Dilemma about how to rank schools. please help

[mattH]

Hello,

My partner and myself have visited all the local schools for our son.

We live in Honor Oak Park.

Felix - son said he likes kilmorie - two children came across the nursery to hang out with him when we visited and all looked relaxed with each other. Lots of space, all the kids looked happy - the head - a sense of vagueness, underwhelmed me...

Rathfren's new head is passionate about giving children the skills and desire and confidence to learn. She is a self-assured head now running a top class school - other schools are consulting to follow their lead. All the teachers that I saw - all of them looked confident as teachers, calm classes attentive comprehending students,

Dalmain - has a fantastic provision for arts and music really great.

Gordonbrook seemed to be a mix of Rathfern and kilmorie

Brockley School was in special measures, new head, new staff, up and coming, great art provision... quite impressed

All good, our son will be fine at any of them. He would choose kilmorie, but I'm his dad and have to think of him over the next few years and his adjustment to secondary.

These schools are in Lewisham.

So question for you...

For those of you who want your children to be well adjusted, self confident and successful (as a street cleaner, scientist shop assistant, politician, gardener or whatever) (for me above all Happy).... do I go for the school my son has chosen or the one with the fantastic teaching team - maybe with less focus on all round learning.... or maybe another..

do i go with what my heart, head or guts tell me?

or what.....

any thoughts greatly appreciated...

[Fuschia]

I don't think I would base it on what he Preferred ... The things to consider go beyond how he would choose

I would go for the one yOU got the best feeling about

[mattH]

sensible. Thank you.

[chantelle]

Yes I would go with your gut. I live in HOP too and we have Stillness and Dalmain as our top choices. (our closest schools). I have heard some negatives on kilmorie though it's all hearsay so who knows. Rathfern and Brockley are getting good results but their histories and profile of students kept them off our list. I haven't visited them.

Good luck. The area is changing fast so all the schools should benefit.

[sillywoman]

If all other things are equal & your gut instinct is in confusion I'd go for the one closest to where you live so you can walk him to school. Your boy will be going to school with friends from surrounding streets - it gives children a real sense of ownership and a physical sense of community by the time they're 7 or 8 to be walking to school each day with their friends and friends parents.

Please feel free to ignore this advice though - I know that sort of thing isn't high on everyone's priority list and children can be happy in all sorts of school/travel environments :))

[Sanne Panne]

sillywoman Wrote:

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

> If all other things are equal & your gut instinct

> is in confusion I'd go for the one closest to

> where you live so you can walk him to school.

In good old Dutch style I think a 1-2km walk is no big deal and simply healthy for kids - who don't move nearly enough nowadays. But yes this can backfire when the weather is very bad and it does leave you a bit outside the immediate local community.

[simonethebeaver]

It's very unlikely you'll get into a school that's 1-2km from any good school round here. I would take a look if you haven't already at the Lewisham booklet on primary school applications. That will show you how far the furthest successful application was last year. Brockley will probably have greater distances as it has the worst reputation (currently) but others will have far smaller catchments.

[mattH]

All good points. It's very useful to have your thoughts.... I should have done all this a long time ago. It feels a very important decision, especially as my two sons are so different in Character, temperament and the way their intelligence expresses itself.

I guess i shouldn't worry so much - the majority of my confusion was and is about how to choose from 4 very good schools....

Each good in a different way..

I appreciate the time you've taken for replying..

Best,

Matthew

P.S. @ silly woman, you should change your EDF name. your not so silly.

[BB100]

Hi Matt,

As you say all the schools you mention have a lot going for them and are different in character. It gets really difficult to choose when they all are good or rapidly improving. I would agree with Sillywoman as well, walking to school and living near friends are a big bonus.

I wouldn't worry about Kilmorie though if that is what you want to go for. They have Robin Bosher the superhead from Fairlawn and the new head who started in September has already made some significant improvements - she has introduced the most robust and interesting phonics teaching I have seen anywhere and I have worked in many local schools. Some Heads are good salespeople and some are just good Heads. PM me if you want to know more.

[Coach Beth]

Agree with BB100. If you like the school and think there are signs of improvements, I would go with it. There is an energy about being part of a school that is 'on-the-up' and also, improving schools are more keen to get interested and concerned parents involved.

Personally, I value being part of my local school and the immediate community we live in. It's not about the walking distance , we walk everywhere as we don't drive. But, I will say that if you have to deal with a stubborn child (or two) in the morning who are being unwilling to get into your school uniform, don't underestimate the value of being under 10 minutes walk to your local school. It's not like nursery where you can pitch up 5 or more minutes late with no consquence. At our school anyway, they are very strict about timekeeping and the whistle will blow 5 minutes before 9am and the children will go in. If they are late, then their names go on a list and you will get spoken to if it happens repeatedly! If you drive (which we don't) you'll find that it's impossible to park near a school anyway so even if you have a car, it's not much help sometimes.

[mattH]

Thanks a lot for these replies, I'm feeling more settled about it now... I just had a conversation with a teacher - I'm quoting for work in his home and he told me the thing to look for in a school is the "contextual value added" score. He explained it as being a good indicator or how well the school is really doing with the particular intake of students it has...

Very interesting. Worth a bit of internet searching for more info me thinks.

[Fuschia]

You are right Matt, though the current gOvt is doing away with that as a measure of school success I

Favour of raw league tables

A detailed reading of a recent ofsted report should comment on the same data