William Perkin High School

[coffeeandfags99]

Does anyone have any experience of this school? We are nearby to it in Greenford. Wondering if it would be a better place than the school we put them in some desperation earlier this year as an in year placement. It's only a month in but they have struggled a bit socially and I am wondering if it would be a better fit.

Hi, William Perkin is part of the Twyford Academies Trust. Their four schools are really over-subscribed in Ealing and veyr popular choices for parents that live here. William Perkin gets really good grades for a non-selective state school. The Trust overall had the highest progression score in the country last year (2023). Academically it's a great choice.

However their academic results are likely because they set everyone for every subject from the start of year 7. Sets are flexible, you can go up as well down. The lower sets are the smallest. What a lot of people have said is that the lower sets contain both the academically struggling kids and the kids with poor behaviour so if you're in set 7 or 6 out of 8, the lessons are all behavioural managment and not much teaching.

There's a strict behavioural policy. I would say one of the stricter ones within the trust with some rules like no talking the corridors and no "loitering". I personally feel that they do sacrifice some aspects of fun/freedom for their results but that's the same for most well performing academies.

There's lots of extra-curricular stuff kids can get into, as much as if not more compared to the smaller independent schools.

I think the kids who really enjoy William Perkin are academically able kids who can get into the top sets and make the most of all the activities.

I agree with the PP above, it’s a great school, but it’s also worth mentioning that it’s a Church of England school. You don’t need to be religious to get in but it is very churchy once you are there so if you object to that you might want to look elsewhere.

Also all of the Twyford schools are strict on phones. Students are not allowed smart phones - even switched off in their bags.