I think the teaching staff are generally great. There's just a lack of overall framework and direction about communicating with parents, and some entrenched, ancient ways of doing things, like hand-written signs all over the place, dinner (and all) money handed over in brown envelopes (rather than parent pay), and a few defensive hags in the school office.
I'm in a quandary now whether to continue with the appeal for a move to our originally preferred schools. I'm sure he'd be happy just about anywhere at the moment, so we have to play the long game. MG could go on to be a brilliant school, and being on the small site is a real luxury these days in London. The other two schools are much bigger.
The school I originally really wanted him to go to is much more 'white middle class', has two choirs, and lots of his friends are going there. Meaning it's almost more for my benefit. It is an Ofsted 'outstanding', but its results aren't as good as MG. Golly.