Harlaw Academy

This school is absolutely horrendous. My daughter has went here for two years. She has came home multiple times crying. She has been locked up in a room for six hours multiple times. She has been laughed at for being dyslexic. There is absolutely no support here for kids with additional needs. The headteacher locks, the girls toilets, but not the boys he comes into the girls toilets as a male I did not think this is very acceptable!! if your kid has additional needs, please don’t come to this school!!

I've been at the school for 3 years so far, and it is an absolute hellhole. I'm trans and have had the T slur shouted at me multiple times, and even if it's within a teachers earshot, they ignore it. I've went to teachers multiple times about the issue, but instead of the person shouting the slur getting into trouble, I do. The school apparently 'thrives in their no-bullying policy', but it's obvious that they don't care at all about their students. Another issue are the toilets, and/or the janitors. The girls toilets are locked most of the time, and when they're not, there are usually only 1 or 2 stalls that have a working lock or toilet. The janitors do NOT clean the toilets, no matter what they say. They will only spray around the sinks, mirrors and, occasionally, clean the floors, though its more often than not that they don't. They won't let you out to the toilet even if you're on your period or if you have a pass. Multiple students have a toilet pass, but teachers still don't let them out, and get mad when the student leaves anyway. There are also teachers that aren't even qualified in the subject they're teaching. The school is an absolute disgrace.

The teachers are horrible they don't care about you wouldn't put your
all they care about as long as they're getting paid they won't care about your kid
when you have a meeting in the head teacher says he was there but he wasn't

I wouldn't put your kids here

It’s honestly just bad, they do not care or do anything about bullying or racism apart from telling them to stop, they just tell you not to retaliate and to tell a teacher but if you do tell a teacher you are a snitch, bad education because of disruptive students who cause trouble for no reason just to get a laugh of people and make it hard to focus, wouldn’t recommend sending your child here unless they’re a roadman or chav, bad education system and don’t do much to help kids understand what there doing, quite a few teachers are rude, and the head teacher acts like he’s running a primary school, this school is ridiculous, and could do with an upgrade, s1 playground wall was literally crumbling and they had to corner off the wall so it didn’t hit someone, and the amount of fights That happen here are way to many, not to mention the people who get jumped outside of school and on literal buses where you should feel safe, and it is over the most ridiculous reasons and lies. From someone who’s experienced it all firsthand Don’t send ur kid here as will either get bullied or will change into one of the disruptive pupils who are just rude.

Worst School Ever.

Too many people who dont shower go here, stinks, too many weirdos, teachers are creeps, had raw food from canteen many times, notorious pedofiles main target is harlaw so watch your back!

The food is not nice at all I think they should get better people to cook the food and that they should clean up more because the school is disgusting and they need to put more bins around

Overall a decent school however certain teachers want to purposely leave children out and make them feels upset on a day which should be fun as it is their last day of school. Miss esslemount is a joke .

Horrible schools they’d o nothing about pupils mental health issues and a lot of jokes from teachers and head teacher that are just so sad like the things my son gets told by the teachers is actually a real shame they joke about kids not getting anywhere in life and just such cruel stuff not being supported and telling them they can’t achieve anything in life is just so heart breaking to hear from people that should be encouraging and setting an example and also joking about mental health as well and also teachers being very rude and a lot of favouritism’s a lot teachers will be nice to some students and horrible to others a lot is sexism happens in that school is ridiculous and other thing is that they don’t give second chances when they make a mistake then they don’t give u a second chance which is not right in the school your supposed learn and learn from your mistakes and should definitely be given chances to proof yourself and also another thing is, is that students don’t get to say there opinions and get ignored when they go through things struggle in class or don’t want to be in class for personal reason and being told to just go to class and stop complaining which is just horrible to say when someone could be going through something could be from other people in class or other reason but they don’t care, they do not care about the students at all they only care about there reputation as a school

Best not send your kid here if you want them to thrive. There are too many disruptive pupils at this school and discipline isn't really enforced adequately. The more studious children are unable to concentrate in class due to the constant disruptions of unruly pupils and lack of teacher control. The Head Teacher doesn't seem to sanction pupils who spoil it for others. It's not a happy place.

First of all, they lock the toilets. They also have told students they cant not use the bathroom and must wait untill bell. Most of them are locked time to time, and for people who get periods, they need to say if they are on it to get allowed out. The excuse the Headteacher says 'its caused by vandilism', which can be a good reason, but that shouldnt stop people from going to the bathroom. It's a basic human need. They say they are against hate crime and bullying but they're not. For example, someone can say the T slur and get away with it, even if the teacher hears it, but as soon as the person who is getting hate crimed on says something, they get into trouble and not the person doing the hate crime. Also the school will also try and out you to your guardian, even if you say you're scared of the outcome and say its not safe. Take Hazlehead Academy, they dont out the students to their guardians!
They also let someone get away with sexual touching people without their consent. This is a female pupil, if you're wondering. The school did nothing and went on about consent in 'sex ed', which wasnt as good as I hoped it was supposed to be in 2022! Harlaw better fix all of their problems, this school is bad enough already.
This is by two year 3 students.

The school is ok. I think if they could get more money somehow, then they should spend it on refurbishing the SCHOOL and NOT the bathrooms, because the bathrooms always get vandalised and then they don’t spend the money on broken roof tiles or flooded floors (my English room got flooded and there was an area of wood that had lifted up but they didn’t do anything about it).
I guess the teachers alright, there are a few amazing teachers that I love but it’s mainly the people that go there (students ) that I hate. Other then that it’s fine

this school could not care less about the students. they do nothing about racism and bullying and all the head teachers have favourites. eg. i get in an argument and i was not the one that started it i was pushed ans shouted at so i shouted back. the girl got off and nothing happened to her but i got my phone taken off me (over something that had nothing to do with my phone) and i was not allowed to go to class that day (i am still sitting the mrs rennys office) they defend the people in the wrong (racist ect) and say that you should not defend yourself and 'should let the staff deal with it' even though they do nothing. this school is awful and one of the teachers is a pedo and gets a boner in class. i can say SO MUCH more but i cba so yeah just dont send your kids here

I’ve been bullied, school done nothing. Nobody is nice, all together there are about 5 good teachers. Homophobic dude is disrespectful about my sexuality and teacher did nothing saying “he’s just joking around”.

horriblw school they dont take care of mental health or other illneses

As a student who has been in harlaw academy for 3 years I can say that the staff does not care about whether or not you're being bullied or doing bad at studying or any other issue. it's incredible how a school that supposedly cares about the wellbeing of the pupils has to set a fence in the playground because they cannot control their pupils.

I have already put this review on Google, but I think it belongs here.
The school is beyond capacity, the teachers mostly try, but lack resources, the internet (when being used by two or three classrooms) will usually be 5mbps, black market for tobacco, drugs, etc. Only one elevator (circa 1940 it seems) for the entire complex, and the complex is segmented, meaning if you are wheelchair bound, or cannot use stairs, most of the building is off limits, including the special education room. This building still has great potential, if it can go under renovation for a few years.

don’t really listen to recommendations from pupils and we are much more disadvantaged than any other school in the area.

This school is terrible don’t come hear

bad school don’t send ur kids