Balshaw's Church of England High School

ive been recently bullied and school havent done anything

I am actually appalled at the treatment I received in my final months at this school. I wrote a review in October of 2021 which is still up for anyone wanting and in-depth overview of how awful Balshaws truly is, but after this review I really saw how vile and corrupt this place is at it's core. I am now at college, but I still have friends who are in their final years here and even though I will be mainly talking about my experience I will brush over their experiences too because it honestly disgusts me. I know that if anyone who knows me reads this review they will probably identify who I am, but that doesn't matter. I don't want anyone to face the hell I went through, and that's why I believe in sharing this experience.

I struggled a lot with my mental health in the final year of high school, mostly due to the high school itself but also personal issues. I started taking weeks off school, often due to illness brought on by my anxiety of going into school, but also due to severe burnout and constant breakdowns over the stress I was being put under. The school, obviously, got concerned about my attendance. The school was made aware that I was struggling mentally, and they didn't really care. They started unauthorizing my absences and if I actually became ill during school hours they wouldn't let me go home. I suffer from migraines and IBS and other issues that can be brought on due to stress so if I had a migraine or really bad stomach pains they refused to send me home. When I took days off they would ring up my dad who has hates talking over the phone to ask where I was and to complain about my absence. They even sent letters saying that I'm going to get bad grades because of my low attendance and even borderline accusing me of skipping! And that's not even the worse of it, they even said that my parents, THE ONLY ONES THAT CARED ABOUT MY MENTAL STATE, weren't supporting me and that the school was doing their best to help (they weren't). As you can imagine this did not help with my anxiety. This then lead to meetings with the deputy head, I can't name her but anyone from Balshaws will know who she is, and her assistant. In these meetings the deputy would explain that I need to come in more and anxiety and panic attacks are not an excuse to miss school and that because I don't have any "medical documentation" of these issues that they can't authorise my absences and that THEY WERE LOOKING INTO FINING MY PARENTS. Me and my family are low income, we already struggle to make ends meet as it is and obviously the school does have basic insight into our financial status and know this. I, of course, confronted the deputy about this, asking why she can't authorise them, because I know for a fact they don't need full on "medical documents" to authorise absences, but she insisted that she couldn't do anything about it. So, I went to my GP who knows about my mental struggles and asked if they could write up a letter for me school, and they happily did. As well as that I also got my therapist involved who also contacted the school. Despite the letter from my doctor and my therapist's emails, they still refused to authorise anything and still complained about my attendance. They had some "medical documents" now with the official letter and from my therapist, so what was the issue? Nothing. They just wanted to scare my parents into forcing me into school so they didn't look bad for having a student with low attendance. Finally my therapist got into a meeting with them with me and my mum as well.. and the best way to sum up how that went is in what my therapist said to my mum afterwards, which was "That was the most uncooperative meeting I've ever had with a school.". My therapist asked the school to put in a support plan for me, and although the deputy's complaints, they finally managed to agree on some aspects. One of the points on this agreement was that I would get free access to the hub (the offices where they had a couple free quiet rooms for students) at any time to calm down. Well, that never really worked. Often times I was turned away from the hub by the ladies working at the desk or told I could only stay for 10 minutes, and I often had to explain over and over again why I was there in front of other students, which is not helpful for my anxiety. Also, in the meeting, the deputy gave me like a 50p fidget toy to use in class to help me... like wtf I'm not going to play with a fidget toy in class in front of people.
Anyways, it gets even worse. One day when I was off, the deputy and her assistant CAME TO MY HOUSE UNANNOUNCED. My mum is not good with surprise visitors, especially people she doesn't really know on a personal level. So, my mum being taken by surprise accidentally overshares a bit too much about my personal struggles and that lead to some safeguarding alerts being set off. Support workers got involved and it's a whole mess. I didn't want the school knowing about these issues, and my mum knew that it was just by accident she overshared due to the surprise visit. I was treated differently then on by the staff, they treated me like I was fragile glass and I hated it. In one meeting my mum told them I was dealing with "not good" thoughts, and the schools response to that? Stick me in a small room for a week, not let me out for break or lunch, have someone walk me to the bathroom and back and even have one of my family members walk me to and from school, despite me not living that far away, all so I don't hurt myself... Seems a bit odd that they think I'm going to be able to hurt myself in school, they really think it's that unsafe huh? They should really consider the safety of their premises if they're that concerned I could hurt myself. Despite mine and my parents complaints about these crazy precautions, it took my therapist complaining for them to stop. Like, they think not allowing me out at break and lunch and stopping me from socialising is going to help? Seriously? Plus, it wasn't like I was in that room alone, other kids would come and go and although some were nice some seemed really aggressive which didn't help calm my nerves. I even witnessed someone try and hurt themselves in one of those rooms once... it was heart breaking.
Anyways, there was just a lot of meetings and a lot of me and my parents having to deal with the school's constant complaints over and over again for the last few months. It was horrible and just ended in more stress.
Also, an extra note to this, the schools authorised all my absences after I left.. seems like they're trying to cover their tracks. As well as this, I got a couple 5s, mostly 6s and even two 7s in my exams, didn't even fail a single subject and had the grades I needed for college, so it seems that letter was completely incorrect in the end :).

Leading on from this, here's a few more examples of bad school management:
Once someone I'm close to was having a panic attack in school, and I was in the hub at the time studying for my GCSEs. In the middle of my work I had a staff member come up to me and ask me to come and help my friend calm down... Why is that my duty? I'm supposed to be studying? The pastoral staff and counsellor exist for a reason? I'm not mad that I had to help my friend, I'm mad that the school didn't want to help my friend themselves. Plus, I had to talk to them in a room with another staff member like a couple feet away from us, no privacy. It was awful.
Another person I know has experienced a lot of harassment and bullying at the school hasn't done anything to help, it's actually hurtful to see them suffer and me, not being in school anymore, not able to help.
And finally, another friend of mine has experienced racism towards them due to them being a foreigner and it honestly makes me sick to hear what they have to deal with on a daily basis just because of their nationality (I hope that's the right word).

All in all, this school does not know how to handle any student struggling and does not care at all about their mental wellbeing. This school is one that should not exist.

Thank you for reading and sorry for any bad grammar or spelling mistakes.
And if you know who I am or anyone I mentioned, you don't :).

absolutely shocking, too strict for my liking, way out of hands, @hilarybacon @savedbygodsgrace agrees

Terrible school.
The teachers are average at best and most are unable to handle their students.
They only care about their outwards appearance, and despite the fact that they claim to care about mental health they single handedly decrease the mental health of students by a substantial amount.

If you send your child here, they'd get better education at a prison.

terrible, not a good place to go.

As a Year 11 student at this school, I cannot say I've enjoyed my time here. Over the years it has just gotten worse and worse. The current head hates his job and doesn't care about the students, some teachers are sexist and discriminate against selected students, and there is clear favouritism going on in most classes. Reporting the teachers doesn't do anything either.
They have a school counsellor who is there to help with students with mental health but she isn't the best at her job. You get a 20 minute session maximum, and usually it's less than that, and she doesn't even take in what your saying. Many students don't actually feel comfortable talking to her and she has favouritism over some students. Sometimes she'll say she'll catch up with you within a later session but never does and just overall isn't there when you need help the most.
Homework is just awful as well, they say you should only spend an hour on homework each night, but you end up spending 3. If you don't finish classwork in class your expected to do it at home too, which is great for people with Dyslexia (like me) and other learning disabilities who are slow writers and usually don't get anything finished before the end of class. You're also expected to revise for over an hour every night in Year 11 (I say this because every teacher tells you that you should revise for an hour a week on their subject). Overall leaving no time for students to relax.
Adding to this, the school is very bad at supporting students with learning disabilities. Good luck if you're smart but you have any of those, because you're going to be in the bottom set for every subject. Teacher's will blame you for being behind on work and yell at you when it's something that's out of your control. It's so hard to get the school to realise that you actually have these learning disabilities even if you're already diagnosed, and it's even harder to get them to put the necessary steps in place to give you the same chance as others without learning disabilities.
The school isn't good at taking bullying seriously either, all they do is tell the students who are doing it to stop, and perhaps they will for a week, and then they'll carry on. It's awful how it's managed. Some students are racist and homophobic and there's nothing done about it. The school has such a toxic environment that I don't believe any child should be put through.
The only good thing about this school is that the education itself is not too bad and you do occasionally learn stuff, but even then, you only learn stuff for exams and lack any general knowledge.
You don't normally hear about this stuff as the school covers it up to look good in the media, but in reality it's hell inside there.
Do NOT send your child here, unless you want them to be bullied, harassed, stressed out and develop mental health issues that they're never ever going to recover from.
Thank you for reading this.

This school has changed me a lot, from my ability to learn and make friends.
I have learnt many valuable lessons from the school, and while punishments may seem unfair to some they’re just preparing you for the outside world.
Overall the school is really really good and i recommend coming to this school.
Lockdown learning wasn’t so great as we had to teach ourselves topics which is hard at GCSE level, however coming back into school after lockdown i felt safe and i’m finally feeling confident and myself.
Im in my last year at this school and i have been taught so much, not just from the academic side but also from the social side
basic social skills, stuff i couldn’t have achieved without this school.
Although the school don’t know exactly how to handle bullying they do a pretty good job with what they can, and i respect them fully.

Not great at all, unfair punishments, favouritism. Mostly non-setted classes so you end up with classes with students predicted grade 3s with students predicted grade 8s meaning almost no one learns anything.

The school is alright but when you take into account the rules and punishments of the school it get out of hand to the point of it actually comical

The school have not only made the return back to school safe, they have also made it welcoming!
As they always do. The staff are very supportive and i’m thankful :)