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Durham High School for Girls
Primary · Independent · Durham
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Wonderful School
I can’t speak highly enough about my daughter’s experience at this school. She joined in Year 3 and is sitting her A Levels at the moment. The school has been like a warm hug to her. Wonderful teachers who have nurtured her, and she has made life long friends. I would recommend Durham High School to anyone who wants their child to have the best education in a safe and respectful environment.
This is an outstanding school!
I'm extremely surprised to read the poor reviews of this school, because in my experience it is amazing and has been superb for my daughter.
My daughter joined in year 9 after suffering from bullying in her state school - from the boys mainly. Horrendously, she was self-harming. She joined in year 9 like I say, and she was made to feel welcome straight away. She stayed at DHS until year 13 and is now about to leave to go to uni.
Because of her previous bullying she hated science because that's where it mostly happened. However, I don't know what DHS did, but she ended up loving science and did Chemistry and Biology at A Level (and Maths) and is on track to go on to do marine biology at uni - she wants to explore the oceans basically and the only place she got that from was DHS. Without DHS and if she'd stayed at her previous school, she'd never have done this or wanted to do this.
Year 9 - 11 - girls sometimes are teenage girls and there were a couple of issues between them all. However the school resolved things quickly and there was never any bullying, just disagreements between teenage girls (which isn't abnormal); i believe there are strict sanctions for bullying behaviour.
We are from a middle class background and the school encourage all girls to treat each other with the same respect. The teaching is excellent and extra activities are fun, engaging, and simply superb. The drama is outstanding if you're into that and the drama studio is amazing. I believe the sport is also excellent - and encourages different things, so my daughter isn't sporty at all, but DHS gave her rowing lessons. That gave her a real interest which she took up privately in the holidays and at weekends.
My daughter is approaching 18 years old and I'm so proud of where she has come, she's booming with confidence, her grades are expected to get her to where she needs to be. The support from DHS is unrivalled - there's nothing they won't do to help her - and all of the other pupils.
It's a small school, so everyone is known to all of the teachers, staff, and other girls. The girls are very well looked after.
My daughter joined in year 9 after suffering from bullying in her state school - from the boys mainly. Horrendously, she was self-harming. She joined in year 9 like I say, and she was made to feel welcome straight away. She stayed at DHS until year 13 and is now about to leave to go to uni.
Because of her previous bullying she hated science because that's where it mostly happened. However, I don't know what DHS did, but she ended up loving science and did Chemistry and Biology at A Level (and Maths) and is on track to go on to do marine biology at uni - she wants to explore the oceans basically and the only place she got that from was DHS. Without DHS and if she'd stayed at her previous school, she'd never have done this or wanted to do this.
Year 9 - 11 - girls sometimes are teenage girls and there were a couple of issues between them all. However the school resolved things quickly and there was never any bullying, just disagreements between teenage girls (which isn't abnormal); i believe there are strict sanctions for bullying behaviour.
We are from a middle class background and the school encourage all girls to treat each other with the same respect. The teaching is excellent and extra activities are fun, engaging, and simply superb. The drama is outstanding if you're into that and the drama studio is amazing. I believe the sport is also excellent - and encourages different things, so my daughter isn't sporty at all, but DHS gave her rowing lessons. That gave her a real interest which she took up privately in the holidays and at weekends.
My daughter is approaching 18 years old and I'm so proud of where she has come, she's booming with confidence, her grades are expected to get her to where she needs to be. The support from DHS is unrivalled - there's nothing they won't do to help her - and all of the other pupils.
It's a small school, so everyone is known to all of the teachers, staff, and other girls. The girls are very well looked after.
Horrendous
Honestly horrible. Teachers don't care about you at all, often are rude to students! The teachers clearly have favorites, and don't hide when they don't like someone. Doesn't deserve the good reviews at all. Each day, i dreaded coming in, and would cry multiple times during the day. Would not recommend at all, the price is insane for such a bad school.
Bullying from staff and pupils
My daughter joined in Y7 from a local primary school. From the moment she arrived she was treated like a second class citizen compared to the girls who had been in the prep school. Blatant favouritism on a daily basis, staff children placed on a pedestal. My daughter was bullied and the school were not prepared to do anything about it. We moved our daughter to another local independent co-Ed school after Christmas when she was in year 9. Best thing we ever did, she has thrived both academically and with sport during her time there.
A surprisingly poor experience
An unfortunate experience with Durham High School For Girls which I am glad to say is now behind us after we simply elected to depart after only 1yr (Year 8/9).
Our daughter was not particularly happy with the quality of teaching across a number of subjects with support lacking and some teaching staff were aggressive in responses. Post our departure we were informed by a pupil that one teacher in particular indicated to the class that they could now have a nice lesson given my daughter was no longer in school!
The senior management are unresponsive to criticism and close ranks when challenged on issues impacting overall well being.
They are particularly heavy handed when other pupils raise issues against other pupils which seems to be the modus operandi of the school. The accused is guilty until proven innocent! Interviews with two senior members of staff and one taking notes is common practice, which for us is simply incredible.
We were also subject to same practice, called to a meeting with one staff member and arrived to find another staff member present and commenced to take notes.
We had our daughter effectively harassed by senior staff when it became clear she was not happy with the school. Who pulls your child out of a lesson to effectively interrogate her with 2 senior staff asking why she is not happy let alone the stigma of returning to the lesson in front of the year group! No consideration for our daughter and how she would be viewed by others in the class! Truly astonishing and she wasn’t the only pupil to be treated this way. Borders on harrassment.
It is not the nurturing environment one may be led to believe and we would even go so far as to say can be quite toxic. If your child is coming in from outside to this school be warned the pupils that have been there for years from primary schooling can be quite immature. This does not help integration!
Teaching quality is variable across subjects and not what one would expect when you are paying to dollar for an education. We had instances where teachers simply refused to clarify questions from our daughter when asked for help with her work.
We were not the only parents to pull daughters from this school.
You have been warned.
Our daughter was not particularly happy with the quality of teaching across a number of subjects with support lacking and some teaching staff were aggressive in responses. Post our departure we were informed by a pupil that one teacher in particular indicated to the class that they could now have a nice lesson given my daughter was no longer in school!
The senior management are unresponsive to criticism and close ranks when challenged on issues impacting overall well being.
They are particularly heavy handed when other pupils raise issues against other pupils which seems to be the modus operandi of the school. The accused is guilty until proven innocent! Interviews with two senior members of staff and one taking notes is common practice, which for us is simply incredible.
We were also subject to same practice, called to a meeting with one staff member and arrived to find another staff member present and commenced to take notes.
We had our daughter effectively harassed by senior staff when it became clear she was not happy with the school. Who pulls your child out of a lesson to effectively interrogate her with 2 senior staff asking why she is not happy let alone the stigma of returning to the lesson in front of the year group! No consideration for our daughter and how she would be viewed by others in the class! Truly astonishing and she wasn’t the only pupil to be treated this way. Borders on harrassment.
It is not the nurturing environment one may be led to believe and we would even go so far as to say can be quite toxic. If your child is coming in from outside to this school be warned the pupils that have been there for years from primary schooling can be quite immature. This does not help integration!
Teaching quality is variable across subjects and not what one would expect when you are paying to dollar for an education. We had instances where teachers simply refused to clarify questions from our daughter when asked for help with her work.
We were not the only parents to pull daughters from this school.
You have been warned.
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