Falmouth School

2017-2021
Short version
Shockingly poor management
Long version
Most of the teachers seemed fine (albeit exhausted and stressed) but most communication & management was shockingly poor.
They prolonged screening then supporting my child with dyslexia. Teachers weren't even informed. My child who was previously a high achiever became overwhelmed and ill, his attendance dropped, and despite a dr backing this up over and over, their answer was to threaten him to his face that if he didn't stop getting stomach aches etc he would be responsible for sending his remaining parent to prison!

They along with ewo's would only agree to this not happening IF my child took strong drugs. Then, were completely intolerant to the side effects and drowsiness and so continued to threaten.

We managed to get counselling for him and a head of year sat in on it and interjected that my child was making up their side.

Reception never answered/replied with anything more than "we've passed this on" You weren't allowed to know the contact details for the head. Any groups to discuss school were infiltrated, threatened and shut down.
It was a rarity that I got a reply to important things without contacting them repeatedly every day and just proved I wasn't going away. They'd wind you up so much ignoring/diminishing/blaming but if you got slightly wound up you'd be treated as though you were crazy and a Karen, they'd gaslight you that you were the 'only parent' with this issue, or it was you who didn't understand something.

The saddest thing was to report an issue with the local council you had to have a code proving you'd gone through the correct procedures and spoken to the governor's first. The link (like so many) to contact the governors didn't work and suprisingly no one would reply to requests to find out their contact details. According to my friend who did eventually get through to the governors in the final months, they were much of the same. So I wonder if this is the underlying issue, as this was the second head (I've witnessed) within this academy that led in this aggressive approach. When their management was under fire they would become obsessive about socks and shows of obedience.

Luckily Ofsted didn't need a code.

this school is so bad u get shouted at even if u don't do anything wrong would not send ur child here u get sent to reset for the most stupid reason like not doing enough of work in a 10 min task

I personally go to this school, it is awful.

Mental health-
In this school your mental health doesn't matter. You could tell a teacher in lesson that you feel anxious or upset about something and nothing is done. The only suggestion from teachers is "go to base" the teacher in base is lovely but usually tells you to "go back to class but if you start to feel worse come back" there is nothing wrong with that but 9/ 10 the teacher wont let you go back to base. I feel scared and worried walking around school because when I report anything nothing ever gets done. Recently, a new form of reporting something was introduced, you have to fill out a form and give it to the head of year, I have never known ANYONE to report something and have it be sorted PROPERLY. For example, if you were to get in an argument with someone all that is done is you have a meeting with them and they expect that to solve everything.

Hygiene-

School food is often disgusting or people have touched it , I have free school meals so I use that to an advantage. Usually I have a pasta meal deal, if you don't want cheese you have it as a meal deal if you do have cheese it's not a meal deal, when I don't ask for cheese there is usually some in there anyway.

Staff-

Some suppliy teachers are rude and dont seem to be updated on new rules. Some teachers are nice and dont agree with all of the school rules.

General-

We are restricted from using the bathroom in lesson. We are told to go at break, this is an issue because of all the people using toilets at break to vape and other things at break hence why so many people ask to go during lesson. The toilets are often locked during lesson time.

HORRIBLE SCHOOL DO NOT RECOMEND

staff do NOT care about students. they do NOT support mental health at all and make students feel unworthy. SLT are not helpful ever and your child will not be happy there.

falmouth school is a bad school because they are sexist to boys in the school and they give you a reset for being late and dont allow you to go to the toilet in lessons and there ofsted is very bad

It is obvious that can the school’s primary focus is edjucation, in order to help build bright futures for the students. Although this is what a school is meant to do, little attention is paid to the mental health and well-being of the students. I believe that it is very important that the staff have the necessary level of understanding when it comes to well-being and mental health so that the students are able to feel more comfortable and at ease in school; it would encourage focus in lessons, engagement with content, and would boost the atmosphere to a caring, non-toxic environment in which it is easy to prosper.

In addition, the school seems to have a kind of tunnel vision when dealing with behaviour. They see that there is a disruption issues with a student and they “treat the symptoms and not the cause”. It is apparent that the board cares little about the cause of the behaviours; if there is disruptions in the classrooms, the students get punished (sometimes rightly so) but if it is reoccuring, the staff automatically assume that it is because the children are trouble makers and don’t bother to look for the source of the problem.

Furthermore, the management of the school is very poor. It is very rare, that a problem should be reported and it dealt with. The managers are lazy, typically uncooperative and ignorant. In the past, many of my classmates (including myself) have brought up issues and possible solutions directly to the managers and they’ve always said that they will “look into it”. Two weeks later, we ask for updates and nothing has happened. This put-off mindset gates the flow of productivity when it comes to improvement and stops any change from happening. I must admit, the management has improved over the years but there is still definately room for improvement.

I feel SLT do absolutely nothing for pupils, SEN nor staff. I believe the SLT are a waste of school funding, they’re paid 70k+ a year to tap a few buttons on their computers. I’m a Year 11 students, I’ve noticed SLT don’t really care about the Teachers, I’ve seen 0 support from SLT towards Teachers. SEN in my opinion should be seen as a priority for SLT to take care of. I feel SEN has to fight for everything they want done and aren’t respected at all. I personally believe most of SLT should be fired or demoted. Half the classes don’t even have glue sticks yet we get a new member of SLT? It’s a joke and it’s sad to see.

It felt as though the school was a prison. The SLT did virtually nothing to help towards mental health of students and were far more focused on our grades and uniform. We’re talking about an institution where you could potentially be sent to detention for being caught with your shirt untucked three times, wearing your skirt too high above your knee, or cuffing your trousers!
There were some good teachers - people you could actually go to for help - and they tried their best. Then there were some frankly awful teachers; the sort of people who clearly didn’t like children, and cared very little for their well-being.
We had to do so many small tests and assessments in every subject. Yes, we received regular feedback, but the experience was stressful, especially when the more important tests were peer-assessed and had to be re-marked.
I feel like I should also mention the assignment or trainee teachers to GCSE students. There’s nothing more stressful than being in your last year of GCSEs and having a trainee teacher. The content that they taught us had to be taught to us again after they left, wasting valuable revision time.

Upon arriving at weekly assemblies, members of the SLT would stand at the doors to the hall and pull aside anyone whose uniform was not up to standard. Students were to arrive in silence and stay so until they had left the hall. The subject of many assemblies, especially from year 9-10 onwards, were about university and Falmouth sixth form; we were never even told about the option of taking an apprenticeship, almost as if they assumed that all students were going to stay on for sixth form, keeping us at the prison of a school. Couldn’t have been more glad to escape.

The food makes me want to gag the teachers make me want to cry and actually having to go to school makes me want to stick a pencil in my eye.

SLT have improved massively I must admit, they still need to improve a lot more. The safeguarding is awful, and the response time for students is Shockingly bad.

I’m a Year 11 Student at Falmouth School (2020). I think the Teaching Staff, the Junior Leadership team, the Safeguarding Team and the Senior Leadership team have done absolutely Outstanding with handling COVID. Every single Staff member I see, is wearing a Face Mask. The Hard work and I’m sure, many meetings with Staff has had an amazing outcome. I think the SLT at Falmouth Secondary couldn’t be any better. Nobody can tell me different about this, I’ve seen it upfront, in the Classroom and in the Corridors. Every single Staff member plays a key role, and they all play it Brilliantly.