Westwood College to become an Academy?
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Ok, went to the 'open morning' earlier on today. It wasn't exactly 'open' - we were told not to go into the classrooms, not to talk to the pupils or disturb their lessons! Isn't this what is suppose to happen on open days?
The principal 's talk was very good - she clearly has plans to turn this school around. She has an old fashioned, no-nonsense approach but combined with all the new technology of today.
She said that parents need to list the academy at the top of the CAF or very near the top. This is not what Bexley council says. She also said that other Harris academies have approx 2000 kids competing for 180 places. Good sales pitch.
We were told to have a quick look around but as the school is going to be renewed there really isn't much point. She told us to be off-site at 10.30 due to h & s reasons - it was 10.05 at the time and she's just finished her pitch.
Not much of a welcome was given but I did like her no-nonsense approach.
I found her office and talked to her on a one-to one basis. I was interested in the banding.
She says that it is not a pass/fail nvr test but purely so that the academy can take an equal amount of children across the spectrum. Fair enough. She wants to give the grammars a run for their money. But I said the catchment area of BGS is approx 2.9 miles, Harris' would be 1.75 miles for the inner area.
What parent in the next 2 years will pass on a grammar place to put their child into the existing academic conditions? That's a lot of trust to put into a school that you don't know.
Surely, when competing with a grammar school the only way at present to obtain the higher ability children is to widen the catchment for the top bands. She said that she wouldn't need to do this as they would be able to take a variety of children from the Greenwich borough. I again said that these same children sit the Bexley test and gain places normally in BGS.
To summarise I think that for the next 2/3 years there will be a reasonable chance of the catchment area coming out more than 1.75 miles for most bands. BUT as this school improves the catchment will shrink considerably.
Final point: no preference for siblings.
The principal 's talk was very good - she clearly has plans to turn this school around. She has an old fashioned, no-nonsense approach but combined with all the new technology of today.
She said that parents need to list the academy at the top of the CAF or very near the top. This is not what Bexley council says. She also said that other Harris academies have approx 2000 kids competing for 180 places. Good sales pitch.
We were told to have a quick look around but as the school is going to be renewed there really isn't much point. She told us to be off-site at 10.30 due to h & s reasons - it was 10.05 at the time and she's just finished her pitch.
Not much of a welcome was given but I did like her no-nonsense approach.
I found her office and talked to her on a one-to one basis. I was interested in the banding.
She says that it is not a pass/fail nvr test but purely so that the academy can take an equal amount of children across the spectrum. Fair enough. She wants to give the grammars a run for their money. But I said the catchment area of BGS is approx 2.9 miles, Harris' would be 1.75 miles for the inner area.
What parent in the next 2 years will pass on a grammar place to put their child into the existing academic conditions? That's a lot of trust to put into a school that you don't know.
Surely, when competing with a grammar school the only way at present to obtain the higher ability children is to widen the catchment for the top bands. She said that she wouldn't need to do this as they would be able to take a variety of children from the Greenwich borough. I again said that these same children sit the Bexley test and gain places normally in BGS.
To summarise I think that for the next 2/3 years there will be a reasonable chance of the catchment area coming out more than 1.75 miles for most bands. BUT as this school improves the catchment will shrink considerably.
Final point: no preference for siblings.
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Bexley Mum 2
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