Highgate wood / fortismere / Aps

[Reginaldperrin]

We’re currently in the catchment for Highgate wood. I’m hearing quite a few disparaging comments about it being unambitious, and parents moving to try and get into fortismere or aps. Are those two options considerably better? Are they worth moving for all things considered?

There seems a definite snobbery against Highgate wood but is it justified? I obviously don’t want to send daughter there if it’s just not a very nice school. I was really hoping it would improve on the last few years, but everyone just seems to moving to try and avoid it.

Any opinions?

No. It's absolutely dead around there and the gains between the two schools are marginal.

Thank you for your thoughts @soma. I thought the results were massively better! I’ll need to relook.

To those who know about HGWs do they have any more recent information? Our child is due to start next year (so current year 6) and I’ve heard that this years GCSE results have been terrible and the head still hasn’t resolved the strike issues? It’s so frustrating, when it feels like APs and Fortismere, to a certain extent, are able to well with not such a drastically different cohort.

Hi, DD has just received her results at HWS and did well, few 9s etc, hard to see that she would have done much better elsewhere. Obviously it’s just anecdotal but most people I know seem pretty happy with how their kids did. DD has gone to Woodhouse and says there are a few HWS kids there but I know some high achievers are staying on for sixth form.

I do think the strike thing is rubbish, any school stands or falls on its teachers and the head should be doing more to support them at HWS, not being in opposition to them.

Thanks for replying @Mediumred it’s good to get other parents experiences who are there. At the moment we’re surrounded by a lot of noise from people who’s kids don’t actually go to the school, so it’s really hard to get a grasp on what it’s really like and how the children experience it.

Following this as my daughter is in year 6 too and it would be our local school. The published GCSE results were much lower than Fortismere or APS, but I've heard of individuals doing well. It's the actual school experience I'm more interested in. My girl is quite small for her age and bookish and I think would do better in a smaller school but they don't exist at secondary.

Have you been for an open day @Reginaldperrin? HW is our closest school and I went hoping to like it, but didn’t like the atmosphere much. It’s very loud, very busy, and our dd has SEN, which is probably the biggest factor in why we went for another school. I also thought the range of subjects was disappointing in such a large school, and didn’t like that you could only do one MFL, and had no choice in which one. They seemed to have fantastic textiles and food tech departments but not much to offer a more academic kid. I also really didn’t like how everywhere we went there were kids outside classrooms working in silence facing the wall. It felt like they were struggling with behaviour by being very strict, and again, with a SEN kid, I felt she’d be crushed by that. I think it depends on your kid. I do know people who are happy there, but also parents who’ve moved out to get their gentler kids in somewhere else in year 8.

We went to the open evening last year @ApoodlecalledPenny but I’m thinking of attending a morning this time.

I know there’s not much that can be done but I just find it so frustrating, it feels like the school is letting local kids down. I know there’s a lot of kids tutoring at fortismere, but how come them and APs are able to get consistently better results?

I would definitely go while the kids are in if you can, you get a better sense of what the school is like.

Thanks for the advice @ApoodlecalledPenny , Ill definitely do that.
Does anyone know where I can access the GCSE results to compare school for this year?

Look on each of the school's websites. At HGW something like 51% of kids get 5 or more GCSEs at 5 and above, and 35% get grades 7-9, compared with something like 70% at APS and Fortismere and around 45% 7-9 which is a massive difference. 51% at 5 and above is not great at all and a lot of local schools do better. You're ok if you're got a confident, academic and studious child but it lets down kids who are bright but not hardworking, those in the middle really. A know quite a few parents whose kids did not achieve well at GCSE and a few others who did but were not happy and left after GCSEs and are now much happier. In my view it needs a change of leadership in order to become like APS and Fortismere.

Thanks so much @winterrabbit. Its just such a shame (I know I keep saying that!), but kids who really should be going to that school are ending up going elsewhere because parents want better for them. When I went to the open evening the head said he wasnt planning on going anywhere.

I really do feel like hes letting down his local community. It will be interesting to hear what he says about the GCSE results. Another thing he said when I went to the open evening, was that the previous years reduced results were the result of Covid.

Yes, I totally get it and have been in the same boat. As a parent you want to feel happy with the choice of school, not meh, which is how most people seem to feel about HGW. And it's also not fair as other people have great local options based on where they lived. Would have loved to have been in catchment for Fortismere or APS.

All the data for 2023 is on Compare Schools, a government website.

https://www.gov.uk/school-performance-tables

It’s worth looking at Progress 8 scores. These show the progress of each child from key stage 2 through to their GCSE results. A progress 8 of +1 means that each child gets one grade better in 8 GCSEs than would have been expected in their KS2 results.

Highgate Wood has average progress 8. Fortismere (+0.6) and APS (+ 1) do better, schools in Barnet tend to have a higher progress 8 too. Bishop Douglass takes children from a big area and has progress 8 of 0.9.

Thank you for explaining that so clearly @KewpieQp