Hulme Hall School, Stockport

[grb001]

My daughter has been offered a place at Hulme Hall secondary school in stockport this year, but I also fully expect her to be offered a place at one of the local state schools too (likely Bramhall).

Recently, Bramhall was an up-and-coming school with excellent grades and a seemingly dedicated headteacher - and I was very happy for my daughter to go there. Unfortunately due to a poor ofsted, related to the fact the school made the kids choose options in year 8 instead of year 9, the head has chosen to resign :( IMO this now leaves the school in a bit of limbo with no guarantee that the grades will continue to improve and the change of head likely occurring some time in the near future, I can foresee a lot of disruption over the next few years.

Over the past year though, I've tried to keep options open as long as I can, and pursued a place at Hulme Hall as a backup but... I've always had a good feeling when I visit the school. Now, she has a place and the reality of making the decision is weighing heavily on my mind!

Hulme Hall has a reputation of building pupils up, and my daughter has had several major emotional shocks in life already (a parental death being one of them) I'm mindful that with it being a smaller school and an ethos to give children confidence in general, it's better for her in the long run.

On the flip side, as it's a small school (2 classes per year) with a high boy to girl ratio (2-1 at last report), a high number of SEND pupils (at last report), I'm concerned that she will end up suffering educationally as a result and would be better off in the state system... as at the end of the day, the state schools in this area are all pretty good really.

I am really suffering over what the right thing to do is !

Does anyone have any comments about Hulme Hall, with it's new head too, from the past couple of years?

Just reading your post and wondering if you ended up going for Hulme Hall, we are in a similar position!

Hi - so so sorry for the delay especially as its nearly the school year. In mitigation, I went for something else entirely anyway. My daughter got a place at Stockport Grammar so we went there instead.

To be honest, she has struggled but that is due to other issues and is not an indication on the school itself. In retrospect, Hulme Hall may have been the better choice, but the concerns about small size, friendship groups etc would remain.

I've heard good and bad about Bramhall but I'm not really in a position to judge considering my daughter does not attend there.

I hope whatever decision you have made works out for the best.

I just happened to notice your post on a Google search, hope I'm not too late in replying!

We chose Hulme Hall for our son. It seems to work for him; it has a nice family atmosphere and helps the kids confidence. We felt he'd thrive better in a small school where all the teachers could get to know him and so far at least (touch wood) that seems to have been the case. In his case friendships were much easier to make than they would have been in the local secondary, but I guess all kids are different. Facilities are obviously not as comprehensive as some of the other independent schools because it is so small, but they are still better than you might expect.

I think the reason for such a high boy-girl ratio is simply the size of school. There is a maximum of 40 per year, so even a handful more boys instead of girls that year would give you a 25:15 ratio (it isn't quite that extreme I think - the school isn't usually at capacity!). My son's year was 22:17 last year I think.

As for SEND - Hulme Hall is known locally for providing extra classes in Maths and English for kids with autism and dyslexia (among other things) at an extra cost, which is why it is popular with parents whose kids need it. However that doesn't impact the other lessons, it is just that those kids with the extra Maths and English classes will miss out on (for instance) a second modern foreign language. In my view it enhances the school rather than detracts from its appeal, as my son meets kids he never would really encounter elsewhere in Stockport. Ironically Hulme Hall is much more diverse (in every way!) than most of the state comps around here. :-)