City of London School Freemen's

[Mu2023]

Hello
My daughter has been offered a place in CLSF. we are seriously considering accepting the offer. Can you share some of your personal reviews please.

We've accepted a place in junior school - our own research found students on the personal tours impressive and also the classes were normal / not staged so you could get an idea of the environment. The girls are as confident as the boys throughout the years and they have an appropriate level of banter with the teachers, which is missing and I believe stunts expansion of learning topics in other schools we had on our list.

Obviously given some of the reviews on this site I needed to speak to some of the parents / children and see if my child would fit in or if problems had been experienced. We joined the independent swim school which uses Freemans pool - though that my daughter chatted to various children often older, who have very kind and encouraging in both her swimming and throughout the application process. We didn't disclose that we applied until the exam. My daughter is kind, confident and social - she also has good academic potential (as much as you can gage at 7plus), so the school seems a good fit.

We have friends who also are happy with the school.

I think they have a coffee morning for offer holders (maybe tomorrow) - you should have an email. Maybe worth another chat with the students, have a tour and chat to the classes. Good luck with your decision. I have no connections to the school other than accepting the offer with Freemens.

Hi @Mu2023 we are also deciding on schools now. DD got offers at Freemen's, Emanuel and Caterham (with academic scholarship but still fees). She also passed the 11+ for the local grammars but we prefer an independent school for her.
It is a hard choice for us, none of them are next door but Emanuel is easy to reach as it is near Clapham and Freemen's and Caterham have school buses that we could use -though the latter a bit farer. Academically they seem very similar (a few points difference here and there).
I know there were a few bad reviews for Freemen's but they mostly came from the same person who clearly had a grievance with the school. When we visited it was a good experience, kids had an opportunity to experience the school more than in the others and the facilities are great. However, the ethos of Caterham was clearer with lots of emphasis on design, critical thinking, behavioural science, technology, etc while showing a more genuine interest on pastoral care.
I will be watching this thread closely before we make our decision!

Any updates on feelings re pastoral care? New push within the school on this front. Any views on this?

Not completely in the know but would just like to add the school is changing so the junior school ends at 11 and are adjusting leadership accordingly. I think they’ve also hired a specialist ( I think ex-police) pastoral officer. The head of seniors and the new deputy are also very popular. If you want a better idea of how the school deals with pastoral issues they released a podcast on social media on their twitter - haven’t listened but I’m sure it’ll provide an insight.