Barton Hill Academy

I attended Barton Hill Academy during my childhood, and unfortunately I have a number of memories from my time there that have stayed with me for many years. Looking back, what stands out most is how often perfectly ordinary behaviour was treated as though it were a problem with me, rather than something that could simply have been understood or accommodated.

In my second year, teachers advised on two separate occasions that I should be tested for autism. The reason? I had politely declined when I was asked, "Would you like to sit on the carpet?"

There was nothing rude or disruptive about my response. I simply didn't want to sit on the carpet. Yet instead of accepting my answer, the adults repeatedly gave me choices without apparently realising that they were choices, and then used my responses as a reason to describe me as a problem.

Being a child and politely declining something should not have resulted in adults treating me as though there was something fundamentally wrong with me. If staff had concerns about my behaviour or development, I would have expected those concerns to be approached with care and understanding rather than making me feel as though ordinary differences in behaviour were evidence that I was difficult.

The following year, I experienced another situation that I found extremely upsetting. My brother attended the same school, and I wanted to give him hugs. I was told off approximately seven times in a row for doing so. I was apparently not allowed to go over to him because the playgrounds were divided into two age groups, with steps separating the areas.

What I remember is not simply being told that there were boundaries between the playgrounds. It was the repeated telling-off for wanting to see and hug my own brother. As a child, I found this very difficult to understand. I wasn't trying to cause trouble; I simply wanted to show affection towards my brother.

The following year, I had another experience that has remained particularly vivid. Everyone had been given something that was needed for an activity, but I hadn't received mine. I knew the member of staff involved could be unpredictable, and I was extremely shy, so rather than getting up and approaching them myself, I quietly asked another pupil to let the teacher know that I didn't have the work.

The response was to scream at me: "WHY CAN'T THEY JUST GET UP HERE AND ASK ME THEMSELF?"

For a child who was already very shy and nervous about approaching adults, this was not an effective way to encourage communication. It made the very thing I was frightened of doing even more frightening.

Looking back, I feel that many of these situations could have been handled so differently. A child declining to sit on the carpet did not need to be treated as a behavioural problem. A child wanting to hug their sibling did not need to be repeatedly told off. A shy child who was too anxious to approach a teacher directly did not need to be shouted at for asking another pupil for help.

These may sound like small incidents when viewed individually, but to a child they can become part of a much bigger pattern. They teach you that your natural reactions are wrong, that asking for help may result in being shouted at, and that ordinary expressions of affection can get you into trouble.

I am writing this review as a former pupil to document my own experience. I cannot speak for what the school is like today, and I recognise that staff and circumstances may have changed considerably since I attended. However, these are experiences that genuinely affected me, and I believe it is important that children's experiences are not dismissed simply because the individual incidents may seem insignificant to adults looking back on them.

Children should be given room to be themselves, communicate in the ways they are comfortable with, show affection appropriately, and ask for help when they need it. Those things should not automatically make a child a "problem" to be managed.

Awful experience with this school. Do not know how to approach children with autism / adhd. Didn’t pick up signs that my child was suffering with autistic traits. Asked for a referral which never happened. My child did not get the support and guidance they needed which has had a long lasting effect. Avoid.

Worst school in torbay,do nothing regarding certain young boys constantly bullying young girls.i went down all the correct procedure channels with the school to no avail,making my once super bright and academically great daughter fractious and not wanting to go to school.until I took the matter into my own hands to stop the bullying, now I'm the one in the wrong. Avoid this pit of a school like the plague

Does not handle bullying well . Is terrible with students with disabilities