be a problem at all and my son has not been made to feel different because of it. Even though the catchment for distance offers is tiny, there are quite a wide range of backgrounds at the school. They talk a lot about being an inclusive school, I can only talk for myself, but I've found this to be true.

Have you been to the Markfield Project? They were very helpful for our appeal. I think you have a good chance if you can show that APS is the only school in Haringey with a specific unit that applies to your daughter's needs.

I spoke to Gladesmore but they could only support my son up to Year 9, after than if he needed the same level of support he would have needed to go to a special school.. So I ruled them out. Park View (at the time) said they couldn't support him, but I believe their SEN dept has greatly improved in the last few years. I know quite a few girls who go to Hornsey and they love it, but I don't know about their SEN dept.

It is such a difficult decision, I found going to see as many schools as possible and talking to the SENCOs was the best thing to do. I started research in about year 4 and simply couldn't find anywhere else that matched my son's learning needs, both in Haringey and in the surrounding boroughs.

I think this is the case for us at gladesmore too. The problem is DD hasn’t been diagnosed till this spring so we just thought she was behind and didn’t really look at anything other than local options. Would you mind if I DM you some more questions? Thank so much for all your info, it’s been really helpful.

Yes malmontar, I'd happy to answer your questions.