City of London Academy (COLA) Shoreditch Park

[Afrokimmy]

My child has just been offered a place
at City of London Academy Shoreditch
Park, but he's feeling quite nervous
since none of his friends are going there and he's going to have to travel alone.

He has asked me to reject the
offer, and as a parent, I want to make
the best decision for him as he is a very bright and intellectual child with excellent grades.

I'd really appreciate your views about the school-both academically and socially.
His preferred school was Mossbourne
mainly because of his keen interest
in basketball and the potential to
secure a basketball scholarship. Should I reject this offer and make an appeal for Mossbourne? Has anyone gone through the appeal process?

Academically, I want to ensure he's in an
environment that supports both his
education and his passion for sports. As a mum, I also understand his anxiety about being alone.

Looking forward to your thoughts, and
thanks in advance!

Super-worried mum.

I'm a bit confused. Was Mossbourne one of your preferences?
Either way don't reject the offer. You can still appeal for any schools you are on the waiting list for, whether you are holding an offer for another school or not makes no difference to the appeal. So you can accept the offered school and appeal for Mossbourne (assuming it was one of your preferences and you are now on the waiting list for it). If you didn't originally rank Mossbourne higher than COLA Shoreditch, you can still accept COLA and asked to be added to the waiting list for Mossbourne and then appeal.
It's also worth trying to find out where you are ok waiting lists since they often move around a lot in London.

Yes agree, please accept the place offered. If you reject it, the LA is under no obligation to offer you another place, so unless you are happy to HE or go private, accept it. Doing so will not harm you chance of an appeal or stop you going on waiting lists.

Was this school on your preference list? If not, are there nearer schools that were and that you were rejected for? Did you apply to your catchment or closest school?

You can appeal for any school you listed and go on waiting lists of any you would prefer – so if there is a school locally you didn't list but that you might get into on a WL place and be happier with, ask to go on the WL. I imagine there is a lot of movement in London between now and September.

Meanwhile talk up the offered school and what is great about it. He won't be alone and IME primary friends are quickly replaced at secondary.

ETA: there are lots of threads on here about appeals so look at some of those for ideas of what to focus on. But his passion for sport and the sport offer at his preferred school would be a good start.

I was in exact same position last year with my DC. I was very upset and annoyed but in the end accepted the place at COLASP, got a place at Mossbourn dueing the winter term and rejected it as my DC would not hear of moving.

Are you aware of what's going on at Mossbourne? It's a tough place, not all kids can cope with it. They practice 3 hour detentions, Saturday detentions, isolations. Teachers screaming at kids. It's a good school academically but not good in terms of mental wellbeing and happiness.

COLASP is a good school, just been rated Outstanding. It's also very strict but not as bad as Mossbourne VP. The head is great, and I like the teachers.

I suggest you accept the place and apply for in year transfer. Places at Mossbourne always come up as a lot of kids leave because they can't cope so you might get a place even in August/ September. But you might actually like COLASP like we did!

Yes, Mossbourne was our first choice.

Thanks a lot for sharing this. Really great to hear from someone in COLASP. I already rejected the offer, not sure what to do now.

Oh dear. Can you retract your rejection I wonder? What are you going to do as your DS now has no school place? Did the LA make any other offer?

I gently suggest you rethink re: rejection. Unless you want to homeschool your DC until there is a place at Mossbourne? Have you talked to Hackney Education? They can explain to you how the system works. Also, you can appeal - have you considered that?

You can also apply to other schools if you really don't want your DC to go to Shoreditch school - maybe more local ones like City Hackney or Cardinal Pole or Urswick?

I would strongly advise you to look into the controversy that has arisen at the Mossbourne Academies, including numerous credible allegations of abuse, before making any decisions.

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2025/mar/02/pupils-uk-schools-academy-essex-mossbourne

My son got a place at Shorditch Park, we had wanted central foundation boys, but after looking into the offer we saw it's out performing EVERY local school, we are in Islington and have loads of Outstanding schools, but shorditch park is out doing them all. The head went to Cambridge university and is of the mind that every child deserves the best standard of education private or state.

I panicked at first as we had put it third or fourth, we had heard it was great but hadn't looked much into it. We did lots of research fast!! And can honestly say if Central Boys Foundation come back with an offer we wouldn't take it.

I don't know if theres any way you can undo the rejection? Because t won't stop you child getting offered a place at a preferred school if something opens up. It's just a safety net in case you aren't offered your preferred choice.

It's likely that a place might open up, especially if you preferred Mossbourne because the allegations were not public knowledge when parents made their school preferences, and i can imagine a lot of parents regret putting it first.

We are now over the moon, our son doesn't know anyone either, but while he's a little afraid he is excited to meet new people, if he was really worried it would be a harder choice, so i understand. Usually it's the idea, like anything in life, the reality is rarely as bad as the fears we have.

Hi OP. We know several families with children at COLA SP and they are all happy and thriving. Can you phone Hackney Education and keep your offer. My DS didn't get Mossbourne either and in hindsight he is happy given what's going on and now we know what the culture is really like. Also COLA results are great, academically it's in line with MCA as far as I know.

Luckily, there's an option to change the response. I wrote Hackney Education and my initial rejection has been amended to acceptance. Thanks to this wonderful community

The offer has been accepted, thank you. I am so happy my son got such a great school. Thank goodness my 'mum moment' didn't result in him losing this amazing offer.
I also reached out to a few COLASP alumni on LinkedIn and I got great feedback too.
We are definitely in a happier place.

Fist bump 'co-Y7 COLASP mum'.
Coincidentally, Central Boys Foundation school was my son’s 2nd most preferred school. Thanks a lot for sharing this and helping with alleviating my fears.We are both looking forward to Y7 now.

Thanks for sharing this. I have also read quite a bit online. We have decided to go with COLASP 100%

I’m so pleased you managed to sort thus out. I’m sure our children won’t be the only ones who don’t know anyone. Let your DC know he’s not on his own in that experience.

It’s such a stressful situation applying for schools, and I totally relate to the initial reaction. I knew very little about the school, basically we knew nothing and got quite worried. So we just started researching immediately! We looked up grading results, saw they out performed all the super sought after schools. For example theres a big thing about sending your child to SMMA in Islington, and Central Foundation boys again considered one of the best, and several others too, but Shorditch Park is out doing all of them! We were a bit taken back by this as it just wasn’t on our radar, and now I’m not sure why… We just put it down as an option because I had remembered hearing it was good a few years back. Then we looked up the Ofsted report online and discovered the school has just been rated outstanding in every area. So from there we spoke to people we knew who had kids there. And all feedback is fantastic. They are strict but not crazy strict, and the kids seem to be super proud and happy there.

Often it’s easy to miss a school because it’s rating isn’t outstanding, that’s our story for sure. Now they are rated outstanding I can imagine Shorditch Park will become very popular over the next couple of years. So we’ve got in and a good moment. When we might miss out in later years.

Anyway, I’m glad you got it sorted out and your DC can enjoy the rest of his time in junior school knowing he has a great secondary waiting for him.

I came here to read experience of other hackney schools because my dc is pleading to leave mossbourne. I wont go into detail but truly, all that glitters is not gold.

Wow! So sorry to hear that. There's so much negative feedback. The kids must be going through quite a lot....

We had a child at private school for part of his early education, there’s a well known thread on here about the school itself, but online advertising etc, it looks perfect. It was terrible, hot housing was intense, we got him out asap. So I really understand your position. Once we did and he settled into his new state school he flourished. I hope you’re able to make the changes needed.

Playing school basketball is not going to help get a scholarship. He needs to be playing national league premier level and then head to an elite UK academy at 16 of which COLA have one. They also have excellent boys basketball teams and play national league but are based out of their southwark site. Does he play NBL currently?

Oh my days!!!
COLASP, here we come....
Thanks for this fantastic information.
I can't believe that I almost threw this opportunity away.
He's keen on basketball and has been self-training in the basketball court near our home and with our local leisure centre team.
Any idea on how to get him into a national league premier level team?

ForLemonTraybake, you're not alone in terms of Mossbourne. There's another thread about how the Mossbourne schools are being formally investigated. Alongside ColaSP, Bridge and Haggerston are worth a look. Lots transfer out of Mossbourne to go there.

I would look at the basketball england website as they have lots of links about how to find a club. AT the moment I will leave aside COLA as they don't run U12 programmes (and are based out of south London) so maybe the first instance is to find a club in north London that has an U12 programme. The standard of U14 Premier level is ridiculously high in London so maybe an U12 programme is the best first step as he has never done any formal training (and has no doubt development bad habits) or a team who run both a premier and conference U14 team (as the conference team is usually U13's).

I know Hackney Wolves, BAD Thunder, Newham Youngbloods, London All stars are all fairly local but the issue is the basketball season is about 2 weeks away from ending. There will be trials for next seasons teams coming up so contact the clubs you might want to attend and ask them to let you know when trials are - they may also run pay as you play sessions once the season is over which might be a good intro.

Hello, sorry to revive this old thread. I started my own but didn't get any responses. My dd1 is looking to move schools (will be starting year 10 in September). There aren't many options locally so we are looking slightly further afield. Hackney Council has said this school has a space and on paper it looks really good but I don't know much about it and can't find any threads mentioning it other than this one. So just wondering if you're all still happy with the school and whether you have any more insight as to what it is that makes this a good school.

In particular what does very strict look like in practice?

Why do you think this school flies so far under the radar? Is it simply because it is new school and it takes time to establish a reputation or is there more to it?

Any and all thoughts you'd like to share would be gratefully received

My child is starting in September so we don’t have a lot of experience to share. Other than our visits.

The children are really well behaved. They have a great system for handling disruptions. Where all children are taken care of.

They aren’t allowed to talk in the halls. It creates less bullying.

my son is looking forward to it. It’s run with the energy of a private school. And the building is great, designed with the children in mind. Very modern.

The year 7s are doing PGL just a month into starting, to help them make friends. So it’s well funded.

It’s out performing all local schools. But until we actually start this is all I can share.

Also regarding not much online about it. I’m guessing it’s because it’s so new.

Its just been upgraded to outstanding too.

The general conversation is very positive. So it’s slowly building a reputation. Yes it’s strict. No phones, no talking in the halls. Detentions for rudeness. I think there’s a lot to remember as a new kid starting. It’s got a very peaceful vibe.