Vanguard School - Kenington, London

[pamalova]

Hi - I am trying find reviews of the beyond autism school, NAS Vanguard school off Kennington Rd from parents who have kids at the school. Have just read the Offstead report which was a little alarming, so wanted to get a parents perspective of the school!?

Surely a case of all that happening to your child cannot be just investigated internally!! I agree with you there is absolutely no safeguarding at the school at all. Everything is brushed under the carpet or like you say dealt with internally. No child should be subjected to what goes on at the school. I agree i think the only way to out the school and get anything done is to get the media involved. Things have to change for the sake of the children at the school.

This is shocking. I actually considered this school but did not want to take a chdncevon sn unestablished head. Are the trustees aware? I used to work with one of them so I may contact her if not.

Do you mind me asking what the nature of the abuse was?

I know a number of parents with children at Vanguard who say that their children went backwards between year 6 and year 7 and made no progress there after. I'd avoid if you can

Hi Bea - I am meant to going to view this school in the next week or so, would it be possible to call you to discuss this further? thx pamela

I am happy to speak to you about this place but not publicly. Please DM me and happy to chat on phone

that would be amazing - I am slightly clueless as how to send a private message...😂

Hello I have DM you

Woundering now that are all those children who have abused and bullied the kids if their still their. Reading everything is so clear they need to be in a more specialised setting. One thing that made me change my mind was all the open days were for after school hours and not during school hours and everytime I asked to view the school during when the children where their I was told this can not be done as it wil mess with their routine which is sorry bullshit I have viewed so many special schools and all where during when everyone was in school.

Isn't their anything good about vanguard their education food activities teachers transport the school building other children.

I also went and 3aited outside the school gates on their home time and to be honest they all looked clam but never judge a book by its cover.

I am a parent with a child at the school. It’s not really appropriate to be writing a lot of this stuff on this forum, which is so damning and biased. This is not necessarily representative of all experiences, and what if the students get to read it? They are vulnerable young people and goodness only knows the effect it might have. There are always two sides to every story. Some of the stuff is defamatory naming names. You should be very careful what you put online. Incidentally, for what my opinion is worth, the new headteacher at this school is excellent. There are also some good teachers. It could be argued that the National Autistic Society ran the place poorly and is to blame for a RI Ofsted. There are worse Ofsted reports eg Inadequate! The comments on here do not help the school and are not everyone’s experience.

I am speaking as a parent of a child that attended this school for over 2 years.. How very dare you say biased!! Damming, yes.. These are peoples personal experience of dealing with this school.. This is a forum where an enormous number of people use for this very purpose.
I respect your opinions. I am feeling immensely pleased and very relieved that your child’s experience at this school is a good one… but I whole heartedly disagree with most of what you have posted. Our children can be exposed to far more damming things just walking outside their front doors. Social media saturates everywhere. This is parents sharing their experiences of that school and the effects that has had on the CHILD…

Dear Spangles 32. Thanks for you message on this board. I am however confused by its tone. The aim of Mumsnet is to enable parents (mainly mothers) a safe space to give uncensored advice and communication on important subjects, without being attacked or criticised. This is what I and others on the thread have tried to do . As a recent parent at this school I am very interested to hear of your SPECIFIC child's experience, and if that is positive then that's great- Let's hear it. By all means add positive personal experiences that I'm certainly not able to do given my daughter's tenure at Vanguard. (although as I have previously made clear our experience did not include any form of assault) So please, as a parent, give us your personal perspective, but without chastising others on this thread, whose experience has differed from yours.

What an absolutely excellent response to Spangles 32. That was a far more effective response than I gave. I concur with everything you stated.

This has been a very useful thread as the only reason I was not progressingbrith this school ,was I was concerned that the head was not established. I may have doubted that decision and changed my mind. Now there is no way I will consider this school

Hi All - I am meant to going to Vanguard school for a meeting this Wednesday to meet the transition lead?
Does any one have any experience with her and should she be able to give me the confidence of how they will meet my son's PDA needs??

Hello parents/ peoples who are interacting in this forum having a constructive conversation about the Vangaurd. The Vangaurd school contacted MN and requested that some of my posts be removed. Nearly all my post has been removed. Which I think is totally wrong but just head ups that the vanguard are reading all these posts. Which doesn’t in the slightest bother me, however some maybe might feel uncomfortable knowing that theses posts are being scrutinised by the vanguard school/liberty trust….

I’m so glad I stumbled across this. I was considering viewing even in view of the ofsted.

I don’t suppose anybody has any alternative suggestions?
Elmcourt?
Newlands?
Any in Southwark?

hey since easter 2023 new head at school and he has gone above and beyond, my child that didn't attend school for 3 years has walked in and settled quick. ofsted is just a judgement of humans that don't understand autism. and everyone talking about bullying i would suggest looking into how each child interacts socially it's part of having autism the interaction or lack off. my child can't cope with close contact and children talking none stop and may see that as someone is annoying them ie they are being bullied. be careful how you are unable to control your childs sensory, and then emotionaly you the adult goes to defend and want to protect your child because of their vulnerabilities. not always is it bullying it's miss communication between children that struggle to understand each others needs. every issue that my child has encountered and misunderstood they have help to process the situation and understand the story. i ask him does he see children being bullied or intimidated he said no. I'm there everyday am and pm, i have not seen no dramas from teacher or students. things might change but my honest opinion the best school i found.

i don’t think u have the right to say there is no bullying at the school. Because before the new head was there it was bullying. If your child picked something up off the floor in the playground he’s a year 7 and 4 year 10’s jumped him from behind and kept punching him in the back of the head making him feel sick and scared is that not bullying? I can tell you from my point of view when my son was at the school it was blatant bullying and not just my once against my child. If the new head has stopped this than I can tell you I am extremely pleased for the children at the school. But when my child was there the staff were leaving because they allowed this to happen to the children. I for one called Ofsted and asked them to look into the school. Your children are supposed to be safe and looked after at school and not be subject to anyone hitting them. As this was a school for children with Autism I thought at least the staff were trained in Autism so knew the children’s strengths and weaknesses and how to care for the children. I can assure you in September 2022 this was not the case. If things have changed with the new head that is good to hear, because with the old head it was not a safe place for children to be

sorry but right now in november 2023 repetitive fighting on 1 child in which i call bullying has not been reported to myself, this new head along with liberty trust who runs the school has said good buy to over 30 staff members. and they have percent speech and language DR's as well as occupational therapist education psychologist they have spun this around.
but can i say i am very sorry this happened to your child that kind of aggressive behaviour is not for this type of school. I cant begin to imagine what your child is feeling a year on because these attacks we carry with us for life and if no intervention is give will change our personalities and attitude. i hope some sort of therapy has been given for your child that will help them thrive through life.
But now November 2023 things have changed drastically and further changes are happening.
i wish your child the best and really hope they are thriving. I'm sorry they went through this it happened to my child at another school.

sonoitay. under the humans rights act i am allowed to view my opinion as long as i don't break the children and family act ie naming names and exposing childrens names where about and needs. please be mindful that your experience is yours and my experience is mine.
When you say I don't have the right to comment you are showing a controlling personality that could be interpreted as a narcissist. and that speaks a lot.
enjoy your journey and hope your child gets the input what they need and deserve.

elm court yeah stand out side at home time and see how chaotic it is. southwark has a school called the spa in bermondsey. i have friends with children there. the children are thriving. go there have a look. just not sure if your LA will fund the school placement.

I actually really liked elm court when I looked around. Now I’m worried… is it bad?

SPA bermondsey isn’t academic enough.

I am so glad for the mothers on who has good experience at vanguard. I didn't and I know alot who didn't . Yes they did get rid off alot of teachers they left the bad ones and got rid of good ones also their is alot I mean I lot of children in this school that has anger problems who are violent to the vulnerable kids the ones that have no harm no friends they are the ones that are targeted by them you have year 10 bully year 11 and you have year 8 bully year 10 . The children don't even have proper break and lunch times because it's so bad they can not let them out together. You have children that has not made any friends who are unable to make friends no help is offered to them they walk around on their own. They have no trips not even a proper curriculum. I don't even want to start re the parents they are worse then their children their is few who are wounderfull so are their children but omg you have parents bully the the teachers knowing what their children are able to do in school . The school management is half half some teachers are very racist they treat each parent differently. Let me give you an example so you have child who has been bullying another along with 2 other children the way they speak to this child's parent is very nice all laughing and welcoming and you have the parent of the child of has been bullied with no friends it's just hi bye and avoiding eye contact. They try everything not to provide one to one support and take away the one to one support from children because it makes the school look good on paper this way they are able to prove that the child has made progress and is no need of extra help this could be emotionally or academicly. Education their is wounderfull teachers for example the food Tec lady she is wounderfull and much more bad teachers I can't blame them at all . You have so many children who earn in different levels but the children who are able to learn are been left behind. Before my child started this school I was given the impression that children who attend this school are academicly able to learn in their age level who can access GCSE but trust me 90 percent of the children will not be anywhere close to doing GCSE at all. Why do you think all the open days are when their is no children in school . For example the next one is on a Wednesday at 2pm you will assume you can see the normal running of the school no you can't the day finishes early on Wednesdays so you still won't be able to see the madness that happens in classes. Their is good and bad parts but thinking and reading all the reviews our children come to this school from alot of bad experience hoping it will be nice but it's not at all bullying still happens verbally and physically. They do not help children make friends they do not help parents they lie and downgrade things to make them selfs look good. On paper every school is good . It's the children and the teachers that provide the good experience. And if a child is unhappy in school it's makes the whole family sad. You have some children who should be in schools for their anger management not in a school where you have vunarable kids who have been treated very badly in their old schools and this school is no game changer not just this school most schools unless you have more complex school for example the spa in bermondsey the children their are so friendly but not the ones that are very high functioning.. I won't be writing anymore so anyone can write what ever they want. Wishing all our children a wounderfull education

Thank you sunmoon7 what you have said has hit the nail on the head. I found that the teachers, head teachers and deputies have no eye contact with you so bad, i think it says everything when they can’t look you in the eye, they just look at the floor.