Harris Academy Philip Lane

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Permalink Reply by Liz Carter on April 20, 2015 at 16:23

Hi my eldest daughter is in year 1 at Harris since and is doing very well. My younger daughter will start at the nursery in September. I don't have first hand experience of any other primary schools in the area but my daughter and her friends really like the school and compared to friends children's school the academy status does not seem to make any obvious difference to the school experience as far as I can tell. It is a friendly school with some good facilities and improvements are being made all the time. There is also a nice school community. My daughter has different teachers for music, PE, art etc which seems to work really well. My daughter started after the change to academy status so I didn't really experience those changes but I would say things are quite settled now and not something to be anxious about. A new head teacher took over at the beginning of this term so hopefully things will continue to improve.

There isn't currently an after school club which is a shame for working parents but there are lots of extra curricular classes after school which are very popular.

I hope you like it when you look round. Sorry I can't be more help but let me know if you have any specific questions about the school and I could try to answer them.

Liz

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Permalink Reply by Kate on April 22, 2015 at 21:59

Hi Liz, thanks for your response. It's good to hear positive things about the school - I am looking round next week so hopefully will get a feel for the place.

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Permalink Reply by JumpingtheWaves on April 24, 2015 at 15:01

I've had experience of the school both before and after academy status. Overall, my son (who is in year 5) is happy there and loves his teacher, but then we were very lucky and were always happy with his teachers, even when it was Downhills. One thing I have noticed over the past 2-3 years is there's a pretty high turnover of staff, both at teaching and senior management level, something which I think is a concern and certainly far from ideal. I brought this up at the 'meet the new Prinicipal' meeting this week and wasn't wholly convinced by her argument that 'this is what happens in all London schools'. But she did agree it is an issue and one that she intends to tackle. Aside from that I'd agree with Liz re the good mix of programmes on offer for the kids and a friendly school community. Academically, literacy is strong but we're not that impressed with the way maths is handled - more able kids not really pushed enough IMO.

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Permalink Reply by Old-Age-Emporium(OAE) on April 24, 2015 at 20:01

Don't forget the wall-to-wall carpeting - never mind the quality; feel the thickness. How Phil made his pile. I don't know why they didn't change the name to Philip Harris Lane Carpetright Academy.

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