Which Fareham School Is Best?
By ZaraMac | Monday, August 30, 2010, 07:12
Excluding independent schools, the three that serve central
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Which Is The Best Fareham School?
Fareham are Henry Cort, Cams Hill and Neville Lovett. In Stubbington there’s Crofton school and Portchester
Community School serves the parts of Portchester that Cams Hill doesn’t.
League tables and Ofsted reports court a lot of controversy
and one of the Tory pre-election promises was that schools would have an
Ofsted-free future. But the fact remains
that whether a child is entering primary or secondary education, those league
tables can influence parents’ actions – even one as massive as moving house!
I know people who have moved from Fareham to areas like
Sarisbury Green, just to get their kids into the infants there and,
subsequently, to Brookfield secondary school… and I’m not really sure why. Henry Cort made news headlines on results day
and an article in Tuesday’s News states:
“Henry Cort Community College in Fareham has achieved a 77
per cent pass rate for pupils achieving five A* to C grades, compared to 72 per
cent last year.
And a rise of 15 percentage points takes the number of students getting five A*
to C grades, including English and maths, to 58 per cent.
”
Both Cams and Crofton always get great results too, ensuring
them enviable league table positions.
Henry Cort gets overlooked by a lot of parents simply
because it’s situated in the Highlands area of Fareham. Highlands has an often unwarranted reputation
for being a rough area of town – but, warranted or not, that doesn’t make the
school’s pupils any less achievement-orientated. With its comparatively recent ‘sports college’
status, Henry Cort is already turning out rising stars in snooker, gymnastics
and women’s football.
On the other hand, Neville Lovett doesn’t appear, on paper,
to be achieving very much at all and if it had a decent standing with its most
recent GCSE results, it’s being very quiet about it!
What do you think?
Any opinions on schools in the area?
Primary schools too – and what are the best feeder schools to a good
secondary education?
Comments
I agree to an extent with Paula, a lot of children that aren't particularly academically magnificent can be over looked. I am fortunate that both my children are very bright and being schooled at both Sarisbury Infant and Junior school probably has little to do with it. Whilst the schools do indeed lay a great foundation of education, it is up to the individual child to come up with the goods, if they are going to do well it doesn't matter where they do it. I do however have a problem on the other end of the scale where as one of my children is so clever that the teachers admit that he should be doing his GCSE early and take an AS level in year 10/11. But the school is unable to offer this! So much for having a "Gifted and Talented" scheme! It seems that unless you can afford a private education, you just have to roll with it.
By FionaBega at 23:01 on 09/09/10
ReportAt the risk of repeating content ;) ...
My son went through Sarisbury Infants and Juniors and, at that time (he is now a monosyllabic 13 year old), the infants was what the then government called a "beacon school" - which meant it was outstanding in terms of the Ofsted reports. The juniors didn't have as good a reputation but was still comparatively good for the area. The one thing that stood out to me about a child being placed in such excellent schools was the expected level of achievement. If, like many many kids, yours isn't showing above average academic skills, it can be a terrible pressure both on the kid and the parents. Good results equals better funding for schools and while I try not to be cynical, it is a sad fact that kids are pushed to the max in better-performing schools in order to maintain that flow of funding. There's the old adage that if your kid is bright or excels at some non-academic subject, then he or she will do so regardless of the school they attend. And I have to say - having schooled my son in Sarisbury, Stoke, France and now back in Fareham - I am inclined to agree with. With age and experience comes a much more laid back parent.
By PaulaWoodwark at 21:36 on 30/08/10
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