Highsted Grammar School

I went here for secondary school and moved to a different school for 6th form. After experiencing other places I realised just how poor the treatment of students really are.

When i was attending, i was bullied by one girl for 5 years, which they were fully aware of and no one ever punished her. Furthermore, racism and homophobia were condoned and swept under the rug because they put on a hate crime awareness assembly once a year and had a couple of posters around then school.

Every year they had an assembly highlighting the top grades and who achieved them as someone to look up to and aim to be. They did not care for mental health or any conditions that may impact your learning e.g. Autism and ADHD. They put on a couple of assemblies a year and thought that was good enough. The SLG do not care about the students or their wellbeing, they are honestly a joke.

Students were given detentions for the smallest of things, i remember getting in a bus crash which thankfully only gave me whiplash but i still wanted to go home as i was very shaken up and had to go to the doctor. I had to fight to leave after a BUS CRASH. They tried convincing us it was a minor crash but i saw the other car driving home and it was CRUMPLED at the back. You got detentions if you didnt complete your homework in 24 hours, even though most of the time it would be a last period assignment for a first period class, only giving you that evening to get the work done.

I had to write countless statements about my bullying which left me with horrible anxiety and depression that i still struggle with 2 years later. And these statements never did anything as the people responsible were never held accountable for their actions.

At the ‘temp block’ that has been stood for at least 5 years, thats how long i was there. With the amount of funding they get i am at awe at how they never managed to replace that block but found the money for a new pe area. They say they value artistic people, but they push for you to be academic and go into academic based careers and not artistic ones. But that was just my experience.

Honestly i could go on for hours about how terrible and painful my experience at highsted was. Do not send your children. It will ruin their mental health. Please find a better school.

I actually can't comprehend all the awful reviews on here and I don't want to discredit anyone's experiences but it's really not as bad as everyone is making it out to be. I do agree that the school wasn't that good with dealing with mental health previously, but I genuinely think that was due to lack of experience/training, not because they don't care. Over the past three years especially, there has been a significant improvement in pastoral care. Highsted isn't perfect - but no school is. The teachers are caring people who are learning how to do more to support students and I've personally witnessed this. It honestly is a good school in comparison to the others in the area. I do think some students who have wrote negative reviews don't specifically dislike Highsted, they would most probably feel the same if they went to any other school.

This school is absolutely awful, the staff care more about rolled skirts and jewellery more than mental health, I got a 30 minute detention for “speaking back” to a teacher when I barely did anything, the safeguarding and overall design of the school sucks, the toilets are absolutely disgusting with period products thrown around carelessly when people actually need them. The teachers and SLG do absolutely nothing for the students at this school and absolutely nothing to help the students they make PowerPoints about how you should “never leave a girl in the water” and pointless girls on board sessions that do nothing when in reality, they don’t do anything for students who are mentally struggling or who are getting bullied, instead they are told to “calm down” and are just called attention seeking and dramatic, but what they don’t realise is that the reason why the students are struggling is because of THIS SCHOOL. They don’t support people who are LGBTQ+ don’t send your kids here and if you do, don’t expect them to not leave this school with tears and depression.

The tital is absolutely true. If you are thinking of sending your child here- DONT. They do not give one fuck about your metal health and make it even worse. As a person who has self harmed in the passed, i feel abused at this school and they do nothing about it. The amount of times a teacher has targeted me for talking even thought the whole class is talking is unreal, and it is to the point where I do not
want to come into school. Another reason to not send your child here is the inhuman, unhygienic bathrooms. I have seen period blood, used sanitary products and even feces
in the stalls and it will not be cleaned for over weeks. This school will traumatize you and your child. To be honest they need to just stop raging over your skirt or your phone and worry more on serious problems like mental health or the unhygienic state of this school.

shit horrible minging bitchy school

Slg are so trashy. They don’t care about anyone other than themselves and it’s so hilarious because teachers literally talk bad about them to the students then leave 😂😂. If the SLG didn’t want people to leave bad reviews about them then maybe they should stop being selfish and sort themselves out

HT is the issue - a delusional bully surrounded by sycophantic senior leaders. Outstanding Ofsted is over a decade old and inevitably will be downgraded in next inspection. Unable to retain or develop staff, an issue that has been worsening for year on year.

Highsted is a very bad school. They do not give 2 abt how the students feel but act like they do. DO NOT GO HERE

highsted is shit.

having endured a painful five years at this school I'm so fed up. having done three sets of mocks in the last 6 months it's very evident that this school lies their focuses on grades to keep their high reputation which is a complete disregard for students' mental health and has become crippling. it was brought to their attention in year 10 how messed up the people were and how ill our mental health had become and it was all "fixed" by some shitty support sessions where they made bottles filled with glitter like four-year-olds.

another thing that has come to my attention is that the maths department is insane - there are support sessions at lunchtimes which are supposedly compulsory as well as support sessions in the mornings which are also compulsory and during pe lessons which are also compulsory. they demand that you attend all of these to keep your grades up as I have heard from my maths teacher that part of her criteria as a teacher is that she makes everybody in year 11 get a 5 in their maths GCSE. so we have little to no free time. what doesn't help is the complete lack of maths teachers so much so that we have to combine classes and this is hindering our education because there are two sets of classes together that should not be together.

the lack of support for mental health is ridiculous. they just dont seem to care because it isn't a good grade... having struggled with poor mental health for years. highsted has never handled it well and have made me feel constantly pressured to say this i dont want to and sign people up for irrelevant support programs that just clearly arent working for anybody - its a complete pisstake. they fail to see that part of the dilemma is highsted is a horrible place to be , the people are awful. the students are awful to eachother and its a dreadful environment to be and many others feel the same way. i fear going around in school alone anymore because of the spite and aggressive mindset of other students.

most teachers are genuinely lovely people and get the work done with us and are helpful but also have a bit of fun too , they are my favourite part of highsted. its a shame that highsted is so shit that it drives them away. there is hardly any teachers in most departments are we are having lessons upon lessons of substitute teachers who know nothing about the subject and this close to are exams its honestly dangerous to our learning. its not fair on us- we are having weeks at a time of cover teachers and shoving a textbook infront of you. i feel so awful for the teachers at this school. having heard them talking about the SLG and the head teacher at this school is heartbreaking to hear what they have gone through: sometimes traumatising experiences as i heard from one of the teachers. the headteacher may seem sweet and nice but she is awful to these teachers from what ive heard , theres a lack of care for their wellbeing as well as their families and capabilities , theres only so much one person can do. my heart genuinely goes out to some of these teachers.

they care so much about the stupid uniform and if im wearing hooped earrings rather than what actually needs to be looked at. the school is falling apart. they slut shame students wearing their skirts how they want to and what doesnt help is the pedophile teacher that stares at girls chests and legs and hovers over them and calls the students "good girls" this teacher has even been seen having porn on their screen when their shared an education video with the class. their are completely inappropriate at should not be a teacher at the school. they have been very well known to make students uncomfortable and its common knowledge at highsted that their are a creep and students tend to try and keep away. this teacher also posts rascist things online and i do believe it has been reported to a teacher before.

i dare not continue because theres so many things that make this school shit , its a school built on heavy discrimination , disregard for health and lies. dont send your child here for their own sake and yours.

The leadership team of this school are not great. It's beyond how they have never been investigated over high turnover of staff. There is limited communication between the SLG team and the rest of the staff. Not many people last beyond a few months as if you are not in the management team you are not respected and treated like you don't matter and can be replaced. Many that have left have now realised what a bad place it was to work. Having healthy relationships with other staff members is frowned upon, certainly no fun or laughing is allowed. Leadership just pass the buck and never take responsibility for anything. There is zero compassion for students or their families. It is run by delusional adults who do not care about anything other than the students getting the grades to keep their reputation. The teachers on a whole are great but would be so much better under different management.

as a gay, i found that this school made me homophobic towards myself. if your child is also gay, i would recommend not sending them to this school.

also, highsted caused my long-lasting depression. i can’t provide evidence for this, but trust me. their response to my suicidal thoughts was to give me a few sessions of counselling and then they never checked in on me again. the pandemic was the only thing that prevented me from jumping out of the window from one of the rooms in the school.

the only redeeming quality of this school is its teachers, who are all pretty chill. apart from that, this school is a complete nightmare. if you don’t want your child to potentially become an anxious mess who thinks that a bad grade will kill them, then for the love of god, look somewhere else.

if anyone from highsted is reading this, stop being homophobic and start reaching through that thick skull of yours into your smooth brain to try and find a memory from a time when you considered your students to be people rather than exam machines.