Drapers' Academy

In my time at Drapers', I experienced bullying non-stop. Bullies lies are instantly believed, and if not, punishment is never taken very far. In this place, I have been verbally and physically assaulted. Homophobia can be a *massive* issue, and students like myself who were somehow achieving above average grades constantly had the mick taken out of us by other students who cannot be bothered to put any effort into their own learning and see it as a waste if time. Out of all of our year group, I would say that 97% of them either bullied me face to face or indirectly, over social media or in person. I have been a victim of multiple ginormous bullying issues both online, having my phone number spread by other students, and face to face where I have been ganged up on by crowds of people all at once shouting abuse at me, all having to be solved without the aid of safeguarding members (most safeguarding team members also seem to have a running trend of abusing their power and acting awfully towards students which I have experienced firsthand, sometimes even to the point of a meltdown and/or burnout -i am autistic and struggle with confrontation- due to the extremity of what was going on.) Some teachers upon being told that i am autistic/have adhd have proceeded to treat me almost like an infant which was infuriating. I have also been stalked by other students which ended up in a false story being told to a teacher with a close "friendship" to that student who spent a day harassing me and a few others before form time, and at break and lunch, antagonising me, infantalising me, and making it sound like I was delusional. I constantly felt unsafe within the school due to the large number of students who would frequently harass others including myself for their own entertainment, especially making homophobic, racist, or just genuinely awful comments about people and threatening to fight people who simply walk past them. As for fights, they happened nearly daily, and it created an incredibly unsafe atmosphere. People have done horrendous things that honestly should have led to them being expelled, yet as they were somewhat in relation to a member of the senior leadership/safeguarding team, they were not expelled, and are still causing issues there to this day. Students who act out are almost favoured it seems. To earn something such as a merit, somebody like me who was already strictly following rules and completing work out of pure fear of any consequences or confrontation, I had to burn myself out and work myself into the ground to get any acknowledgement, yet somebody who was sent out of class almost every lesson period for genuinely appalling behaviour would be rewarded for doing something like spitting put gum (we aren't allowed to chew gum by the way) for the maximum reward. They would literally have to break a rule, stop doing the thing that was breaking the rule, and get the top reward, whilst those who did all the work, got the classes top marks and spent every free second trying to achieve the best they could, and had never broken a single rule in their time at drapers' to begin with, got nothing for their work. Favouritism? When was there not. There were a select few teachers who made life at this school bearable. For example, my English teacher, who after I completely misunderstood an assignment and ended up breaking down over it, taught me exactly what went wrong and how to fix it, and got me to a grade 9 student by my final set of mock exams. The catering teacher and music teachers are also amazing. There are a few other teachers who made the place bearable, but I have awful anxiety surrounding the school setting now and struggle terribly to trust people (especially those my age) due to the amount of trauma that came from that place. After getting my gcse results, I am staying miles away from that place, because I don't think I'll be able to see the faces of most of the students there without having some form of flashbacks with how bad some stuff that happened got to be. There are so many stories that I could tell here that the police might as well have been involved in, yet somehow weren't, amd that are too long for me to physically type. This school changes you, and not for the better. It leaves you with scars, whether that's physical, mental, or both. The bullying is out of hand. SEVERELY, out if hand. I pray that you do not send your kids there. They will never be the same after what happens in there. Oh, did I forget to mention that despite the lock down drill (taught to the pupils over a month late) put in place to supposedly keep us safe, almost all classrooms have at least one massive glass window as a wall which would not be hard to break, and hiding under tables thay are visible to those windows that have NO BLINDS ON THEM will not exactly keep your kids safe in the case of any intrusion or attack. The academy is not safe for your children. They will either be bullied, or become the bullies. There is no neutral ground there. Do not let your kids suffer in this place.

I would have given this review a 0 if I was able to. My son was being bullied in class, so his teacher ( Mr Plager ) decided to remove him from the class room for "disturbing the class " but when he was able to come back into the classroom, he realised his phone was missing from his Blazer. Turns out that a student took his phone from his pocket when he was gone and the teacher confiscated it without telling my son.

My son won't be returning.

Yeah definitely not great. Have been a student here for a while and bullying issues have not always been their strong point. The education they offer isn't the best either.

School is amazing! Helped me rebuild my life and get me out of a dark place. Cannot fault them! By far the best secondary school in the area. Parents of children who are going into senior school, please have a look at Drapers’ and the opportunities they provide! :)