City of London Freemen's School

Looking back on my time at City of London Freemen’s School, it’s difficult not to feel a sense of missed possibility. While the school delivered a passable academic education, it fell short in far more crucial ways. Individuality wasn’t nurtured, and the emotional support young people need to actually find themselves was absent. More damagingly, there was a persistent tolerance—whether through ignorance or indifference—of casual homophobia, which left a deeper mark.

Rather than creating a space where difference could be respected or even celebrated, the atmosphere often pushed toward conformity, quietness, and erasure.

I'm so glad we chose Freemen's for my daughter. The facilities are top-notch, and the teachers are passionate and supportive. The focus on character development and community service is exactly what we wanted for our child.

We've been happy with our experience at Freemen's so far, but sometimes communication can be a bit lacking. The teachers are generally great, and the curriculum is engaging, but we've had some issues with getting timely updates on our child's progress.

I left this school in Year 11, having finished my GCSEs there. The pupils were all very nice and welcoming, and my teachers all genuinely cared about me. However, the positives end there. Fundamentally, I disliked the school due to its impotent senior leadership team, comprising mainly middle-aged bald white men, who refused change at every level, fighting for the status quo. This was especially harmful because of Covid-19, as, in my opinion, the school did not do enough to protect its pupils and their families from the pandemic. It did not enforce mask-wearing before the government did so for them, despite support from pupils and parents, because there was a small group of Covid-denying, anti-vaxx parents who threatened to sue the school if they enforced mask-wearing. Again, during our mocks, a small group of parents complained that their children were too stressed, coercing the senior leadership team not to take them into account; in reality, their children had just done badly in them, and they didn't want their children to receive bad grades in the end, as they were all being teacher-assessed; this, combined with the senior leadership team's incompetence, led to mocks being disregarded for the entire year, despite many students' excellent performances, adding totally unnecessary stress for the majority just because of the needs of the minority. The senior leadership team's shortcomings do not end there: when asked about sexual assaults, one member of the senior leadership (who shall remain unnamed) likened it to "being teased about being short" in front of a girl who had come to him, telling him about being assaulted on her way to school. On the same topic, two members of the senior leadership committed fornication with another member of staff, who were not in the leadership team; they are both still working at the school. Another member of the senior leadership team (who shall also remain unnamed) told the entire year in an assembly that Malala had tragically died from an attack by the Taliban; it did not take more than a minute to find out, on Google, that this was not the case. I also felt that the school was sometimes quite religiously insensitive, owing to its reluctance to stray from tradition: leavers are gifted Bibles, but they did not consider at all pupils of other faiths; one of my peers, in particular, who was Jewish, received one.
Overall, if you are considering the school for GCSE or A-Levels, I would not recommend it, especially if you are flexible in choosing the location of your school. Whilst it is true that it achieves good grades and that there are good teachers, it is also true that the leadership team is heavily flawed, and will likely remain so. I found the last year at my school an extremely stressful one, thanks to the many decisions that the people in charge made. And that's not taking into account the fees, too. I would only suggest applying for here if you believe that the school's grades are enough to compensate for its horrible leadership.

Our son attended Freemen's from Year 3 to Year 13 and had an amazing experience. The school's values of 'learn, lead, and make a difference' really resonated with him, and he developed a strong sense of confidence and purpose.