COLA Islington

[Reeewwwww]

I'd love to hear your experience (or what you heard through the grapevine) of the City of London Academy Islington.

Anything helps really, as we have an offer, but didn't get the chance to visit the school due to the pandemic.

Thank you so much in advance!

This an old thread. But to answer your question @snowtrees, my child attends a state primary that’s near to COLA-i. I know lots of local parents and what jobs some of them do. Those that are middle class don’t send their kids to that secondary. Maybe it’s their loss, but that’s what happens.

I can also confirm that middle class parents avoid this school. We are near the school.

I looked up figures and 73% of the pupils were pupil premium in 2021. So this means at least 73% were living in poverty. But I believe that the school is doing great things despite the challenges.

This school was previously called Islington Green School which had a lot of problems. The kids from the school appear in Pink Floyd’s Another Brick in the Wall (We don’t want no education!) 1979.

The buildings were knocked down and rebuilt in a good looking modern design. The school re-opened as COLA-I Academy in 2008.

To get an outstanding rating is very very hard. Rare. I'd be seriously impressed if they have a hard catchment

Yes, I agree, Snowtrees. Hard Catchment is right. The school would face every sort of problem it is possible to have in an inner London secondary school. There is a large council estate across the road from it which has a bad reputation.

Middle class parents go to great lengths to avoid the school.

@snowtrees the other local schools - Central Foundation Boys and Elizabeth Garrett Anderson (girls) are also Outstanding.

In my area almost no schools are outstanding under the latest rating system

I personally would put more weight on a recent outstanding ofsted than an old one. May I ask which council estate is that? When I visited it was all terraced houses and modern high rise buildings but I might have missed something. Cola highgate hill (different school in Islington) is surrendered by council estate and has indeed a “hard catchment” but not sure it is the case for colai (?) Elisabeth Garrett according to the 2023 data has the same level of premium students has Colai, way more student with English has additional language and grades not that great.

It is the Packington Estate. This is a large estate which was all knocked down and rebuilt over the period 2004-2016 so it is a much better quality environment than it used to be. The modern high rise buildings that you saw were probably part of the estate.

COLA-I also draws a lot of students from the big estates off City Road. Central Foundation for Boys (by Old St roundabout) is quite an academic school so boys who don’t like the idea of this go to COLA-I.

We live about 15 minutes walk from COLA-I. I think that the school are doing a fabulous job with the considerable challenges that they face. But, in Islington, it really helps a school when they can attract the middle class kids. The terms used are usually ‘privileged’ and ‘non-privileged’ which can be translated as parents owning a property versus parents living in social housing. Personally, I don’t know any ‘privileged’ kids who go to COLA-I but I think with such big improvements in education in Islington, surely this will come.

agree the school deserve it! To be honest I know that parents especially immigrants who come from humble background push their kids academically to have a better future and are often more strict in terms of discipline. Many state schools who are the best performing ones are in underprivileged areas. There’s a big push. And investment to make “these kids” succeed. I do mingle with privileged and not so privileged families and I have to say kids behaviour are definitely not linked to the family’s socio- economical profile! The ofsted report of Colai highlight the outstanding behaviour of kids. I ask some of them if there was any bullying and all said no that the school doesn’t tolerate it and that it was a strict but very happy school. Anyways I still have a couple of years to decide… thanks for all your input!

this school is so bad no offence but personally it was not a good experience do NOT come here there are rats and everything i once saw them and the parking room is filled with mold and made someone cough up blood bcz they had a asthmatic experience