Secondary schools in and around Muswell Hill areas

[LauraSparkle]

Hi. We’re looking for secondary schools in the area that have strong SEN offer for kids without a EHCP. ALexandra Park school comes up as the highest recommended by parents and primary school, even Haringey SEN support services. However this school is highly oversubscribed and hence we may need to consider other schools. Anyone with insights about Heartlands High school, Fortismere (SEN supported kids), Hornsey School for Girls, or even Archer Academy in East Finchley? Any insight/opinion would be much appreciated! Thanks!!

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Gosh we have an ehcp dd and just spent two months visiting all those schools and meeting their sencos 1:1 except archer- spoke to them on the phone though. APS and heartlands by far the best provision. Hornsey girls- senco used to be aps sen teacher until a couple years ago. They don’t have enough sen to have alternative gcse options and not much support but they try their best, she is doing a dyslexia teacher qualification so it’ll probably get better but only so much one person can do.
Heartlands- same sort of provision as APS but more TA’s. Over 60 when we went. Really nice senco too and super flexible with GCSEs and so many alternative options.
Fortismere has a new senco after so many sen parents complained it caused ofsted to do a safeguarding inspection back last winter. The provision as it stands is: groups of 4-5 students twice a week in maths and English, this is mixed ehcp and sen support kids. That’s it, no ta no nothing else.
Aps- small groups for maths - up to 4 for kids with ehcp and sen this is based on ability so if an sen child comes in with lots of need they’ll put them in there too. English same but some kids get 1:1. 24 ELKLAN trained staff so lots of SALT support.
Heartlands and aps were very very similar with their provision but I found heartlands more flexible with gcse options and a lot more friendly with admissions questions.
If you’re after salt heartlands provides 2 hrs of salt a week to kids that need it too.

We found park views provision to be great too- they were actually our favourite but not enough salt for our dd.

Hope that’s helpful.

Dear malmontar, thanks so much for your super helpful reply!!! It is extremely extremely helpful!!!! We are in the process of EHCP assessment with Haringey but we don't know if successful. We have included APS and Heartlands as options, but we will see what we can get if no EHCP due to distance.

One quick question, I had the impression from another thread that you may prefer APS to Heartlands? Is this so? And if so, Is it because of results and intake? Or something else? THANKS SOOOO MUCH!

No problem. Is your child in year 6 currently? If they have a draft plan than you can request consultations, if not, please call admissions and ask if there’s a possibility to apply to a school on medical/social grounds. They may be more lenient if you explain that you thought the ehcp process would be over now.
Heartlands is easier with distance for us. The aps head wasn’t very nice to us but the senco was really nice and they just get overwhelmed with ehcp applications so I guess he tried to deter parents. Tbh I was impressed with the help all Haringey schools offered, we went to look at schools in boroughs from Haringey down to Westminster and none were as nice as Haringey when it comes to sen. For us aps trumps heartlands on the elklan front- otherwise I love the gcse options heartlands has but hate their strict uniform and short lunchtimes so it just comes down to what your needs and preferences are.

As to results and intake, I couldn’t care less. In fact the intake at aps is the only thing that worries me, we are in no way in that income bracket so I wouldn’t want her feeling different, but I’ve had some super helpful mums on here and I’ve been assured this is not the case. DD currently attends what Muswell Hill parents would probably call an extremely rough school in Tottenham... and she loves it and has lots of friends so tbh that’s been our last criteria. Results wise she won’t be in the percentage of kids who gets 5s anyway unless a miracle happens so I don’t care about that either.

Thanks again malmontar! Your replies are so helpful and reassuring!!! Yes my sweet DD is in Y6. We’re in the process of getting a draft plan hopefully late Jan 2019 so if we need to we will explore the medical/social grounds... great point!! what do you mean by consultations? You asks schools if they can cater for your child? Thanks again for your insights 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

Once you have a draft plan secured your ehcp case worker should ask you what schools you want to consult with. Your application through normal route should than be withdrawn. This is because, unless you have massive changes requested, Haringey has agreed to provide what is in the draft plan. Haringey will send your ehc draft to the schools you requested and they will then decide if they can cater for your child. You find out in Feb through Haringey as legally you need to have enough time to go through an appeal before beg of sept. The national offer day is in March but ehcp kids find out before. If they try to tell you their school is full this is bs and an ehcp can be places outside of normal PAN. This often happens at APS.

Thanks thanks thanks!! We will see! I’m curious to see if they will make it on time ! All feels a bit stressful.