Tiffin School open evening

[12345change]

Went to this yesterday - wondering what people think of the school. Aware of it's reputation for academic excellence - but the buildings and grounds seemed a bit tired and scruffy. Would be interested in others view on this school.

yes, he is attending tutoring since Y4 regardless of his great results at school.

Can I ask why @TheShorestAnswerIsDoing

Yes definitely agree that London grammar's are disproportionately targeted by privileged families. Sometimes there is the catchment issue so you need to pay a premium to live in a particular area. Then tutoring, I have friends that charge £50 a lesson & having the time for it all.

I also think there are people who can afford private but prefer the prestige of grammar or would rather not "waste" money.

I know this is unworkable, but part of me often feels that any child that tries out for grammar should have to go to a state school even if they don't get the grammar, so not just cherry-picking the perceived good bits.

Any parent that isn't willing to risk the non-grammar state options would be able to just stick with private, leaving more places available for families with no choice but to use state.

We were considering one private school- maybe.... because it is a bit far and plenty of great state schools around. Also we went to our tutor's class for a trial week. He liked it, he wanted to stay so we paid for a term. Then he got used to and wants to continue. Once I tried to pull him out after a term and he cried his eyes out. He absolutely loves the tutor and his 11+ group. I wonder what to sign him up next year.

It’s a state school - most of them have tired scruffy buildings at least in part. Did you think they somehow got more money for tarting the place up than other schools?

The open evening was pretty dreadful last year…. X thousand people shuffling around in a giant snake. Took about twenty minutes to do one of the chemistry rooms, we just couldn’t get out! I think you’re right that they don’t sell the school, because honestly they don’t need to do they. It’s more a quick look and a chance to chat with they boy taking you round.
The new head seems very fresh and engaging and from a background in private sector so he might change the focus and make it a bit more sales-y.

Not at all but thought it would be at clean like many of the other state schools locally. TKA and Greycourt were both cleaner and less scruffy.

@12345change

We are back to the reason why the school cannot afford a paint tin and the hand with the paint brush. Grammar schools are receiving less money than other schools per pupil. Bright students as per our dear government can learn in the scruffy environment.

It's not fair to say they don't know what they are doing based on that report. If one or two teachers were inarticulate about their subject curriculum on the day of the inspection its as likely to be a combination of bad luck and lack of pre-Ofsted preparation as anything else, especially bearing in mind that Ofsted is delliberately reducing the proportion of Outstanding schools (and probably wants some grammar "scalps" for the downgrade list).

I'm a governor of a comprehensive school and we are conducting Ofsted-style curriculum reviews in preparation for an inspection at some point in the next year or so. Teachers are quizzed on the content and sequencing of their curriculum. The outcome can depend as much on the personality and skill of the inspector as the skill of the teacher. Some teachers are better at handling the questions than others, but that doesn't mean they are better teachers. In a real inspection, inspectors will pick 3-4 subjects for a deep dive. Ofsted tells schools not to prepare for these - they want to catch schools in an unpracticed state - but schools with any sense will be preparing as best they can. Perhaps Tiffin thought they were above preparing, or perhaps they were doing the preparation but inspectors picked subjects that weren't yet prepared, or subjects with a new or interim head of department - that is where the luck comes in.

I would argue that this is about not hiring the right cleaning company and contracting out but that's a whole new thread.

@paleontologi , it's worth reading the Tiffin explanation on their website and the ofsted report for reference for your own school - they were examined at the height of exams internal and external hence only 1 year group out of 7 was having lessons that could be observed. There is also mention in a round about way of lack of link governors and SLT not focusing on SDP etc.

@paleontologi , sorry you may have read it, I work in education and think the report is a good benchmark of what can go wrong when you are complacent (as you say in your post).

No worries Yes, I have read it. The Ofsted report wouldn't put me off the school at all, because of what I know about the inspection regime. The reports aren't particularly helpful to parents, but if they turn their noses up at applying on the back of it that's up to them. Tiffin has more than enough demand to weather the storm. The biggest thing that put me off at year 7 entry was its single-sex status - however the sixth form is more attractive because it is mixed.

@paleontologi you are absolutely right about Tiffin having enough demand to weather the storm so to speak… also working in education I would agree that Ofsted isn’t always helpful to parents but to be fair to parents outside of education what else are they supposed to base their decisions on? Open days, reports and other people’s opinions? Personally I worry that because they can weather the storm the leadership of the school becomes complacent etc. Time will tell let’s see how the new head teachers does and if he has a positive impact.

@12345change

Quite likely.

But I don't think there was a problem with the teaching during the lessons. It is after the lessons that various teachers were interviewed. And this is where they found some..."shortcomings"

"A level results they are not all having A or A* and also not all land at the top Universities"

Probably read the A level and university destination with caution, over 40% of the sixth form students of this school are selected at sixth form stage.

There had been some comments about grammar schools generally. I was responding to those.
😁

@PreplexJ

You are correct. But for that particular school nearly all boys are staying in Six forms ...

I am sorry I am unsure how it is relevant to what you said to your previous statement that more children are taking philosophy than math

yes you are right the 50% who do philosophy don’t do it at exam level, just as an extra subject.

The grammar selection system being skewed to students who are good at quantifiable things is a different point.

What year? There is no Philosophy subject But Religious Studies, Ethics and Philosophy. And RE GCSE is in I suspect all schools in Richmond & Kingston. Below is information from Tiffin website. There is no separate Philosophy subject

Can just ignore if student take philosophy subject at all, focus on attainment 8 scores which only account for core and compulsory GCSE subjects only, Tiffins attainment 8 is worse than all other London grammar with similar "super selective" criteria in the past few years..

I have a son at one of the Surrey super selective schools.
One point I would agree with is that the teaching isn’t that exceptional and there is some coasting I feel. There is an assumption that the boys will churn out 8s and 9s at GCSE without too much input. On the other hand, the school has no recruitment issues. I have read the posts on Mumsnet about the shortage of specialist teachers at secondary level and we have not experienced this. I imagine that if a teacher wants to stay in the state sector, it’s a good choice. Few discipline issues, the children are motivated and little need to differentiate work to cope with a variety of ability issues in one class.

How many maths sets are there is year 10/11 maths

This isn't correct. Tudor seccondary comprehensive school, which was next to Tiffin Girls, closed and Tiffin Girls school moved into the Tudor site. I remember when this happened in the mid 1980s.