Forest School Snaresbrook

[MarkHemmings]

Well, the A-level results are out and it will be interesting to see how well Forest School have done this year. After all, over the past three years the School have conjured up some truly dreadful results. I mean truly awful. Let's wait and see.

The same is true of many private schools, I thought?

What's the story OP? Stop being disingenuous.

When I described results I meant the school’s -
both my son’s did well enough at each of their schools academically. I wasn’t impressed by stellar results school in other areas though, whereas I was with poor results school.

value added is probably never going to be massive at a school where everyone arrives at a reasonable standard. Middle son’s grammar school with stellar results has crap value added results.

My references to the DfE league table isn't selective at all. I suppose we can get embroiled in apparently sophisticated arguments about how the figures have been compiled and what they mean. But the inescapable truth is that based on the most recent figures for 2019 Forest School children achieved A level results that were 'below average'. They weren't 'average', 'above average' or 'well above average' - they were 'below average'. As I've already said, more than 2000 schools in England performed better, or very significantly better than did Forest. You can dress it up how you like by proposing the advantages of a holistic education and other erudite nonsense, but the outside world requires exam passes in which Forest have a rather unfortunate record of under performance. Let's see then where the School appears in the league table for this year.

Let's see if you ever tell us why you are really interested.

And yet STILL this person does not acknowledge the "obdurate" fact that last Thursday, Forest's A Level results increased from 39% A star and A grades in 2019 to 67% A star and A grades in 2022, and 65% A star to B grades in 2019 to 85% A star to B grades in 2022.

You don't need a DfE progress / value added score, or need to be a mathematician, to know that there has been improvement in exam performance at that school between 2019 - 2022.

My 'interest' in the School is really not that complicated to understand. When I was at the School academic standards were pretty dreadful. I remember Joe Scott who was one of the longer-serving teachers bemoaning to me the 'lamentable' academic standards at the School, rolling his eyes and remarking, 'Why would any parent pay for this'. He added that he 'deplored' the 'rubbish" the headmaster of the day used to obfuscate the School's very poor exam performance.

Anyway, after I read (with only a vague interest) one of the current headmaster's newsletters I was pleasantly surprised to see him extolling the School's top-flight exam results. I thought I'd just quickly confirm this by checking the most recent DfE league table but then couldn't find the entry for Forest that I supposed to be somewhere near the top. Half an hour later I did find the entry but only after ploughing through the entries for more than 2000 other schools. There was Forest School languishing in the 'below average' category. I thought about Joe and supposed parents might want to know about this reality. Is that sufficient explanation for you?

Going by their post on page 1, I'm really and truly sorry that the OP has experienced some kind of historical trauma linked to child protection at Forest School. I hope that the investigation that has been launched in their name brings them some kind of closure.

However, given that investigation has apparently been launched, I would question whether it's the wisest thing, in the meantime, to go online and create a Mumsnet forum thread which is clearly critical of the school - irrespective of the fact that this thread is not specifically connected to child protection. I also hope, for the OP's sake, that their username is not their actual name.

This years exam results looks great. There seems to have been a big improvement from 2019 (and it looks like that was a bad year) so unlike many independent schools did not hugely inflate grades during the pandemic.

Westminster school also has a below average 16-18 2019 progress score, so Forest is in good company. You need to look at a schools results as a whole and over time.

Is that sufficient explanation for you?

Well it definitely clarifies the situation, although not your personal grudge. Did you not do well? Has your life not turned out happy or successful? Are you seeking a target for feelings of failure?

Many of us went to unremarkable schools with mediocre academic performance but we aren't still thinking about it years later, or seeking to defame the school.

Maybe your cohort just wasn’t that bright… school can’t put in what isn’t there

What an extraordinary outburst. It's almost as if you cannot entertain any criticism of the School - presumably due to some sort of personal resistance to information you consider to be discordant. In answer to your personal attack, I did well at A level, have a string of degrees after my name and have been successful in life (whatever that means). For heaven's sake, let's focus on the issue and not these trivial irrelevancies.

let's focus on the issue

The issue is whatever has gone wrong in your life - that is what you should focus on.

I've reported this thread. It's going round in circles and is verging on slander.
OP won't say exactly what has triggered his unhappiness about the school. We can't put any comments into context without that key piece of information.

I think you mean libel not slander ... I've repeatedly said what the issues are and they really should be clear enough. All these personal attacks on me supposing me to be suffering from some sort of trauma are as childish as they are irrelevant. The issue for this thread is Forest School's academic performance. I can't put it any simpler than that.

The issue for this thread is Forest School's academic performance. I can't put it any simpler than that.

Except we all know that's not really what it is about.

I'm glad someone reported it, I was wondering if I should - on the one hand it's none of my business, but on the other hand Mumsnet should be aware that they are giving someone (albeit with obvious issues) a platform to attack a named school.

I won't bother to respond to detractors who seem to be committed beyond reason to defending the School - almost to the point of being a bit pathological when faced with factual information they don't like. Plainly, they have personal issues with which to deal.

Anyway, all this talk about the supposed benefits of receiving a holistic education to produce a rounded person has reminded me of when I left the School and applied to Kent to read law. I duly turned up for the interview with the School's advice ringing in my ears to present myself as more than just an exam-passing machine.

The interviewer who was a barrister, asked me why I should be accepted for the course. I could see he had my application form open in front of him and so knew I'd passed 5 A levels with good grades. Given this, I decided to follow the School's advice and twittered on about my sporting interests (although I dislike sport and so didn't have any). I was about to go on to invent some musical interests when the interviewer interrupted me saying, 'I'm not interested in that middle-class bollocks. I want to know how you plan and complete academic work to show me you can read for law'.

And that's the reality. All talk about the wonderful benefits extra-curricula activities is just that - talk. Lessons in street-dancing, playing in the cricket 1st X1 and being a success in the School play are just fripperies and indulgences. They count for nothing in the competitive world just outside the School's gates. That's why Forest School's position in the DfE league table is so important - isn't it.

Plainly, they have personal issues with which to deal.

😂😂😂

Wow. You passed 5 A Levels with good grades. What a good school you must have attended.

Please show this thread to a therapist OP.

Regardless of results, they treated my 10 year old son like dirt during his interview for the 11 plus. The Geography teacher who interviewed him couldn't have been more patronising or snide. Apparently his maths was't up to scratch and he only scored 70% in their rubbish online exam (he applied in 2020) despite getting full marks in maths in SATs and 137 is his CATs in Year 7. Horrible school. They also seem to have a strong preference for Asian kids.

Presumably so the therapist can puzzle over your reply ...

I'm sorry to hear how your son was treated. Still, whatever school you finally chose will probably have better exam results than Forest. Hopefully, that's some consolation.

So, if I am reading this correctly: you found your time at forest to be bad because of the answer you felt they implied you should give during your law interview that didn’t go down well? And then, despite your own exam results being good, you think this school specifically needs a thread to criticise them as they have charity status and your tax money goes towards them?

Which other fee paying schools are listed as charities and are below average? Average implies a median, and so there must by definition be more than just Forest. Should you not list all of them to dispel the notion that you are on a very pointed, personally motivated mission? Yet you haven’t.

I really don't know what you're talking about and suspect neither do you. I was (of course) using the Kent interview as an exemplar of a broader argument. Yes, most private schools receive handouts from the state in the form of very generous tax-breaks. But for heaven's sake I'm focusing on Forest School because I went there. It surely can't be that hard for you to understand the context to my thread.