Can anyone recommend a good sixth form college in SE London

[Lee Scoresby]

Can anyone recommend a good sixth form college in SE London ? Meaning a place where A-level academic work is done in a calm serious supportive environment, as distinct from some of the wo'ever/time-filler/dating-frenzy establishments around?

Christ the King in Lewisham has a good rep, for example, which may very well be richly deserved, I don't know. And that's the problem: good reps, as I've discovered about schools, sometimes float way above a less impressive reality. I would greatly appreciate hearing info and opinions from real human beings who have been thru this with their kids.

Also: Can someone recommend a good sixth form college anywhere in West Kent ? - in case we decide to flee the Smoke.

Genuine inquiry. After some crappy schooling, my child needs and deserves a real stepping stone to university. And a great many parents will understand that.

Apologies if this has long since come up on the EDF.

Lee Scoresby

[sillywoman]

Lee Scoresby Wrote:

> Genuine inquiry. After some crappy schooling, my

> child needs and deserves a real stepping stone to

> university. And a great many parents will

> understand that.

>

Am really hoping you get some good replies Lee. Am trying very hard not to ask, but I am compelled - where was the 'crappy schooling'? Gulp (crosses fingers and sends a prayer to the gods of good local schools).

[jollybaby]

Where in West Kent? There is a large sixth form college in Tonbridge - West Kent College. My sister, mother and several friends all went there for A -levels/ BTEC and seemed to enjoy it and came out with good grades. That was a few years ago though. . .

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

My daughter's decided to stay on at her school for sixth form, but we were both quite impressed with Crossways Sixth Form College (New Cross, nr Haberdashers) and she was accepted for a place there.

The teachers seemed really interested in the pupils and we witnessed first hand some quite strict disciplining going on. I don't think it's the most academic place in the world and our first impressions from approaching the place were 'gulp!'; but after going round and talking to lots of teachers, we left thinking it was a rather good establishment.

[womanofdulwich]

check out the latest school result tables too.

[new mother]

Would you think laterally and consider approaching a private school for a scholarship?

[Townleygreen]

What about trying those very good grammar schools down in Orpington (Bromley borough) - St Olave's (boys, takes girls in 6th form) and Newstead Wood - girls only? Harriet Harman got her son into St O's and she was living in Dulwich at the time.

[Huggers]

Askes (Hatcham), Prendergast, Graveney.

[BB100]

If you have a boy you could try the new Harris Boys sixth form. It's new and so have everything to prove and so will be doing everything not to fail.

[brezzo]

What's wrong with the Charter then? Knockout results at A level this year.

[sian]

SFX has an excellent record in getting Russell group university offers - challenge these days.

[sillywoman]

SFX????

[Townleygreen]

St Francis Xavier 6th form college between Clapham South and Balham is what I presume sian is talking about!

[Lee Scoresby]

Sincere thanx to those who have replied.

To be clear, we have been homeschooling my boy for several years now since he came out of school. It's fine, but I deeply resent having had to do so ("education, education, education", really ?), likewise what it costs us, as if it were some fey lifestyle choice.

sillywoman : it was Forest Hill Boys - my god, where to start ? constant violence, spitting etc in the playground and corridors - teachers evidently at the end of their tether - classes utterly disrupted by headbangers, no work done - a huge discipline machine which a) was just not working, b) was unable to admit this (so that specific incidents just 'disappeared'), and c) persecuted the good kids becoz this was just easier - big bullshit PR based round the (then) head which suckered us in - long story short, after the latest assault (by 6th formers, head held in a heavy swing door - culprits never found !) and one bullshit by-the-numbers reassurance by staff too many, we took him out - he was a mess by then - PS latest from Forest Hill - an African Church (thus parents and pupils) literally witch-hunting some poor boy - I kid you not (which century are we in, exactly !!!)

jollybaby : well, anywhere, potentially, coz we haven't fled yet - thanx for the recc.

Peckhamgatecrasher : actually, what my kid needs is respect, a calm environment and excellent teaching, not people yelling at him (which 'heavy discipline' seems to mean since the end of flogging, and I regard as child abuse) - I would like find a 6FC which saw itself as a junior university and the students as the young adults they are

womanofdulwich : thanx, but I don't trust results tables too much - I trust good WOM

new mother : do you mean persuading a private school to have him FREE for his last year ? - pls tell me how

Townleygreen : yeah, thinking along my own lines, thanx - but pls don't mention the deeply abominable Harriet Harman (If anyone wants to discuss this appalling MP with me, let's do it on another thread, what-what ?)

Huggers : thanx - he DESPERATELY wanted to go to Haberdashers - I must say, like everyone else, all we got from them from day one was SNOTTY ATTITUDE - Prendegast, I recall attending a parents' meeting there some years ago where the head mistress ranted for an hour about how DISCIPLINE applies to parents as well as kids - niiiiice - Graveney I will check

BB100 : I live near Harris Girls and, like the rest of the neighbourhood, suffer their 'yeah, whatever' approach to supervising their pupils - as to the Boys school, I remain outraged at the shitty Southwark "planning" process which permitted the destruction of the elegant and serviceable old building and its replacement by a monstrous block without any grounds, which lack, it is quite clearly intended, is to be remedied by this gimcrack institution colonising a chunk of Peckham Rye

brezzo : I guess we were kind of thinking of a (semi) free-standing 6FC, but we are really open minded

sian : thanx for that

I am aware that the accumulation of these specific remarks probably leaves the impression that I am, to quote another respondent in a faraway part of the EDF forest, "pissy and paranoic". Well, sorry if so. I guess I think the English put up silently with far too much crap, not least from shit institutions, not least from the half-arsed education system.

I am grateful for contributions and remarks, will follow up suggestions, and am still keen to hear about that groovy little 'junior uni' tucked into some quiet part of West Kent.

Lee Scorseby

[sian]

So sorry to hear about the awful time which your son has had. All best wishes

[sillywoman]

Holy Cow Lee scoresby! Bl*$dy well done for standing up for your boy & pulling him out. Would you consider coming to check out The Charter? We've got a couple there & though we have some anxieties over low homework levels they seem to be pretty good pastorally & both kids (very different) are being encouraged academically. Mine are only GCSE level so can't comment on 6th form though.

[BB100]

Oh dear, I'm sorry to hear of your family's bad experience. It must have been an awful time for you. However you do sound understandably bitter and twisted by the whole system and if you, as you say, have been home schooling for some years maybe need to take a fresh look at what is available for yourself. All I can add is that maybe you shouldn't write off Harris Boys based on your feelings about a building or the very differently run girls school. A friend of mine homeschooled her son during primary years becuase of similar issues and he is now very happy at HB because it's a very small school that is not full to capacity and have very very strict standards of discipline and behaviour and some highly experienced teachers. However, it sounds like you have set your heart on Kent........

[BB100]

Thinking about your desire to have school that treats boys like young men, what about Wallington Grammar? It's a train ride from Honor Oak station.

[Lee Scoresby]

Well, that's good. I logged in, expecting to be engulfed in accusations of pissiness, rank paranoia, racism, snobbery, terminal bourgeois wimpiness . . . So thanx for the kind words.

We did indeed consider schlepping outwards and SE'wards to where the grammar schools still roam free, and may yet do so. London careers and frail parents hold us here for the present. We've invested ourselves in homeschool, it's going well, and the present plan is to reinsert the beloved blighter into the system at 6th form - hence my original post.

About 'discipline' this and 'strict' that, as we have discovered, this all gets fetishised into a sort of post-beating culture of unpleasant and abusive behaviour by staff which doesn't even work. (And let's not even discuss that bogus bogus 'tough fathering' stuff). Real discipline is inherently connected to mutual respect and restraint, and forms a sort of silent backbone to a calm and happy learning environment.

Yeah, yeah, I know, where is that happening exactly . . ?

Several years ago on the EDF I mentioned my son's search for mates. Now I have briefly outlined his school experience. I wish to make it very clear that I remain naturally reluctant to air these family issues in public. "Woe is us" and "Look at our suffering" is absolutely not the point of these posts. Asking for the experience of others certainly is.

Regarding bitterness, anger, and so on, BB100, I believe, as I said, that there are things to be angry about - I don't think the English get angry enough often enough. I feel schools with slick PR operations covering a darker reality need to be talked about - as a service to other parents. But let me offer a basic distinction. I make the decision not to let it get to me and I don't, not at all - a compensation of middle age, no doubt.

There have certainly been EDF threads about schooling in the past - more will spring up. I know that threads can be re-routed, shall we say, if participators want to discuss something else. This is just to say, once more, I am most grateful for all your suggestions, but that maybe these other (important) discussions need other threads.

Lee Scorseby, as ever was

[duchessofdulwich]

I wonder what on earth is going on with the schooling in this area? there has been so many threads with poor parents stressing because they cant get the places they want. They say East Dulwich is "on the up" but are the schools?

We have two ends of the spectrum here Expensive selective private schools and state schools which clearly have issues that arent being addressed.

[duchessofdulwich]

I knew someone some years back who left forrest hill boys (due to the same reasons as you stated); and they managed to get a place at Ravenswood School in Bromley. How? I dont know maybe the system was different back then.

didnt harriet harmen want to scrap grammer schools/selective schools?

[sillywoman]

duchessofdulwich Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> I wonder what on earth is going on with the

> schooling in this area?

> We have two ends of the spectrum here Expensive

> selective private schools and state schools which

> clearly have issues that arent being addressed.

Hmmmm, I don't see it that way at all dod, The state secondaries around ED are in general pretty good, with people falling over themselves to get places in couple of them, & for good reason too.

Of course they can't do what private schools do. That particular utopia is a whole other thread. But with my experience limited to 3 years of The Charter, I would say it's very successful and actually does what it says it will - i.e. provides a good secondary education in a safe environment for local children. I haven't encountered any 'issues that aren't being addressed' there yet.

[duchessofdulwich]

Its good to hear people are trying to get their children into secondary schools in east dulwich. But isnt the charter school in west dulwich?

[sillywoman]

North Dulwich Station, so Herne Hill triangle really, but a goodly percentage of it's intake is from ED. Kingsdale (also super popular) is West Dulwich, maybe you're thinking of that one?

[westof]

Kingsdale has a new sixth form from this year - so has no reputation at all, as yet. If I'd had the OP's experiences I think that would make me nervous of it, for that fact alone.

But - being the first or second cohort of any new venture has a lot to be said of it, as they have a lot to prove & tend to pull all the stops out. I recall another poster saying that Kingsdale had delayed opening their sixth form until they were absolutely sure they were ready for it.

Maybe someone with children in the upper Kingsdale years could give you an idea of their pastoral care & the general atmosphere of the school?

I noticed from their website that a bunch of their sixth form puils have a fact-finding trip to Harvard & Yale in November, so they sound aspirational at least ;)