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Parent's Review of ACS Hillingdon International School in London, UK

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Review Your Child's International School

What is the name of your child's school? (Please report on one school per survey.)

ACS Hillingdon International School

In what town or city is this school located?

London

How would you describe this school? (i.e. American, British, International, Local, etc.)

International

What grade levels are represented at this school?

Pre-Kindergarten to grade 13

How do most children get to school everyday? (bus, train, walk, etc.)

The school runs it's own expansive bussing service, stretching from the centre of London (Westminster) to High Wycombe in Surrey and down South as far as Windsor in Berkshire. Most students use the door-to-door bussing service but there is also a shuttle bus service run by the school.

How would you describe the facilities at this school? What extra-curricular activities are available?

Excellent facilities in an historical mansion house based on an 11 acre campus (which is great so close to the city of London) including: tennis courts, sports fields and a purpose built music centre which boasts a fully equipped music technology lab and digital recording studio. There is a range of after school clubs and sporting activities after school and at weekends, these vary year on year.

What has this school done to help your child transition from the curriculum in your home country into the curriculum in your new country? Are there programs to prepare your child for repatriation?

The school takes students all year round so has to be good at the transitioning period, there is a very active parent community who runs social events for parent introduction and arranges email buddies and play dates for students before school begins, Once students are in school there is counselors available who meet with new students to discuss transition issues and offer support. All teachers and staff are aware of the issues involved in transition, most have experienced it first hand themselves!

How would you describe the social activities available for parents through this school? Are there parent-teacher organizations?

The parent community at ACS Hillingdon is very active, and the school promotes itself on this as the whole family is welcomed into the community not just the students. They organize many social events in and out of school time, as well as strong involvement/ support in school.

What advice would you give to someone considering enrolling their child in this school?

The academic results speak for themselves and the children are happy in their nurturing learning environment. If you get a chance to visit and see the school in action for yourself, I would recommend doing so. I have no hesitation in recommending the school across all ages.

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Write a Comment about this Expat Report

Comments about this Report

The academic results do speak for themselves - and the school has dropped in IB test scores from 4th place to below 20th over the last 5 years. Of all the international schools my children have attended this is by far the worst. The parent community is very active, mostly on e-mails complaining about the school. The teachers are also active - complaining about the policies and one particular administrator. My child went through an entire year and not once was homework collected. The kids in his grade confirmed this situation. When I brought it up to the Head of School I got a polite "we'll look into it". Nothing changed. The quality of teachers varies wildly. Parents fight to get their kids in the good teacher's classes with the rest being stuck with some really below par performers. Don't want a particular class? You wont have a choice because no one else wants to take it and they have to stick someone in it. Planned events are another issue in this school. They change on a regular basis. You get the notice for an event, followed another notice changing the day, then another, and another, and another.... The year before last only one parent showed up for the school talent show because the event had changed so many times and they held it in the middle of the day. This year the Assistant Head of High School stood up at a PTA meeting and asked for parents not to let their children participate in school sports. One child had missed 16 days and they wanted to stop that sort of thing from happening. Another incident worthy of note happented at the school this year when, at a poorly supervised event, a student in a car ran over another student crushing her leg. A whole bunch of staff got fired for that one. Litigation is pending. Are you getting the impression this school is poorly run? Most people seem to go here for the same reason we do, it is geographically their only choice if they want their kids in an American school system.

This report to me is a sound reflection of ACS Hillingdon International School where many students follow an international education not an American one. This school welcomes all students and offers as many opportunities to as many students as is possible. Where else in a HS would you be able to follow IB MYP, IB DP, AP, and Honors programmes? Rather than listen to the rant of a disillusioned parent who may have an axe to grind and who is wrongly using this forum to vocalise, I would encourage any parent to go and see the school for itself. Accepting all students on an IB programme means there might be failures - why else would results drop? This tells me this school is giving every student who wants to do IB the chance to.

I am forced to agree with the so called "disillusioned parent" noting the schools many deficiencies. Our experiences have been quite similar. We have been very disappointed with the school's poor administration and leadership. The teacher standards is also quiet a mixed bag. The overall quality of teaching and administration should be quite higher given the exorbitant fees.