Habs girls head leaving?

[perhapsLAter]

I have heard the habs girls school head is leaving, does anyone know why? I'm a bit worried my child is sitting for 11plus.

Bit of a surprise as there have been no issues as far as I'm aware. She dealt with the pandemic well. I'm wondering if she prefers a smaller, less high profile post. I'm wondering if she was never going to be long term, perhaps to deal with the sixth form integration of the boys & girls school. This was something she oversaw at her previous school and will apparently will be overseeing at her new post. She is actually staying for the whole academic year.

Name changed for this so can't be linked to my other posts and potentially identify me! She has been hugely unpopular among the parent body so I'm thrilled that she is going. School has been very slow to return to things like school trips after the pandemic, issues with poor teaching, confusing communication, many of the good and quirky teachers have left. It pains me to say this OP, as I loved the school in the junior branch under the leadership of Biddie O'Connor and Robert James-Robbins, but I would move Habs down your pick list for the 11+. I don't think the governors are steering it in a good direction. If I knew what I know now, I'd have considered moving my daughter at 11, and I'll be encouraging her to move for sixth form.

I fear that they will give the job to Sarah Wright, the current deputy, and I don't feel she will be an improvement. Lots of parental concerns lately which were not addressed by the ISI inspectors who seem to have ignored all the negative questionnaires that I know were handed in, and the negative feedback given directly by the girls.

Xmas, sorry to hear about your experience. Could you expand a bit more? What is the feeling like in school and how is this all impacting the girls? Are they happy? When you say poor teaching, how poor? And in what direction are the governors steering the school?

She's off to John Lyons.

This doesn't surprise me. I too know of lots of parents and girls who put in negative reports to the ISI. We were all very surprised that the report was so good and that none of the concerns seem to have been mentioned.

Have heard only bad things from both parents of girls at the school and from DS’s friends there. I started hearing bad things soon after she started. Have lots of friends with girls there. Their gcse English results were poor too, don’t know if that was related to her but parents defintely not happy with that. Lots of rumours that state schools were marked less harshly which is why but I’m not convinced.

@xmasiscoming1
I share your concern re ISI. A few years ago they inspected DDs school. It was a work of fiction. Many parents openly laughed at sections in it. The Inspectors clearly hadn’t the SLT experience of the type of school. This was a red light. Others were such elements as paragraphs explaining what the school was planning to do, (the school sales pitch in their development brochure!) a couple of sentences on the lack of an assessment policy (Ofsted might fail them on this), etc etc. Important shortcomings were glossed over. Parental and student feedback ignored. They liked the food and the flower beds! People might not like ofsted, but they are much more focused on quality of education.

www.theguardian.com/education/2022/dec/24/north-london-collegiate-school-investigated-a-level-grades-2021-malpractice-allegations

NLCS just lost their head too - North London having an interesting December..

Yes they have poached the head from SHHS

Sorry just have to comment on this. I’m a GCSE marker for English. It’s all marked question by question anonymously on line so it’s impossible for state schools to be marked more leniently. There are no identifiers on any question at all and random moderation ‘stops’ examiners who are marking out if tolerance. So that idea needs to be challenged

I totally agree. My child was at a state school local to Habs and got 8’s. My friends at Habs insisted it’s because she was at a state school and therefore marked more leniently. She wasn’t having any of it when I suggested she might have just had good teaching and was quite smart

I agree but it is a dangerous sign that people distrust the system anymore… all recent so called “progressive” reforms do not help either.

I worked my way though this thread to challenge the idea that state schools are marked more leniently. Very pleased to see I am not on my own here. Interesting to read about the private school inspection system - parents and children deserve better.

I’m not sure what you mean by ‘progressive reforms’? I repeat the exam marking system is completely anonymised and it is impossible to tell which school/ student is being marked so any idea that state schools are being favoured is wrong. In fact, judging by recent news stories, it appears that at least one private school was ‘gaming’ the system during Covid.

i assume this mythology has come about because of universities offering ‘softer’ grades for admission from state schools. That’s a completely different issue.

Agreed with all what you said. But personally I am deeply worried for the big picture which recent reforms brought too many "soft" factors into admission process. Such changes (on a shady ground IMHO) confused already anxious parents and students and caused many rumours like this.

From another angle, there is no difference between lenient marking in GCSE/A-level tests and lowing down entry requirements for some specific background population. So it is not really re-assuring if you only can deny the formal but admit (more or less) the later...

At the end, we need a thoughtful/long standing education policy not subjected to political motivation...

Hi, this post has helped me, thank you! My daughter is currently in Habs and we really dislike the school. It packages itself well, glossy and apparently informed. We feel there is a deep, concerning incongruence in the place, and it is very, very badly run. They talk about supporting students to reach their potential, through courage, curiosity, resilience etc. That sounds great, however, it appears to be empty, easy words. The last written report we received was over 2 years ago and there has been one in-person parent-teacher meeting over the last 4.5 years. There is no possibility of a parent-teacher-student supportive relationship. The leadership team do not seem to value either relationships with parents or students and react either defensively or not at all when approached. I have stopped approaching as I feel they don’t care. My daughter also feels unsupported and uncared for in many of her lessons, particularly English and Art. It’s interesting what you say about the English results being poor. I’m not surprised. We have recently bought the literature study guides to support her more at home as the teacher doesn’t seem to actively engage the class at all. I could go on! But, thank you for this post, I have found it reassuring and it has helped our thinking about removing our daughter from the school.