Hornsey School for Girls or Mary Magdalene Academy

[londoneuro]

Which would you choose for a bright, academic but also very sporty girl? On paper both look pretty similar in terms of results/Progress 8 scores, but bit worried about the heavy focus on dance at HSG. If anyone knows what the PE offering is like in either I'd be grateful for some insider info.

[Pkaboo]

Great choice! Smm is an MEP programme place your dd got on. My Dc scored high enough to get onto it as well but we also got a grammar place. I have heard great things about the school and programme. A trip to China as well. They stream for maths early on and from what I hear ftom parents it is a great school, hard working and good discipline. I take it you live in N8 if you are considering Hornsey. A lot of girls from our primary are starting to choose that ahead of Highgate Woods. I suppose it come down to whether you consider learning Mandarin and don't mind the travel. I probably would have choosen smm

[Pkaboo]

Sorry I don't know anything about the Pe

[londoneuro]

Thanks Pkaboo, it's useful to hear the info on SMM. It's hard to compare them fairly as wasn't able to visit HSG in person whereas SMM was doing small group tours, so I am wondering if that's swaying me in part! That gut feeling you get when you actually set foot inside a school is so important.

[adoptedlondoner]

Hi @londoneuro

Have you considered Highbury Fields School? Same(ish) area and achieving very good results and improving year och year as far as I can recall.

[londoneuro]

Yes, @adoptedlondoner, we did, but we're too far out of their catchment. I've heard good things though. DD has a place at HSG and is quite high up the waiting list for SMM so likely to get a place before September I think. Most of her friends will go to HSG, so we are weighing up both options.

[Schoolschoice]

Can I ask how your girls are getting on at Hornsey? Other threads talk about bullying not being addressed, which worries me. Hope that your girls have had a good experience so far.

[christinarossetti39]

I haven't see the other thread, but we moved out daughter out of Hornsey School for Girls at the beginning of Y10 due to unmanaged bullying.

I submitted a subject access request and it was shocking to have confirmed that the school hadn't followed their own policies re: informing parents, keeping records, supporting bullied and bullying children at all for months.

Nor would the school work with me when my daughter was refusing to go and I went in to try to work out a way forward. They sent me an email encouraging me to transfer schools, and confirming that despite my daughter being in the school for 3 years, they didn't have robust assessment data on her.

Add in high turnover of staff, loads of supply teachers, leadership who had no clue what was happening in the school and moving her was a no brainer.

[Schoolschoice]

Thank you for posting and sorry to hear you had a really tough time with the school. Was this in recent years (only if you feel comfortable saying) because I understand the head changed a few years ago? I hope that your DD is thriving now.

[christinarossetti39]

Hi, I've just replied to you on the other thread.

Yes, it was recently. My dd left at the beginning of Y10 Sept 2021. My impression was that the head is fairly sound, but she doesn't have a clue what's actually going on in the school and the school that she thinks she's running isn't the one that she is.

And she and the Chair of Governors are as thick and thieves, so there's no effective channels of feedback or complaint.

[Youaremysunshine14]

My DD is Y9 at HSG and our experience couldn't be more different than what you've described, christinarossetti39. We've found the pastoral care to be exemplary and our DD is really happy there. Not had an issue with bullying though, it was for her mental health. I'm really sorry you felt so unsupported, I hope your DD settles happily into her new school.

[christinarossetti39]

Youaremysunshine14 I didn't 'feel' unsupported. The school let my dd down, very badly. She was unsupported (and we were uninformed by the school as to what was going on. It took me submitting a SARs request to confirm my suspicion that nothing had been properly recorded or shared).

After my dd left, the Head wrote me an apology acknowledging that their systems hadn't supported my dd and apologising for the considerable distress that the school had caused her.

She and the governors were at the cover up of the cover up stage by then, and I don't think that's a letter that Head Teachers write lightly.

And, no, it wasn't good enough as all I'd asked them to do in the first place was follow their own bloody policies.

My dd moved to another undersubscribed school in the borough which is about a million times better run and who have been very supportive to a child who was severely distressed about being treated so badly by a school that she'd been in for three years (and not put a foot wrong).

[Youaremysunshine14]

Sorry, didn't mean to imply it was you feeling it and not actually the school in the wrong.

[Schoolschoice]

That sounds really awful Christina and I’m glad that things are a lot better now for your DD.

[christinarossetti39]

Thank you. I'm glad that your daughter is happy there.