John Roan School Greenwich

[DutchAddie]

Does anyone have current knowledge if this school please? I know it was closed down and reopened under new leadership so I'm interested in any progress they've made? Still got a while before we need to decide but it would be convenient.

The John Roan School has never closed its doors, it's the oldest comprensive secondary school in the country, founded in 1677. In 2016 the long standing head teacher retired after the successful rebuild of the lower school building. The school offers fantastic facilities including the redeveloped Victorian Upper school which is now home to a strong 6th form teaching Alevel, Btecs and home to the Basketball academy (Titans) and Football Academy (Charlton). The lower school boasts modern facilities such as sports courts indoors and outside, extensive libraries, art and photographic studios, design and textiles studios, brand new food tech labs, theatre studio, science labs, computer suites and many recreational areas. They have their own playing fields with a brand new 4G pitch, basketball and tennis courts, football, rugby and hockey pitches and a full size cricket pitch. The John Roan also owns their own outward bound facilities in the Lake District called Braithwaite where every pupil has the opportunity to attend affordable school trips.
Six years ago the school had recruitment challenges in establishing a strong leadership team when the established head left. Then after an inadequate Ofsted report in 2018 the Royal borough recruited Cath Smith in January 2018 to assist leadership in improving behaviour and standards within the school. In 2019 the John Roan became part of the United Learning Trust portfolio of schools and became an academy, which is why Ofsted state on their website the school was closed, this is incorrect, the school didnt close, it's now under new management and is run by an Academy (there are only 2 secondary schools in the borough run by the local authority, the rest are now Academies, free schools or selective church schools). Ms Smith joined full time as Principle in September 2019 and since then there has been no looking back. The school has gone from strength to strength, results have improved year on year, the behaviour has seen fantastic improvements and the team of staff is strong with its new leadership in place. I would suggest you visit the school, there are open days throughout September and October that you can book via the website. www.thejohnroanschool.org.uk. There really is so much to say about the school and not enough room to post on here.

The only suggestion i have is find out for yourself. Speak to pupils at the school now, and don't listen to old news. This year we have had an extremely high intake of year 6 pupils from local good and outstanding primaries such as James Wolfe, Halstow, Meridian and John Ball.
Meet the Head and her team, their doors are always open, unlike many secondary school communication to families is good. Talk to the award winning Parent and Teachers Association, the JRSA, many of the parents have been through the journey and can give you an indication of what the school is like now. I have had 4 children at the school, my eldest went right through to 6th form and finished with AAB getting her first choice university, Bournemouth to study design and costume making. My youngest is in year 8 and has just had an amazing week in the Lake District at the schools outward bound course.
I am really happy with the improvements to the school and would not continue to send my children to a school if it wasn't the best place for them.

I am a parent at this school and have been since 2016. There was a period of instability and turbulence with multiple changes to senior leadership towards the start of our time in the school, and for a while it was not clear which way things were going to go. There were some tremendously committed members of staff at that time but also a lot of aspects of school life that was neither strong nor healthy, and as Ofsted acknowledged rapid improvement was required.

My experience has been that in the last 4years there has been a complete turnaround and the school has moved into a place of stability and ongoing progress in every area. I would reflect that although controversial at the time the changes resulting from being forced to join a Multi-Academy-Trust have been wholly positive. The leadership is now very child-focused and the holistic values of the school have been maintained whilst academic standards have been rising. The aspirations for students are ambitious and there are really good schemes of work in lots of subjects that are used across the schools in United Learning. On the whole the behaviour is good (I don't believe any school can escape challenging behaviour in teenagers!) and the morale amongst students and staff seems positive.

I really like the inclusive ethos of the school and the emphasis on community engagement, plus the number of opportunities the pupils have to do interesting extra curricular activities. The cohort is very diverse which means children are prepared for every aspect of life and adulthood, and they grow in their understanding of how to manage the challenges of our multicultural and broad society, rather than experience a narrow world of only mixing with those who share the same family background, culture or academic ability. It is a true comprehensive school in that sense. The John Roan is not an "exam factory" nor an impersonal system that children have to navigate to reach educational milestones, but it does encourage young people to aim high and achieve their potential. In my experience it is pastorally supportive and staff are working hard to ensure it is a context where everyone can develop and flourish, whatever their interests, passions and abilities. It is not a pushy school and does not praise academic growth alone - students are genuinely encouraged to be all-rounded in their learning and maturity, and loads of different subjects and talents are celebrated, including community spirit, caring for others, and campaigning for justice, alongside sport, music, art, drama, debating, modern languages, and the core subjects.

We chose this school for one of our younger sons two years ago (our eldest was in the school for y7-11 and left in the summer of 2021) and I'm so glad that together with him we made that decision to come to this school. He is doing really well in school both socially and academically and he loves being part of the local community with his friends from TJR. He is proud of his school and has some wonderful teachers who inspire and motivate him.

Of course no school is perfect (!) and there are still improvements to be made at TJR but on the whole I would say it's a very different school compared to the reputation with which it was saddled a few years ago. It's well worth going to Open Events to see for yourself what are the strengths of the leadership and the school, and also find out more about ongoing areas of development.