Davison Church of England High School for Girls, Worthing

Before I begin my review, the reason I am doing this is because I want to warn parents before sending your child here.. I don’t want people to make the same mistakes as I did.

I understand the importance of finding the correct school for your child.. and for me (a current year 11 student) this was something that was really important as well. I believe that being in a school community that is safe and secure really has a positive impact on your education and i am sure many others will agree with me. When i walked through Davison, I got that 'vibe' .. maybe it was because it was an all girls school..Davison felt as though it had a friendly and safe community.. where staff treated you correctly and wanted too see you 'flourish' as that is the school motto. Don't get me wrong, there is for sure some staff who worked really hard and wanted us to do well, for example I have a really good Spanish teacher, who really tried to make the lessons engaging, even pulled us out to ask us how she can improve her teaching and what we want from her as a teacher. This was really nice to see as this doesn’t happen a lot because of this I remember the example to this day, because of rare it was. However, it isn’t what it looks like/ made out to be. I will say, being in a girls school has made a positive impact on me, I feel a lot more comfortable in classes like PE or PSHE where I don’t feel too restricted to be myself/ say my opinion, however there will always be judgement.

I completely understand that people at my school have different views and opinions about it and I think this because it really depends on your ‘rank’ within the school. For example, if you are ‘smart’ you will be put in higher set classes which tend to be taught by proper teachers and you will have more opportunities sadly and even more of a voice within the school. However, if you were right down the other end, yes support is available but can be extremely limited leading to students just drifting along in the system without getting the help and attention they are needed (which I will come back too) In school, I’m one of the people in the middle, I’m not the perfect student and I’m not the naughty one. I have 3 close friends (so not classed as popular) but have a lot of mutual friends. I’m not a ‘quiet kid’ either but I’m not a ‘loud’ kid. Being in the middle, you can be also lost within the system, and I think this is like this with every school. For me, it just highlights the inequality within schools, and it really sticks out the students that are disadvantaged or advantaged.

Uniform is one of those things that are SO strict in Davison.. to the point where form tutors go around with a clipboard and inspect you for 2 weeks straight. Davison also apparently had a ZERO BULLYING POLICY.. I would like see that be put in place for once. Uniform regulation can be put in place because every staff immediately points out if you are wearing nike socks or something else. What makes me cross is the fact that they spend so much time and effort on petty little things such as uniform when they could be chasing someone’s complaint about bullying and support the person. However, not just sorting out the bullying but also how they deal with it. My friends and I sat on a table with a group of people that were all friends, we stuck out a bit on the table because we weren’t part of their friendship group, we kept ourselves to ourselves. We began getting picked on by these group of girls, talking about us to our face using belittling and insulting words and even claiming ‘they will do it again next lesson’ straight after this we told Mr. Barttlett (who was the teacher in the lesson) about this, and it was passed on to the head of year. The head of year actually spoke to us and then insisted on moving us from that table (and spoke with Mr. Barttlett) and instead we were moved right at the front so that it was obvious something had happened and made the situation worse. What they should have done is change the seating plan completely so that it wasn’t obvious for us. One of my friends was also made to point out one of the girls, which then led to things becoming worse. The next lesson, they began chanting ‘snitch’ and she had a panic attack before going in. I’ve not been trained to deal with bullying but I know absolutely that it was the wrong way to deal with it completely and was utterly rubbish.
After this we got a brand new teacher, and we were back to where we originally sat, and that caused a lot of stress and worry for us on top of everything that happened.

I also want to speak about the fact that it isn’t always students doing the bullying. It is also staff here as well. I also have a friend who I have known since Year 7. They mean the absolute world to me. They are someone who struggles with school and has been swept away in the system without being noticed. Due to personal issues at home, they had to attend school one day with trainers instead of school shoes because their regular shoes had broke. This was obviously an immediate flag for my form tutor and questioned them about the trainers and at first gave them a green uniform card to allow them to wear them only for that week. However, they did vocalise to my tutor that it may be difficult because a member of their family is in hospital and have to visit a lot. (This was around Christmas time) It got to the point, where my form tutor kept going on a them about their trainers, and they were forced to say in front of the class that their family doesn’t have the money to buy new shoes, they felt humiliated. I remember feeling really upset that day because I could see how hurt they were, the treatment they received was absolutely appalling and that tutor should be ashamed of themselves if they see this.

When it comes to the learning side of things, especially in the science department, it is disgusting. During yeah 10 I I had two science teachers . One taught chemistry at the time and was originally from another country and came over to teach before they were even graduated. I don't put this teacher to blame for what happened because I think they were thrown completely in the deep end and this could be because schools are so desperate for teachers. I had a another teacher called Mr Bartlett and I've mentioned him before, he didn't care about where we sat in the classroom, he just talked over everyone, he never had a clear lesson and there wasn't one time he ever set homework. He showed the class from day one that he didn't have the ability to control the class and he let the class talk and do whatever they want, so the class took advantage of him. I have to admit I did the same. This meant when the other teacher tried to teach it was really difficult because all the students had this idea that it doesn't matter. We missed a whole year of learning because of Mr Bartlett and the head of science at the time didn’t do anything despite all the complaints from parents and students. This carried on for a whole year. When Year 11 came along, suddenly we eventually had a change of teachers and when students brought up what happened last year, they all said ‘we don’t speak about it’ .

From the beginning, I was put in the wrong set. I went from being D in maths to, second to top set science. I was failing every science test we did, and they only decided to do something about it 4 months prior to our GCSE, to move me down to foundation. Bearing in mind, most of the class was failing too.

What I will never understand is how they think it is acceptable to let things like this happen and do nothing about it. However, if you are chewing gum or have a tick on your socks, its an automatic negative point or detention. I think that if someone did something about all these situations earlier, none of this would have happened.

I am really disappointment with Davison and to be honest I can’t even believe it was rated as ‘good’ by OFSTED. The treatment we received is completely unacceptable. For this reason, I will never recommend this school to anyone unless you would like to be somewhere where there is teachers who cannot teach, a fake bullying policy and in general a damaging environment for lots of peoples mental health.

Where is the head teachers part to play? = Well he did nothing, and that is like that with him. All he has is massive ego because he is the head of a school. He did absolutely nothing even though he full on knew what was happening all throughout year 10 science and that sums him up.

I don’t think apologies can make up for everything that happened. I am really glad and looking forward to leaving and will not miss the school one bit. I hope you don’t make the same mistake as me when choosing the right school for your child!!

Thank you

It felt like a family. All the girls were lovely and the teachers were excellent. Learning resources were always good and the school really helped me to excel. There are always lots of activities going on and lessons are always enjoyable.

a good school, but the support for mental health isn’t good. they don’t understand or care, and do nothing to stop bullying. they insisted i had nothing wrong with me and said i was “just naughty” when i’ve now been diagnosed with ADHD, dyslexia, depression, anxiety, ocd and bpd. these diagnosis’s wouldn’t of been so bad if i had the support i needed. also very homophonic. the actual school is nice and some teachers care, although a lot of nice ones have left. the education is good but the lack of support for struggling students is rubbish

I used to go to this school in the 1990's. What was disappointing was that no teacher or anyone at the school advised me to retake my GCSE's. I had glandular fever during school and was given no extra school time to catch up. I was fatigued after for years.

Really sad, the careers advisor advised me the best I could be is a secretary. No one mentioned to work hard or mentioned about students going to university.

I went on to gain a 2.1 BA degree and then Merit for an MRes masters degree but many years later and after meeting people that went to university. I was diagnosed with dyslexia at university.

Completely disappointing school experience at Davison's, utter rubbish.

I personally dislike the school, always talking about how well being and mental health matters but when you need someone to be there for you they simply can’t do that. They are very good with equality and race but seem to care more about gsce rates and the appearance of the school then how their students feel which is a big downer, giving out behaviour points for small things and making you feel bad about yourself was the biggest thing i went through and i never wanted to return. Each day it was a chore although some students will feel differently.

the teachers don’t care about your well being, they give out behaviour points for the littlest things, all round just not a good school