Despite being a great school for academics and consistently having good results, I don’t believe this reflects the teaching but students efforts instead. Most of the teaching staff are unsure on the curriculum and don’t teach everything you need to know for the course so you are left to teach yourself a lot. Staff also ‘accidentally’ lost and damaged my work in both Art and DT after I had chosen to do work that they didn’t believe I was capable of and then forced to do what they wanted me to so that I would have something to submit, which is completely unacceptable. Alongside this, my experiences with wellbeing, safeguarding and SEND staff were disappointing. I was often ignored and they refused to help me for around a year and a half and was only then given (minimal) support after my mum threatened to report them. However, some members of staff were lovely, particularly the exams officer who I spent a lot of time with during exam season due to some struggles caused by the lack of support given by the SEND team in the lead up. I strongly believe there should be better support in these areas especially in a school like this as there is such a focus on academics and many students seem to struggle because of this.
The school site is based on a hill and has very few indoor areas to sit. This means that throughout the winter you are forced to be outside even if it is snowing. In this kind of weather they would also be especially strict on going outside as soon as you had eaten since they could only fit around 200 students inside at once. This led to me having a lot of time off ill due to the time spend outside despite having medical conditions that are worsened by the cold weather. As I was so often ill, J often had to ask to go home which staff would get angry about and I was often yelled at and told no, even if I was being visibly sick in front of them.
I feel strongly that this school does not create a positive environment and until they realise what year we are in and work on training their staff to do their job properly this will not change.
I am writing this instead of revising because this is the only happiness i have had for the past couple years at this school. The food is great; love the canteen staff theyre really nice, the interior of the school is like from the 1400s so to be fair its kinda awful and theres a lot of mould on walls like near the top toilets and i guess theyre trying to renovate it more as some of the classrooms are getting revamped. However my biggest issue with the school is how much workload they give us, all seemingly right around the same time so we end up having like 15 important assessments right after another, and another thing to mention is how the teachers all have really different teaching styles which is usually ok but i can name like 3 teachers who i have had to make up alllllllllll the work at home because i simply just cannot understand the lesson the way they teach it. Its also terrible for your mental health even though they advocate for mental health but dont really do that much to reinforce it, along with bullying and ect even though i see theyre trying to improve in resolving conflicts but right now its not really working. We had a big issue with some people in my year but they completely dissmissed it because there wasnt enough evidence for them to care and it was quickly shushed. I also dont like how before yr 12 you have no free periods besides 2 breaks and a lunch, however because of the work load i have been spending every single lunch and break revising for some test. I just wish there was like 1 period of naptime a week so i could relieve all the stress i have and just sleep. i miss naptime ;(
Good school however can put a lot of pressure on students.The school is very good academically, one of the best in the area as some of the teachers commonly mention, and has a good variety of extra curricular activities on at lunch. In my personal opinion some teachers are more approachable and easy to go to if you need help than others however the school is very welcoming to new students when they enter in year 7.
Bullying is not dealt with very well in some cases. Some cases in my year group have been overlooked and told to ‘just stay away from each other’ and then not monitored. Too much trust is put into the students when entering the school (in my opinion).
VERY academic, focuses a lot on grades and success. I found that after a exam season, teachers would often boast to us how we were the best in the area, although this is very good, and I am getting very good grades, it's a lot of stress and pressure.
Canteen food is good, yet a little pricey in areas. Canteen staff are lovely.
Most teachers are good. there are some incredible teachers who have not only taught me in the best way possible, they also act as someone I can talk to if I am struggling. however there are a few teachers who are not as good.
The extra curricular activities are very good, and there's lots of study sessions and support group for yr11.
Of course, being a grammar school, there is a lot of work, but sometimes it is overwhelming.
There is currently a very silly one way system around school, not practical and just means students have to walk a ridiculous quantity to get to a class. I have also heard teachers complain about this.
The uniform rules are rather conformist. 1 ring, "discreet" makeup, etc. I find it Impossible to figure out why having dyed hair, or wearing more than 1 ring will impact my education or make the school look "Scruffy". the modern workplace is actually inspired by people with dyed hair and an expressive appearance as it shows personality.
The school is focused on academia. and as someone who is interested in more artistic stuff, and the school is not suited to this.
It is a small school, so your options with friendship are very limited. I did not have the best friends during my time here.
Honestly the best school in the area. Dont know where I'll be if I just went to the local secondary. The food can be pretty grim and the buildings prolly gonna collapse in a few years, but the teachers are legendary. Plus there are no roadmen/chavs.
overall just didn’t enjoy it, facilities were so outdated and not effective for learning; if you fall behind slightly, you get little encouragement from staff members. barely any subjects to choose from when it comes to gcses and a levels. also teachers seemed to care more about uniform than education.
All the teachers are amazing! They care not only about you succeeding but your mental health aswell. Its a super safe environment with the ability to be yourself.
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The school site is based on a hill and has very few indoor areas to sit. This means that throughout the winter you are forced to be outside even if it is snowing. In this kind of weather they would also be especially strict on going outside as soon as you had eaten since they could only fit around 200 students inside at once. This led to me having a lot of time off ill due to the time spend outside despite having medical conditions that are worsened by the cold weather. As I was so often ill, J often had to ask to go home which staff would get angry about and I was often yelled at and told no, even if I was being visibly sick in front of them.
I feel strongly that this school does not create a positive environment and until they realise what year we are in and work on training their staff to do their job properly this will not change.