Feedback on Grey Court School , Ham (Richmond)

[sdk2022]

Hello Everyone
I have recently moved to the UK and currently residing in Ham (Richmond) area. My daughter is on a waitlist for Kingston Academy and at Tiffin Girls School. For Tiffin School I know the wait is much longer as she will need to give an entrance exam which has been scheduled for 1st Dec as of now. Kingston Academy she is on top in the list but still not sure how long the wait will be. Meanwhile, we have been offered a space at Grey Court school - I would sincerely appreciate an honest feedback about this school? How are the teachers? Is it a good mix of students? Academically do they pay attention to the children? Etc Etc

I'm very apprehensive and want her to have a good and healthy experience especially with such a big change. It's not been easy. I took this house especially to be 7 mins away from Kingston Academy and yet have been on waitlist - have approached Richmond and Kingston Council , written emails to schools etc but we will just have to wait it out. So i just want to know if Grey Court School is a good option to put her in meanwhile. Thank you

Ofsted rating is only part of a parcel. The grades also matter.

And about the CEO his comment about middle class was a sweeping statement to buy the disgruntled teachers. btw UK consist mainly of middle class.
And it looks like underperforming schools will have even harder time with the new CEO as the end of this article says that Ofsted will do deeper inspections and keep even closer look at them

https://www.tes.com/magazine/archive/ofsted-hits-back-against-schools-narrowing-education

Ofsted may have rated it 'Good' but the behaviour is shocking. I really hope they can turn it around but in its present state I wouldn't want to send my children there.

@3WildOnes that is also what perplexes me. In case of Twickenham School the reasons are, as already mentioned here, a lot of children that are managed out are going there. But why Hampton High also suffers from bad reputation and bad behaviour? Hampton High has a small catchment, good facilities, and there are 2-3 outstanding primaries in Hampton/ Hampton Hill area.

@JustWingItLifeEyelinerEverything I am equally perplexed about Hampton high. Both of the junior schools in Hampton are excellent. But the results at Hamptin High are worse than Twickenham School and behaviour also shocking. I'm not sure what has gone wrong there.

Hampton High is a part of the same trust as Teddington school so logically it should be a better school...

https://www.bourne.education/432/schools-partners

Hampton High, Teddington and Twickenham School are all under Bourne!

No, not a sweeping statement. At the time he was heading up a trust that narrowed the curriculum in order to focus on exam results - the sort of "exam factory" culture that Spielman wanted to tackle.

I don't see anything wrong with exam factory as long as children receive from school also other education that is not captured through the exams.

Well that's the point - it wasn't. They were just focussing on exams - in a small number of subjects. It got results, but (allegedly) a lot of children got bored, switched off, misbehaved, and were managed out.

You're fairly new to the area, yes? So maybe you don't know all the history - the LST/Kunskappskolan years and the turnaround by Richmond Schools Trust? All of the history is relevant. Bourne only took over recently.

not really. Dec '96 is when I moved to the area. But as I had no personal interest I have not followed how are the schools here.

And yes, I recall the situation with Hampton High being almost written off by Ofsted. Then Rebecca Poole improved it with colab with Teddington school. But now Progress 8 and the results are worse than ever

Hampton & Twickenham Academies (as they were called then) were part of an experiment with a Swedish style curriculum that didn't go down very well with local parents. It takes a while to turn reputations around after something like that. Like you, people often just hear through the grapevine that schools aren't popular, without understanding the reasons: https://schoolsweek.co.uk/swedish-company-lets-go-of-its-british-schools/

Some people like to blame the Hampton traveller site for behavioural issues too (if they don't care about being thought of as prejudiced).

@infinitwisdom

So are you saying that the reason why the school went "changes" was that the Swedish style was unpopular among parents? 😂

I remember very well that the changes were brought about by the poor performance of the school and Requires Improvement marking and Inadequate for other school. Definitely the popularity of " Swedish" or non-swedish model amoung the parents wasn't the reason. 😂 https://www.richmondandtwickenhamtimes.co.uk/news/15082106.two-failing-schools-praised-by-government-after-getting-back-on-track/

It is not like it is a very large travellers site to make any difference. There are less than 4 motor homes there. There are council buildings around that but, honestly, these are everywhere.

As far as I can remember both schools were thought if poorly before they attempted the sheepish model. In my view local parents don't care which model schools use, they look at progress 8, attainment 8 and at the behaviour of the pupils. Students from Hampton high and Twickenham school do seem to have much worse behaviour locally. I think they will really struggle to turn around either school as lots of parents in the catchments for those two schools move house or pay to avoid those schools at present, myself included.

Oh, trust me, it was. They didn't follow the National Curriculum and taught in mixed-age classes. Everyone went to the open evenings, but didn't like what they heard, so voted with their feet. Roles dwindled, money became tight, teachers left. TA's inadequate ofsted report in 2016 is probably the worst I've ever read, but at least it was a catalyst for change.

https://www.kunskapsskolan.com/thekedprogram.4.1d96c045153756b0c14d5798.html This was the curriculum they followed. Parents naturally wanted to know how this might impact their children's future GCSE results.

@3WildOnes As far as I can remember both schools were thought if poorly before they attempted the [Swedish] model

Yes, that was because the buildings were in a terrible state. The government-funded rebuild for Twickenham and refurb for Hampton were the carrot for the local council to agree to the Kunskapskollan experiment.

I don't remember any parents caring about the Sweedish model. They cared about the poor results and poor behaviour.

It is the ofsted marking that influenced modifications and not what parents think as it is tiny factor.

Also, the problem is deeper that Swedish or not Swedish style as the last results show.

I honestly don't remember a single parent mentioning the buildings either. The parents I knew were never going to send their children to either school based on the results and the behaviour. If they were wealthy they were moving to get into Orleans or pay for private and if not then they were moving to Isleworth or Shepperton.

Some parents didn't understand or care about the underlying triggers for the poor behaviour/results, and some did. It was widely discussed at the time. Lots of letters in the Richmond & Twickenham Times (when it was still a half decent local paper).

So do you know what triggers the behaviour/ results at Hampton High?

Honestly, even they knew triggers most of the parents had then a survival instinct to send the child elsewhere...

I don't know whether behaviour at HH is worse than at other schools or not. But good behaviour at any school is a combination of:

1. A critical mass of families who care about education, encourage their kids to also care, have good standards of behaviour at home, and support their learning. (They don't have to be middle class or naturally high attainers).
2. Good teaching so the kids are interested, not frustrated or bored.
3. Good discipline policies, applied consistently.

When schools lose 1 or 3 or both, they struggle to retain the good teachers, and end up in a downward spiral.

For years, Twickenham and (to a much lesser extent) Hampton struggled with number 1 because they were less attractive to parents than other options, either because of shabby buildings, experimental curriculum, or reputation. Now the population of kids has increased and they're becoming fuller, so things should get better, but there's a funding crisis and a national shortage of teachers..All schools are struggling to recruit staff, which hits schools with legacy reputations harder than those without.

Sites like this don't help because they make it harder for schools to shake off past reputations. I think if you can't say something good about a school online, keep quiet, because every time someone puts the boot in, they make things worse.