St Nicholas School

An independent school isn’t always a better school.
Look at their GCSE results (on the gov website where you can compare like for like with other schools easily)
Really look.
In detail.
This is what they are achieving with no SEN students (they are asked to leave pretty early on) and small class numbers. This is it.
State schools in Harlow are achieving the same results with SEN and large class numbers. State schools in Bishop Stortford are achieving far higher results, also with SEN and large class numbers.

St Nic’s possibly provide a nicer environment to learn in, and definitely lots of opportunities for trips and sports - but the actual teaching is below what you would expect. Generally, the kids with academic aspirations all leave at Year 7 (or before) to go to schools that will challenge them academically.

It’s not unusual for 6 or 7 kids to leave each class, each year. Very transient as people get disheartened and leave. Many families went back to state schools, and others to more expensive private schools.

There has been many headteachers in the last few years, one of whom said “We don’t need to be as good as the more expensive independent schools. Our business model is to provide a nicer environment than the Harlow schools”. Read that again. We don’t need to be as good…. But don’t you want to be? Aren’t you trying to be? Your motto is ‘Strive to Better’ but you aren’t….
Honestly shocking.

We started with the intention of staying forever. Friends for life. But as more and more friends disappeared to other schools, those forever bonds you hope they will make are not available, and many new friends that join, then also leave.

Primary teaching is hit and miss. A couple of teachers are phenomenal. Others are so bad the children are in tears. Many are lazy at best, sloppy at worst. Teachers (or TA’s or any adults) don’t listen to the children read after Year 2. I quote “by Year 3 the children can read.” They are 7 years old and if there’s only 15 kids in the class, you can make it work (especially when specialists teach PE, French, Drama and Music for you….) State school primary children are listened to reading right to the end of Year 6. We went well over a year without anyone listening to them read at all, despite asking, but…. It’s private education. If you are unhappy, you leave. Refer back to how transient it is.

As a parent you are kept way out of the classroom and never allowed to see in - even at parents evening. You can’t see their work on the wall, topic themes, or just what the classroom looks like. Parents evening is done in the hall - you don’t get to see their books or work (until the end of the year). Feels like you are kept at arms length. Several years in a row I didn’t know where the classroom was? Upstairs? Down a corridor? Parents are not invited in to the classroom, ever.

Unlike state schools, the school gates are never locked or even closed. Anyone can wander in to the school grounds, front and back. So unsafe. The buildings all have a code on - so they couldn’t get inside…. But children from Year 5 walk independently around the grounds. All the kids know the door codes.

Bullying is well known to be awful in secondary, but again, if you are unhappy, you leave.

Now GCSE results aren’t everything. Not all kids are academic. Some thrive in other areas. So it’s not all about that…. But it’s hard to see the nicer environment they are aiming at as such a wonderful thing when it costs in the region of £150k - £200k.

Only you can decide if that’s worth it.

We were unhappy.
We left.