Wimbledon High

[concernparent5]

My daughter just started at Year 7 at WHS and there are 130 girls for year 7, 5 classes of 26 girls. The class teachers dont communicate very well as the teachers from my daugther's previous school. I am unsure what to do anymore as the communciation is very poor

Don’t communicate well with who? The parents, the teachers or the other classes? This is a bit of a random jumble of facts so it’s not clear from your communication what the problem is or what you’ve already done that makes you unsure of what to do next?

What do you mean by communicate well? Do you mean they don't teach in the same style as her primary school or is it more about emails etc?

It's still very early days, it takes a good few months to settle in a new school. Perhaps write to her form tutor to ask for a meeting or phone call to discuss your worries and they'll be able to put some support in for her.

My DD is also in the school and the pastoral care from them has been outstanding. They really do care and they'll want to know if your daughter is unhappy.

Also have a DD higher up the school.

What communication problems do you mean as hard to offer advice otherwise?
Is it just a case of Y7 being different to a cosy primary school?

Have always found class tutors and head of year etc very responsive to any issues.

Sounds as though the Y7 WhatsApp chat is fun!

We have commnicated to the teachers about certain issues. They have not communicated despite responding to the initial email and then nothing for the last 2 weeks. We have since communicated again and nothing.

We have found them not to be responsive so you been lucky to have responses.

It sounds as though you started emailing teachers within a day or two of them starting as they've only been back 3 weeks. I'd just ask her form tutor to give you a quick call. Not sure if you've been emailing form tutor or subject teachers?

This is a bit unclear.

What issues did you raise, and what sort of response were you expecting?

If your daughter has major problems at school and is not coping, then they should be more responsive.

If you are raising quite minor issues, or asking questions that have been covered by emails/the website, or you are wanting regular updates then it’s not surprising they are unresponsive.

I don’t think you should be specific on issues since you could show MN whose kids in that school who your DC may be.

As others have said, your messages are rather unclear as to what is the concern. In case useful, worth noting that class teachers usually don't communicate with parents unless there are very specific issues and the school (rightly in my view) encourages the engagement to be via form
tutors as they can consider the issue in a more holistic manner. That is very clearly communicated to both parents and students. Also, students are expected to take the lead in most of the communications - eg, homework issues, learning challenges, etc. it is rather different to primary not by accident but by design.

Our experience, having joined in Y7 last year, has been very positive with tutors and other staff being very responsive, including responding out of school hours when appropriate, and proactively engaging too. Other people in our parents' group in our year had similarly positive experiences.

Sorry to change the subject but Please can you give advice on the year 7 entrance exams - verbal and non verbal reasoning? Which have been the best practice papers? Thanks!

It has been 2 weeks and communication is poor , its on and off

This year is a bulge year, we did not know there would be 5 classes and it seems the school is unable to cope. that is the issue I see

Overall, I feel disappointed with WHS, class sizes, communication is poor. It does feel they dont care about the kids

The class size is the same as other years - 25/26 per class. The school was very open, including at offer holders day, that they were considering a bulge year (which they do every so often and has not been previously an issue).

Still not clear what the issue is - you refer to communication being on and off. As others have said, the school will not be sending periodic updates as in a primary school and the girls lead on communication with teachers.

if you have a specific issue, the usual route is tutor and head of year. I obviously don't know which tutor your daughter has but as for the head of year, our experience has been really positive.

We applied for WHS at the same time as you (did not go there in the end) and we were aware all the way through that it would be a 5 form entry in 2024. I recall that the WHS admissions webpage said something like “Every few years we can take an additional class and 2024 will be one of those years”. It was very clearly planned as a 5 form entry, rather than a bulge year due to over offering.

It seems like you missed this which, to be honest, makes me wonder if your issue with school communications is more about you not reading communications fully?

Class sizes are the same as their competitor schools as far as I am aware. Yes they are not small but with a highly academic intake, they don’t need to be.

There are not enough teachers and communication is poor with the bulge year. There is a problem. You seem to overglossing the issues

@concernparent5 Not sure who your addressing the comment to or what you mean by "overglossing". Different posters have provided comments based on their experience (of this and other schools) as well as advice on managing expectations, as well as questioning, with good reason, your comments about your previous lack of awareness on the number of students per class and size of the year.
More generally, after several posts, it is still unclear what the issue is and your messages are confusing to say the least, e.g. you refer to not having enough teachers when quite clearly the school has tutors for all their forms and teachers for all the sessions, you mention in the same stretch the school is not communicating despite referring to the fact that they responded,.... Worth reflecting on whether you have engaged with the school in the right manner (both reading and assimilating the information provided, using the appropriate channels in a proportionate manner and using escalation from form tutor to head of year as appropriate and considering the role of students vs parents in secondary school). Not sure what else can be said on the matter, beyond this generic advice.
Our experience of the school has been really positive both in term of responsiveness and quality of engagement) and we know many families across the school with similarly positive experience, including quite a few in your year.

All of your posts say that communication is poor but when people ask you what you mean by this, you are not giving any detail. What are you struggling with regarding the school?

A couple of us on this thread are current parents, my daughter is in her 6th year at the school. It's hard to advise you when you don't give any detail.