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Schools in Stafford - Discussions & opinions
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proactive
Enjoying a drop of red.
Come here and say that
Kids are kids yes, but sometimes it does depend on the background, or the parents.
Not saying anymore don't really want to cause any offense!
But my point was schools can't help what kids are around / in the area.
As it's normally the closest one they go too.
If you want to see.. err some action.. go westway shops at school close time.. on the academic point of view, the most important, there's lot of reports you can find online, last time I looked they're all rather similar anyhow.
Not saying anymore don't really want to cause any offense!
But my point was schools can't help what kids are around / in the area.
As it's normally the closest one they go too.
If you want to see.. err some action.. go westway shops at school close time.. on the academic point of view, the most important, there's lot of reports you can find online, last time I looked they're all rather similar anyhow.
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zebidee
Well-Known Forumite
littleme
250,000th poster!
Ofsted Report says it all *really - inadequate....Thread revival!
Hey fellow forumites I'm looking for current experiences and opinions of King Eddies pleaseeldest spawn has been allocated a place there come September and I am woefully uninformed about the place having not even visited during open evening season. Feel free to reply here or pm me if you prefer public anonymity!
King Edward VI High School
Unique Reference Number (URN): 124445
Overall effectivenessInadequate
Westway
Stafford
Staffordshire
ST17 9YJ
Telephone number: 01785258546
Fax number: 01785224231
https://reports.ofsted.gov.uk/inspection-reports/find-inspection-report/provider/ELS/112444
*I actually have no idea, idle gossip has it that King Eddies is crap, however I dont know anyone with children there (a relative worked there teaching a few years ago & had the same opinion).....minime is at Balfour where the first rule of fight-club is 'dont worry, no-one can see you fight as the drive is a *mile* long'!
Withnail
Well-Known Forumite
King Eddies gets a bit of a bad rap because of its location that is only partially deserved. Quite apart from the fact that there are actually quite a lot of, for want of a better word, 'aspirational' families on Highfields, it also has in its catchment the villages extending out to Gnosall etc that have the kind of 'background' that Zylo probably considers more desirable.
It doesn't, really.
If these sorts of indicators are important to you, there is a new way of classifying/ordering/ranking schools dependant more on their Progress 8 score than on the previous baseline of percentage of pupils obtaining 5 or more A-C GCSEs. Here you can see that King Eddies has a better Progress 8 score than any other school in Stafford bar one. That that one is
If the proof of the pudding is in the eating, i know for a fact that many of the teachers/staff at the school, including the Deputy Head, have their own children being educated there, but would echo the sentiments expressed previously that a personal visit would be beneficial.
Gramaisc
Forum O. G.
I went to ten schools. One of them was alright.
I would value the opinions of a few long-term inmates above almost anybody else's, however professional they may be.
"Good" schools generally just have better PR, or a more susceptible audience.
If you are going to rely on schools for your education, you are already doomed.
I would value the opinions of a few long-term inmates above almost anybody else's, however professional they may be.
"Good" schools generally just have better PR, or a more susceptible audience.
If you are going to rely on schools for your education, you are already doomed.
zebidee
Well-Known Forumite
I do appreciate your frank and measured approach to such things, Withnail and Gram.
I'm leaning towards your opinion at the mo Withnail, having realised that the school is one of few that isn't an academy, and seeing the admission statistics: last year ~96% (can't remember exactly) got their first choice. This year that number is 10% lower. I imagine this will fluctuate as appeals occur etc but it doesn't half make me wonder if that OFSTED report doomed KEVI this year with applications. The least over subscribed was Weston Road, but they still needed to reject 30+ kids.
Anyway, spawn says it's worth a go there and we're planning a visit to see what it feels like. It should be a smallish cohort too, with about 80 less kids in the year than places like Balfour or Walton. It might be appropriate for us in that respect.
I'm leaning towards your opinion at the mo Withnail, having realised that the school is one of few that isn't an academy, and seeing the admission statistics: last year ~96% (can't remember exactly) got their first choice. This year that number is 10% lower. I imagine this will fluctuate as appeals occur etc but it doesn't half make me wonder if that OFSTED report doomed KEVI this year with applications. The least over subscribed was Weston Road, but they still needed to reject 30+ kids.
Anyway, spawn says it's worth a go there and we're planning a visit to see what it feels like. It should be a smallish cohort too, with about 80 less kids in the year than places like Balfour or Walton. It might be appropriate for us in that respect.
zebidee
Well-Known Forumite
It's hard not to get drawn into the mass opinion unless you go to the place or speak to people already there. There was one we visited that had amazing facilities but we didn't get a good feeling from the headteacher's talk which focused on behaviour management. Put us both right off. In contrast KE has been marked down in their OFSTED for their behaviour management implementation. Think I'm leaning towards taking a chance on that rather than send my kid to a police state. But I recognise I'm a bit different to many others in that respect
I’ve lived in a few different places around the country and do think it is unusual that Stafford IS “averagely served”. Where I grew up had grammar schools but amongst the comprehensives there were two schools that got results up alongside the grammars. When I worked as a teacher elsewhere of the three high schools in the town two got well above average results, and when I worked in central London some of the comprehensives were exceptional and way up there with selective schools, though I accept London high schools often buck the trend in terms of results.
I’m a blow-in to Stafford, with young children so no direct experience of any of the high schools. My husband went to BWH “back in the day” and it appears to have had an excellent reputation then (not aided by his performance I should add!) but has been working it’s way back up from inadequate in recent years. I know that Walton is very highly thought of and had been told by friends that Graham Balfour has had a major turn in fortunes, but have equally been told that King Eddies is a poor choice. I spent some time looking at the results a couple of weeks ago when the latest data set came out and was surprised to see KE above the others and the results for Walton not living up to the hype, if you like.
Stoke has 5 schools either well above or above average. In terms of socio-economics I would have expected performance in Stafford to be better than there.
Withnail
Well-Known Forumite
If every school was above average, they would ipso facto actually be average.
If Ofsted floats your boat, check out King Eddies home page...
zebidee
Well-Known Forumite
Well deserved. They seem really on the ball from our visits.
Really?
Well-Known Forumite
Someone needs to create a TripAdvisor type site for schools with proper reviews from parents and pupils. (quite how you'd weed out the fake reviews I don't know, but TripAdvisor also doesn't seem to care that much).
I take all OFSTED reports with a massive pinch of salt - summed up by this really:
I take all OFSTED reports with a massive pinch of salt - summed up by this really:
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rudie111
Well-Known Forumite
Wow you managed that quick!