What to think of an outstanding but undersubscribed school (Harris Battersea, London)? How common? Not good or demographics?

[PForParent]

I noticed that the Harris Academy in Battersea (Wandsworth, London) has been undersubscribed since 2023, and before then had one of the longest admission distances of the area (12 kms in 2022!)

The school was judged outstanding in 2018 and confirmed outstanding in 2023 https://reports.ofsted.gov.uk/provider/23/140985

How common is it to have an outstanding yet undersubscribed school?

We'll visit it, but we are a bit puzzled as we had always thought that outstanding schools in London are always oversubscribed.
We don't know any one with kids there but know a few people who have ruled it out.

So far the opinions heard for and against are (just reporting, doesn't mean I agree).

Against:

• Academy trusts know how to game the Ofsted inspections so the school isn't really outstanding
• It may be good academically but it's a tough environment and many families don't like that
• If it were truly outstanding then it wouldn't be undersubscribed

For:

• It's mostly demographics: the school is between very rich and very poor areas. Just north of the school are Battersea Park and the Battersea station redevelopment; those properties cost squillions and those living there either go private or don't have secondary school age kids.
• The Harris Academy has relatively standardised policies and methods
• Transport links aren't great and this puts off many families (the tube is almost a mile away, and buses take forever as the road is always congested)
• If the school were a mile north it would be in Chelsea and oversubscribed, but many Chelsea families are unlikely to cross the river and go south for schools

I found a 2018 article on the Spectator which is super-cringe https://archive.is/Sds6k
A posh mum wonders if she destroyed her daughter's prospects by sending her to Harris Battersea when all her friends were going to posh private school.
The article doesn't get into much detail, but basically says that academically the school seems good, but that the daughter doesn't fit in because she's wealthier than most other kids. Of course we'll never know to what extent this was because the other kids were mean, and to what extent because the daughter was acting too posh.

I think go to the school on open days and talk with the pupils - first of all they will pick the best pupils to do this, so if you aren’t impressed then, you won’t be at all!

Also I found on open days that kids don’t censor their answers to ask all the things you want to know. I remember asking one kid about how bad behaviour is dealt with and she gave an example of how a kid had bought a knife in last week and it was dealt with really swiftly. The thing is, she didn’t try and sugar coat and make it look like the school didn’t have issues.

Are the kids enthusiastic and proud of their school? What extra curriculars are in place? What do they think of their teachers? Is it a school that supports their learning?

All much better than how anything looks on paper. Except progress 8 scores - check those as it shows if the children broadly remain on a positive learning trajectory, no matter their base line on entry. I trust that far more than percentage of passes, as it takes in to consideration how far the kids have to go to even get to a pass.

Am South London with myriad Harris and hate them. They are ridiculously strict and basically learn by rote. We were very lucky that we managed to avoid for our DCs as Harris is the nearest secondary.

They game inspections and hire ex Ofsted inspectors to ensure they get outstanding but there’s a world of different between the Harris and secondary my DD goes to which is also Outstanding.

They tend to have high staff churn and don’t always employ qualified teachers to teach. I think where middle class parents have an alternative they won’t choose Harris

Harris academies are similar here in north London. We have two local outstanding schools, I didn’t like the focus on getting children through tests, the wider context seemed missing. I wasn’t impressed with the pastoral care either. I agree with the poster above, about people avoiding them where possible.

@Tiredalwaystired Also I found on open days that kids don’t censor their answers to ask all the things you want to know.

Interesting. My experience from the schools visited was actually the opposite - kids were giving very politically correct answers, and in fact I got the impression that they had been specifically coached on what to say and what to avoid.

@Fagli , @Phunkychicken As far as you know, would you say most Harris are similar, or are there meaningful differences from school to school?
Harris Battersea would not be our first choice, but we were thinking it probably makes sense to put an undersubscribed school as last option, otherwise I think there is the risk of ending up in an undersubscribed school we may like even.
less.

Are you familiar with schools like Micaela, Holland Park School, Mossbourne, Ashcroft, etc? Would you say Harris schools tend, in general, not to be as draconian as those?

FWIW, we liked Harris Wimbledon and are considering putting it down as 3rd or 4th choice.

Where I live, I would say Harris is on a par with Mossbourne.

@fagli Oh, wow... May I ask which specific Harris you have in mind?
In my area there is Ashcroft, which is pretty similar - it bans bicycles and gives detentions to students caught cycling to school!!

Kids being suspended for having 2 earrings /using a branded pe kit bag etc etc

yet results aren’t great. I think at least some of those on your list do get great results.

If it’s undersubscribed aren’t you likely to get it anyway even if you don’t choose it ? So choose ones you do want but accept you might end up there ? That’s a chance you may get one of your choices, if it’s on your list and others above it are over subscribed you’ll definitely get it

@Phunkychicken places for oversubscribed schools are allocated based on the published criteria, they don’t look at whether you’ve put an undersubscribed school further down on the list (sorry if that’s not what you meant, but that’s how it read).

Some central London areas have seen significant falls in population in the relevant age groups so that may be affecting admissions. At least that's true of Elephant & Castle so could well be true of Battersea.

I'm not a big fan of Harris schools but the individual head teacher does make a difference and they do spend on the buildings.

@Phunkychicken If it’s undersubscribed aren’t you likely to get it anyway even if you don’t choose it ?

Well, if it remains undersubscribed then I had better use the 6th slot for another option. The whole point is that if it becomes oversubscribed and I don't put it as an option, we risk being accepted at a school we live even less.

@Needlenardlenoo Yes, of course the big question is why that school is undersubscribed while others nearby are not.
That school is in Wandsworth but close to the borough of Lambeth.

Lambeth has even more undersubscribed schools:

https://www.lambeth.gov.uk/schools-and-education/school-admissions-and-appeals/secondary-school-admissions/how-offers-were-made-lambeth-secondary-schools-national-offer-day-3-march-2025

Why is that? Quality or demographics?

Ark Evelyn, City Heights, Harris Clapham, Nautical school, Platanos, Saint Gabriel and Trinity were all undersubscribed. That's a lot!

They’re undersubscribed because of depopulation, surely. So more people can get their children a place in the better schools.

We have lots of Harris schools. I don’t like them, they seem to select via the back door via offrolling. I don’t mind academic selection but be upfront about it.

@PForParent "The school was judged outstanding in 2018 and confirmed outstanding in 2023"

This is significant, because it means it was judged outstanding under 2 very different Ofsted frameworks.

The framework changed in September 2019. Before that, schools could only get Grade 1 if they had outstanding progress results (using P8 which benchmarks key stage 4 GCSE attainment relative to key stage 2 SATs attainment). It shot many undersubscribed schools in the foot, because they get so many students drifting in and out, often children who have struggled at other schools. The framework was also criticised for focussing on results rather than curriculum quality.

Amanda Spielman's 2019 framework de-coupled Ofsted gradings from exam results (though results can still be looked up online). It focuses on Quality of Education, Behaviour and Attitudes, Personal Development, and Leadership and Management. Inspectors ask teachers to explain their curriculum - why is A taught before B, etc - and check the children's understanding.

In England, 80% of secondary schools are now academies, so anyone who claims they are all "gaming" Ofsted is deluded. Any good school leadership team would make sure its staff were well prepared for whatever Ofsted regime is in place (bearing in mind it changes with every Ofsted Chief). It would be financial and reputational suicide not to.

If this Harris academy is undersubscribed it isn't because of the results, so is likely to be because its rules and discipline are not wanted by many families, especially for the sort of kids who usually tend to drift into undersubscribed schools.

@saywotulike If this Harris academy is undersubscribed it isn't because of the results, so is likely to be because its rules and discipline are not wanted by many families, especially for the sort of kids who usually tend to drift into undersubscribed schools.

That is only one of the many possible explanations.
Note that other, stricter schools in the borough are oversubscribed (Ashcroft, which gives you a detention if you ride to school - that's not strict but simply lunatic).

I would also note that Ofsted has a history of not recognising safeguarding issues, and judging outstanding schools where emotional abuse was rampant (Holland Park School in West London, Mossbourne in East London, etc).
So I'd take their ratings with a truckload of salt.

Other possible explanations are to do with demographics, and range from there not being enough kids in the vicinity, to local families not wanting their little Johnny and little Beatrix to go there if they perceive the environment as too rough (see the cringey Spectator article, even if it was from a few years ago)

@PForParent "I would also note that Ofsted has a history of not recognising safeguarding issues"

Inspections take 2 days, so will never pick up everything. They check that schools have correct procedures in place, in line with DfE guidance, and that they appear to be following them. DfE guidance does evolve over time, often in response to specific events.

"and judging outstanding schools where emotional abuse was rampant (Holland Park School in West London, Mossbourne in East London, etc)."

Emotional abuse has been alleged by some parents. If it's true, then presumably it wasn't on display at the 2 day Ofsted visit. It probably won't be on display when you visit schools either.

Ofsted reports are just one benchmark of many. Parents' feedback will also be skewed by their own experiences. What do the Ofsted ParentView stats say? If there are high numbers of positive responses it might at least reassure you that there is an engaged cohort of parents who do support the school.

My educated guess as a former resident of Battersea many many years ago would be that the Doddington estate is right by the school. That was notorious in the early 1980's. Nobody wanted to live there. What used to be called a sink estate back then. Billions have been spent there since to try and improve life for the tenants. I was living at the southern end of Battersea near falcon road at the time and the doddington was most definitely where no one wanted to live. Of course since then Battersea has become far more desirable/gentrified/unaffordable and the divide between the home owners and council/HA tenants even greater than it was 40 years ago. I would expect that's why it's undersubscribed. Some internet research on the local estates will likely back this up.

it doesn't mean it's not a good school but historically I would suspect many local parents who wanted more for their DC would have done their utmost to get them into another school with a better catchment area to hopefully give them better opportunities and a wider outlook on life.

@CrotchetyQuaver thank you, that's useful to know.

@saywotulike i don't want to serial this thread, because there is already a very long thread on Mossbourne, where every possible opinion has been dissected.
But it's important to clarify that it's not like some parents have alleged emotional abuse.

At Holland Park, emotional abuse was confirmed by an enquiry. The resulting uproar prompted Ofsted to reinspect the school and fail it. Ofsted covered their backs saying that it deteriorated since their last, outstanding, inspection. The head retired. The school was assigned to a different trust. No one was held accountable, no one was investigated, no one was fined, no one was barred from teaching.

For Mossbourne, ca 300 people, among current and former pupils, parents and teachers have come forward. You can dismiss 2-3 people as disgruntled, bad faith actors. But 300?
Some families wrote a letter defending the school. But they didn't deny the allegations. Their implication was that it didn't happen to their child and don't care if it happened to others. Which is like saying that I don't care if our boss abused you because he didn't abuse me.

That's why I think Ofsted inspections mean very, very, very little.

That's fine - you've clearly been following the Mossbourne story much more closely than me as I only saw the original headlines and didn't know they'd been re-inspected.

Are you interested in Harris Battersea as a prospective parent, or in some other capacity?

Holland Park was reinspected, failed, and given to a different academy trust.

Mossbourne has not been reinspected (yet).

I am interested in Harris Battersea as a parent.

We'll be applying in Oct 2025 to start Y7 in Sept 2026

Since no school is a slam dunk, I was thinking we should probably use the 6th option as a "safe choice" just in case we don't get accepted anywhere else.

Ark Putney, Southfields Academy, Harris Battersea and Harris Clapham are all undersubscribed.
Harris Battersea is the only outstanding one among these, which seemed weird.
Like I said, I don't value Ofsted inspections that much, but most families do.

Well if you are like me @PForParent - you will be looking for schools that value their parent group and get them actively involved, in a positive way. That is where things are heading in the successful schools. It is no longer the school, the kids and Ofsted. It has to include the parents’ views and their contribution a their help, not least because successive Governments are underfunding schools and they need all the help they can get.

@Araminta1003 any suggestions on how to learn more on the point you make?

It seems that many Harris schools have a "my way or the highway" attitude, but I don't know specifically about Harris Battersea and Harris Clapham.

Plus there's also the fact that sometimes very "engaged" parents can defend practices I deem abhorrent, like the parents who defend Mossbourne (without denying the allegations).

@PForParent - you need to know people with children there who share similar values to you, you need to have some understanding on how the school is governed etc. and what management is like and how they treat staff as well as parents. For most people, if they are using local schools, they will have that insight via local friendships.