Holland Park School for Secondary School

[Cmumlond]

Does anyone on here have a child or children in secondary school at Holland Park School? If so, how are you finding it? I know there have been a lot of dramas. Have things calmed down and improved? If you google the school a lot of scary articles come up. We are looking for an academically strong state school with a great art department and HP seems to have that, but is it a happy place?

I don't think this school exist in a shape as it used to before. It was shut down and merged with another trust and is now academy.
Well, the whole reason why it was shut was that it wasn't happy place at all....

Bumping

My two children attend HPS they are in Year 7 and 9. I am really happy with the school so far. Both of my children are excelling and doing very well. They are both high achieving students so are in top sets for everything. Yes there were lots of stories about the school when we initially applied but it's been fine. No school is perfect.

Thank you for your insight. Greatly appreciated. Are they also stretching the middle attainers to achieve top marks ? Are the sets fixes or can a child move up ( I’m concerned that some kids because of the catchment come from private primary schools and/or have tutors and fill the top set not leaving much place for a child who’s good academically but who might have less advantages outside of school. Thank you again for any insights you might have.

Yes they do stretch the middle attainers to achieve. At Year 7 all classes are initially mixed ability as they retest the children all over again when they start Year 7 and are then put in their correct sets after the October half term.
For the banding test I would also advise for your child to prep for verbal and non verbal reasoning as this will come up.
I think children can move easily move sets if they have space.