Haberdasher?s primary school feedback please

[midivydale]

Hi there, I was wondering if there are any current parents of Haberdashers primary school (or indeed free school) that could give me some feedback please? Positive as well negative, any thoughts or opinions would be greatly received. I am particularly interested in thoughts and opinions on pastoral care. Many Thanks in advance

PS I know all about small catchments etc so need to comment to that effect. Thanks

[monniemae]

Hi, do you mean just the free school, or both? We live on the same street as the non-free school, going to look round this week. The kids look really happy though I've no direct experience.

A couple of friends have kids who started last term at the free school and are so far extremely happy with the school

[midivydale]

Hi Monniemae, Thank you so much. We will be looking as well this week. I am interested in both the free school and non free school. Many Thanks for your reply

[nikki73]

My daughter was in reception at the camplin Street school last year. It's a great school. She was very very happy and learnt a lot. She'd be waiting at the door in the morning to go to school. There was a real buzz after they moved back to the camplin site and pride to be part of it. It's quite strict and very focused on literacy but there's also an emphasis on music as the kids get older. The staff really care about the kids. And they teach the kids to care about each other. Older children help with learning etc.Communications with parents could be better but if we were to move back to London I'd definitely be wanting my daughters to go back to htg.

[midivydale]

Thanks Nikki, very helpful.

[ang]

My kids also go to HTG on Camplin Street and I would second Nikki's comments. I also feel that there has been an improvement in pastoral care since the new head started some months ago (previously she was the deputy head). The school just feels a bit more relaxed and it benefits from that

Overall it feels like a very positive place with a strong focus on education.

[Ellie78]

Hey midivydale - did you go to the open day. I really liked the head of the FS (new). I love the emphasis on languages. But I didn't like the focus on results results results....But I guess this is what so many people look for.

Btw - not tiny catchment at 790m last year. Obviously this will change with more siblings coming to the school....

[monniemae]

Hi Ellie78 - I think it was only 2nd year of admissions for the free school - I'd expect the catchment to shrink v quickly as has happened with other new/free schools in south east london. Siblings, yes, but also people becoming more confident about taking a chance on a newish school.

Though there are quite a lot of good schools in that area so might never be as tiny as some

[midivydale]

Hm the results results results does worry me slightly. They are so very little!! Thank you all for feedback.

Any parents of "high spirited" boys at the school?

[lstickler]

My son is in yr 1 of the free school and we are very happy with it. My son isn't particularly academic and is more interested in sports/running around/being silly. I was worried that the school might be a bit strict and that it might be too focused on academic stuff rather than creativity however I think it's pretty balanced and if anything it has definitely calmed him down and made him more mature/responsible. He loves it and we're happy too. However i was surprised at how much home work there is (I have no experience of other schools so perhaps it's the same as everywhere) although I guess homework is optional...

[Ellie78]

Monniemae- out of interest, what schools do you mean, and how much did they shrink in 1 year?

We are less than 450m away from the school but I do wonder if we would get a place.