Outwood academies

[Threesoundslikealot]

We're moving to a new area, and have a choice of places to live. One is more expensive than the other but has a choice of schools. The other is a lovely place but the only real choice of local secondary is an Outwood academy. I've seen various views on them, mostly not positive. Do/would you send your child to an Outwood school? They don't exist in my current area but I'm familiar with Harris academies and find them .

I certainly wouldn’t work in one. Very proscriptive in their teaching, and certainly pre covid they used to do weird things like the kids sat their science GCSEs in y10 and basically only did maths and English in y11 so they could very much boost their pass rate in that area, at the expense of kids interests and overall educational well being ( we used to get quite a few who would come to our sixth form and they had literally done no Eg Biology for 15 months and were trying to do A level Biology

Thank you. That sounds very Harris-a-like.

I wouldn’t work in one and I wouldn’t choose to send my child to one

On the other hand, I know someone who teaches English in one and loves it. But I can’t say more about it than that!

@CarrieBlue can I ask why not?

I dislike their prescriptive style.

Thanks. That sounds in line with the basic issues people have with them, although I’ve heard/read worse!

If my children hadnt got into the local outwood academy school i would have sent them private. If your child is well behaved, academic and generally sticks to the rules i would not hesitate to recommend. Outwood academies don't suit everyone though so have a look and see what you think.

My child has SEN, specifically ASD: she masks a lot at school and has been well behaved at school, but struggles socially, and I fear a tricky few years lie ahead.

When applying for my eldest our admission zone school was an Outwood, it went down as my banker and luckily we secured a place at her first choice (we now live next to that school)

I just didn't like it, I couldn't quite put my finger on why, but I just didn't. I think it is one of those schools that if your child is an absolute rule abider (to the nth degree) they'll be fine, the other parents I know with children there seem happy enough, they seem very keen on sending postcards to say how wonderful the child is - I am not sure if this is a positive thing (feedback to pupils) or just adding another load of stuff for the teachers to do. It is a very regular occurrence so not just a once a term thing.

If I'm honest I also don't like the fact that the pupils at my local school look exactly the same as the pupils at a friend's school 100miles away.

I would say (from my limited knowledge) that they are the northern equivalent of the Harris academies.