Opinion on The Archer Academy in East Finchley please

[sammyvine]

Has anyone got any knowledge on the school? We may be moving close to the school.

Obviously the results and Ofsted report are outstanding, but it's good to get information from parents that know the school/have kids there personally.

How is the pastoral care, and also is the school fairly diverse?

Anyone?

I'm not a parent there but live locally. It's a good school, fairly diverse. My question though is how confident are you that you'd get a place? Have you looked at the admissions process. They take specific cohorts from a number of local primaries though not all the nearest ones - it's not just based on a standard catchment.

I went to the Open Evening a couple of years ago. Seemed like a very nice school -- lovely building/facilities, happy kids (from what I could tell). The Head's talk was mind-numbingly dull and robotic, though. As PP mentions, the catchment areas are very small and several primaries in East Finchley, North Finchley and HGS get priority places.

@chillberry

I went to the Open Evening a couple of years ago. Seemed like a very nice school -- lovely building/facilities, happy kids (from what I could tell). The Head's talk was mind-numbingly dull and robotic, though. As PP mentions, the catchment areas are very small and several primaries in East Finchley, North Finchley and HGS get priority places.

Was the school diverse or is it majority white?

Was the headteacher a woman? I think she took over from the first head? How did she come across to you, because i always feel the head says a lot about the school?

The school no longer has any feeder school places. They instead have a priority catchment area which is the postcode areas N2, N3 and NW11.

@LondonMummer

I'm not a parent there but live locally. It's a good school, fairly diverse. My question though is how confident are you that you'd get a place? Have you looked at the admissions process. They take specific cohorts from a number of local primaries though not all the nearest ones - it's not just based on a standard catchment.

Thanks for the reply

Apparently they were going to do a feeder school system but dropped it because there was a lot of anger from the local area about most of the kids coming from Hampstead Suburb gardens? I have read now they use 3 postcodes to give out places.

We are possibly moving literally a 5 minute walk from East Finchley station. Nothing is set in stone, but we are just looking at schools near the area. We have heard a lot of good things about The Compton School in North Finchley, a lot of parents rave about it and the pastoral care, so North Finchley could also be a possibility.

As you don't have children there, you may not know the answer to this question but do you know if the school is political at all? What I mean by 'political' is i am hearing from many parents, that a lot of schools are becoming more and more political as in teachers really imposing 'left wing' or 'right wing' views on their students so I was wondering if this school is like this at all?

@London1305f

The school no longer has any feeder school places. They instead have a priority catchment area which is the postcode areas N2, N3 and NW11.

Does your children go there?

Anyone else's opinions will be welcome.

I am still deciding.