Teddington school, any parents with children there

[purplecat1]

Just wondering about teddington school. I'm relatively new to the area and from what I understand it has a chequered past but seemed to come out of it. But I hear there is a new head this year.

Any experiences good it bad from anyone who has a child there or knows the school.

@crimped well said, the crap that heads and teachers get is awful and can feel personal. Every school is usually trying it's absolute best, to be the best school it can be and you're never going to please everyone - people have different ideas of what a good school is. People who live in the catchment for Teddington are super fortunate as all the school are good or outstanding.

I find these message boards are sometimes not very helpful and just turn into opportunities for people to get annoyed with others who don't agree with them.

Teddington will have much smaller catchment this year as after the well organised Open day it was hugely popular and many local kids listed it as their no 1 preference.
Apart from infamous insane idea with opening toilets only twice pe school day for 15 min 🙄 it is nice and easy school. Parents opposed and now toilets are back to normal open all the time.

That sounds paranoid. With this thinking all Google reviews of schools or any business should be banned and on any site including Parent's View for that matter because the head of it, a manager may commit suicide. Insane.

With Ruth it wasn't just a parent opinion on a forum. They slammed her in the Ofsted report in an awful manner blaming the headmistress for everything. Quite a difference.

There have been at least two local head teachers who have left their posts due to stress in recent years, and those are just the ones people know about. The publicity around the Ruth P case was the thin edge of a large wedge, and it resonated because it helped many heads to speak out.

Social media users should be respectful and responsible in what they say about real identifiable people who are doing their best in a difficult and responsible job.

There have been at least two local head teachers who have left their posts due to stress in recent years, and those are just the ones people know about.

Are you suggesting that they left as a result of reading someone's post in social medias? Seriously? And they were heads of schools?

Social media users should be respectful and responsible in what they say about real identifiable people

We should be respectful in any circumstances about anybody. This translates to capable of expressing criticism when it is due in a respectful manner.
I have not read in this thread any disrespectful statements.

Just wanted to give some more feedback, (as Op asked for parent opinions and maybe others are thinking for next year) my child started at Teddington this year and when we got that choice I was unsure (because of the Ofsted a few years back). I have no regrets.

As was mentioned earlier, I agree, it has an impressive provision for arts and for sports, but I wanted to add that, for those who are more academic or not into arts and sports, I think it has been amazing also.

My ds isn't into sports or arts but they have a brilliant science club as well as a robotics club and a chess club (and lots of other free enrichment clubs every day). He has met a lot of children with similar interests (so has made good friends also).

The teachers in the academic subjects he is hoping to follow are brilliant and engaging (in particular science and maths) and this is what will contribute the most in his future GCSE results (I can see GCSE results mentioned here so wanted to add).

It has also been mentioned that it has a wide catchment but I agree that is because the previous Ofsted made some local parents wary. This wider catchment, I feel, is a positive thing for meeting different children outside of their own "bubble".

We haven't been there long but feel really positive about the school already.

Good luck in your choices.

Someone mentioned this a while ago, can't remember if it was this forum: the catchment of Teddington school - length in km - is also a bit affected by its geographical position. It's sandwiched between Bushy Park and Thames river. The catchment is shaped more like a long baguette, rather than a French-style country bread :)

Thanks so much for replying! I'm glad your son is enjoying it and it's also catered for those not so into sport (like my dd too).
My child will be starting there in September. We will be coming over from Kingston- so she'll need to make all new friends- fingers crossed, she's very excited!