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Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

Original poster

Secondary schools for ADHD boy in North London

15 replies

tostaky · 18/06/2019 09:57

Hi, my son has ADHD. he is bright (top of the class), sporty (football, rugby) and super creative (drawing, writing).
Now we are looking at secondary schools, I am wondering which schools would be better for him. private or public or even grammar.
Any ideas?
(he will sit Latymer and QE boys because he insits he wants to like his friends but I don't think they will suit him).
Thanks

OP posts:
sleepismysuperpower1 · 18/06/2019 18:33

have a look at heartlands high in haringey. it's a good all-round school, and whilst it is one of the newer schools, ofsted deemed it to be 'good' and 93% of students who sat the GCSES went on to higher education x

Original poster
tostaky · 19/06/2019 06:26

Thank you Sleep - what about their pastoral care? That is very important to me.
Thanks

OP posts:
BookwormMe2 · 19/06/2019 10:53

Our DC is going to secondary in Haringey next year and we've already ruled out Heartlands because it has a very strict regime - detentions are given out for the tiniest infractions. Friend's daughter left there a year ago and didn't rate the pastoral care much either. There's an all boys school called William Ellis which is in Highgate but takes boys from Haringey and is meant to be excellent.

Hollywhiskey · 19/06/2019 12:41

My brother went to QEB. He has ADHD and some other issues including dyslexia which weren't diagnosed until uni. I think the school is very structured which helped him manage the A DHD although it was a massive issue at uni when he struggled to cope with far off deadlines and procrastination. That said he did very well (mainly A's at gcse and alevel) and was happy there.
I think the school is sporty although my brother really isn't, he was encouraged to participate a lot though.

Original poster
tostaky · 20/06/2019 04:48

Thanks Bookworm - I will look into William Ellis - for some reasons I thought it was a girl school. Yes i do not want a too strict regime.

Hollywhiskey - Thank you for your feedback on QEB. How long ago was this?

OP posts:
Original poster
tostaky · 20/06/2019 05:09

Bookworm - I have just looked at the website for William Ellis and it looks exactly what i am looking for. Of course that is only a website, but i really like what i see. I wonder why i have never heard of it before? The school is smallish too which is great. It seems a good all-rounder with a focus on outdoor learning and sports --> that sounds like a dream for my DS!! Never mind Oxford if he is happy running around in a field! thanks Flowers
There is no data on how many children they take from which postcode/borough though.

OP posts:
Zinnia · 20/06/2019 09:31

@tostaky Camden schools admit by distance, so you want the Camden admissions data in their Starting Secondary School brochure, which is online at the council website.

There is also a thread on Camden secondary admissions distances on this board, can't recall if WE is on it though!

I live in Camden and have a friend with a son in Y9 there who is happy with it, it's excellent for music. It's also getting a new build for this September as part of the development of the site with Parliament Hill girls' school and the La Swap 6th form consortium.

Zinnia · 20/06/2019 09:34

Oh and there is of course a difference between the distances offered on 1st March and distances admitted on 1st September! Camden will give you this data if you email the admissions office.

BookwormMe2 · 20/06/2019 10:47

tostaky I hadn't heard of it either, until someone a few streets away told me their son had got a place there. It looks great, doesn't it! This friend has twin boys and one got into Latymer and the other William Ellis and both are thriving because it suits their temperaments - scholarly one at Latymer and more arts/creative driven one at WE. I think WE is becoming popular with Haringey parents because for girls there's Hornsey, which is a terrific school, but there's no all-boys equivalent.

malmontar · 20/06/2019 13:35

Sorry but I will have to disagree about Heartlands. DD is just going through the induction process as she has an EHCP and we chose this school because of their SEN and pastoral care. Yes they are strict but so are most schools in London now. SEN is taken into consideration when giving detentions etc but kids do need to learn that in the world of work people won’t make allowances just because you’re different. I think liberal schools can be very detrimental to SEN kids. Heartlands and APS have the most thorough SEN system I could find within an hour of Haringey. I spent months visiting countless schools last year till we settled on Heartlands. We have close family friends with kids there as well as ones who have finished and they have been extremely happy with it. Their GCSE options are also very good and cater well for kids of all abilities. Obviously no school is perfect but do far DD has had 7 induction days to make sure she knows how their timetables work, what expectations are etc The transition is so thorough our primary school has been annoyed that she’s been going so much.

Original poster
tostaky · 20/06/2019 19:59

Thank you all for your input - it is very much appreciated

OP posts:
Hollywhiskey · 25/06/2019 21:01

He would have left in 2011 or 2012 I think.

Yaramikael · 30/03/2024 17:05

Hi, my son has ADHD. he is bright (top of the class), sporty (football, swimming) and super creative (drawing, coding).
Now we are looking at secondary schools, I am wondering which schools would be better for him.
Any ideas?
(he is in colfes school i don't think it suits him).
Thanks

Original poster
tostaky · 31/03/2024 07:15

Yaramikael
So in the end we got a place at william ellis but i changed my mind and put my son in a very small private school. It was good in Y7, ok in Y8 and by the end of Y9 they were ready to ask us to leave.... by that time we had applied to a large mainstream school for Y10...
Let me say the small school was great but too small and not enough send support
In Y10 he is struggling to adjust but doing ok-ish. The difference? The school is much more supportive because they have a huge sen department (its a huge school) and they have experience of many sen kids so he is not standing up like a sore thumb in a class of rather well behaved, well educated kids...
If i had to do it again, i would do the same again because he is very immature so to have y7, y8 in a "protected environment" helped him have a better sense of himself. Y9 was harder but we took it as a sign that things needed to change
Good luck

OP posts:
Soyacoffeegirl · 25/10/2024 09:50

Hi Tostaky
can I ask which was the very small private school you found?
My son has just started yr 10 with online school. He was not coping with his large secondary and they could not put adequate provisions in place for him. He has ADHD.

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