John Ferneley College

What a poor school. Was abused by several members of staff after they neglected my son’s mental health. I spoke to them regarding this and they only made it worse. Due to this I requested to take my son out of school after he harmed himself several times. The school only went to reject this and made us to take our child out of school, all whilst they reject the fact he needed help after a family death and his mental health condition. Do not send you child here unless you want them in the same boat. Ps. The abuse from staff is awful. Ms Kettle Doesn’t Help the situation.

This school is bad I had a pizza thrown at me

Terrible and teachers have favourites

I'm a student here, no shocker, and I'm here with my view of the school. Overall, I enjoy what I learn (at times) however I have a few problems with this school due to the fact that they can't solve bullying with just "talking". 1: The bullying. Apparently they have a new "Anti-bullying policy" what would help to stop with the bullying. I call absolute bullshit. How the fuck does this solve shit? I've been bullied for years here and the bullies have stopped for some reason which I do not know of. You can see the lies of it when they speak. 2: The obvious homophobic, sexist and vile reactions they have. Now don't get me wrong, some staff here aren't like that but the staff clearly have priorities over one gender then another. For instance, Bias. The teachers here seem to have more bias over the girls then they do the boys. They'd rather host a tea party with the girls then be near a boy. They also dismiss human rights stating that you need "toilet pass" to go to the god damn toilet because apparently I would wander off and leave my shit in the classroom when I need to go to the fucking toilet? Fucking Bullshit. BULLSHIT. I've also seen how some staff treat the males as they start to target them out of no fucking reason whilst a girl could be blowing up a fuckin' plug and they wouldn't give a shit. 3: How they treat me. Now it's my turn. I've been shunned away from this school, they don't fucking help you. Whilst they're sitting in a pile of money because uniform apparently is "seriously important" because "it makes you represent JFC!" last time I checked I didn't want to represent a school who didn't give JACK SHIT about me. I hate how I have to come into this school knowing that I have to deal with this hellhole of a school. The education system is outdated for todays society as they focus on getting you into a "factory job" because that's what the education system is based on since some random guy paid the education system to make it based on menial labour jobs. End of, go fuck yourself JFC and don't send your kids here.

The school makes me feel terrible, they've done nothing to solve the bullying and I go here every day dreading going to the school. I asked for help and they said they would "talk to them". How the hell does "talking to them" solve 5 years of bullying? They'll just do it again when they think they're safe from teachers and any staff. Man, it's just beyond stupid.

this school is embarrassingly bad, the 2020-21 term was the last decent year, but ever since the introduction of such "teachers" as Mrs T and Mrs R the school has lost all values bonding it together. Such menial tasks as using the toilet or getting food is now a tiresome chore due to the terrible co-ordination of these activities. For example, the facilities are extremely undermaintained, with urine constantly flowing out of the toilets (confirmed for both genders' toilets) and to make this worse there are no hooks in the toilet cubicle, meaning you have no choice but to put your personal belongings on the dirty ground. The facilities have 3 male and female toilets, and one disabled toilet for each seperate gender, however the disabled toilets are completely useless as there are giant gaps through the doors due to the disabled toilet doors swinging outward. So there are really only 2 toilets per gender. However, more and more commonly toilets are becoming simply unable to use due to the filthy conditions of them, as the school fails to replace broken flushers. And with the very limited time you are able to go to the toilets, getting into one which feels safe and clean is apparently not a luxury ferneley can afford. I would be more understanding with them if they had a more lenient toilet policy, but you are only able to get to these toilets at breaktimes and lunchtimes with most teachers. Year 10 and year 11s have the designated maths block for breaktimes and lunchtimes, so all ~400 year 10s and 11s are dependent on an area of one toilets, Some people may make the case that there are two toilet blocks in the maths building, however we are not allowed upstairs during breaktimes and lunchtimes, so we are unable to use the upstairs facilities. All this combines to make the toilets extremely unusable, and I and many others just hold it in for the whole day. The school has issued all students an a4 red folder, while this is a good orginisation method they are an extreme pain, as they are very big and bulky, to the extent of a binder. They ate also extremely low quality, a very thin plastic material. With the amount of books GCSE students are expected to have in their bag, these folders are an extreme waste of space, and all students are expected to have this on hand at ALL TIMES, with punishment for failure to do so. The punishment system in the school is extremely flawed too, the punishment for fighting is very little, which is why fighting is commonplace throughout the school. You can unironically get no punishment for fighting if you just make up with the other party involved in the fight. I'm trying not to beat to death topics that have been discussed in other reviews, but I will like to comment that everything mentioned in other reviews are completely accurate. My last topic to mention is the topic about the experience in actual lessons. Many teachers do not have a desire to actually teach, and mostly overreact to minor disruption. They will take it personally and will take talking as an insult to their lesson. This would be fine if they were professional about it, however they will be sarcastic and snarky about it, and will waste useful lesson time taking out their anger on undeserving students, which is a waste of time for our GCSE lessons. Many teachers do not understand that they can be at fault in situations aswell. For example, in my GCSE physics class, the class average on a test was 4 out of 31, and the teacher hammered into us about failing to revise, even though this teacher clearly stated that she didn't even look at the test she was giving us. The highest score on the test didn't even crack the halfway mark of the test. This is very clearly the teachers fault. In one (GCSE) PCSHE lesson with Mrs S (not a cover lesson), HALF of the lesson was wasted on a worksheet about "how romantic you are" where you would be given a question and you had to answer which one applied to you. For example, it would ask you what books you enjoy, and A would be "Romantic novel" and D would be "I don't read books." The letters would equate to a mark, A being 4 and D being 1. The higher your overall mark would equate to how "romantic" you are, which is nowhere near accurate. This is a crude online quiz, it has no place in a school personal development lesson. When I challenged this wast of my time, I was told off and moved from my seat. I have helped at one of the school open mornings, and the school is presented far different to how it will actually be in school days. I would wholeheartedly reccomend you not to send your child here.

This school is probably the worst place I’ve been, we had an lgbtq+ wall up in performance not even a break time later it was ripped down by homophobic people, wasn’t put back up properly till about 3 weeks later?, people say slurs all the time and they think it’s solved by bringing people in to talk ab homophobia, transphobia but tbh it made it all worse, as a transgender person I’m scared to even set foot in this place let alone come out, we had a transgender talk and I was infront of 3 girls, popular ofc they where harassing me and my friends and even so sa me then pulled my friends hair out? But worst of all they said “I bet they where a freak in school” and proceeded to misgender them by saying so he’s a *dead gender* and we had a teacher close by do nothing. Because oh they’re always like that they won’t change, while they’re telling people to attempt suicide and self harm, the school said they’d check up on me bc of my mental health issues, not even one check up, this was two continuous years, new uniform policy is utterly disgraceful tbh I witnessed miss R (part of slt because I can’t say names) fully yell at a group of year 7 girls who’s skirts where only a little above their knees that they are the reason we have ankle skirts, not only are they scaring these little kids, they’re putting it out that what your wearing can make bad things happen? Like what the… I don’t see them yelling at boys for their tight fit pants but because biological women are sexualised because of their bodies we can’t wear stuff like that, also putting their logo on skirts so you can only buy them from certain shops where they cost a fortune, and sure they’re giving out free pairs but they never fit and it’s embarrassing to say to someone you’re struggling with ends at home, and they make a big deal about it, now there’s this one science teacher you either love or hate him but he makes really controversial remarks mr m now he’s an alright teacher ig but there are these popular girls who are always late and sure you may think what’s the point in dealing with you but he also picks on all people in that class mainly women, this poor girl had to stand up while he was yelling “let’s talk outside you’re trying to embarrass me” how dare he say she’s trying to embarrass Him when he’s singling her out for protecting her friend who just got kicked out for nothing? He also told me I had to put my blazer on or take my jumper off because Everyone has the same body temperature in the room and I shouldn’t argue with him bc he’s a biology teacher. Not a very good one obviously- There’s also all the toilets being blocked off by one way system and they’re like “go into the k toilets” but when I went in there mrs e stopped me and mr h, mr h never liked me because I sucked at history and didn’t do so well and mrs e hates everyone and takes out all her problems on the students, I needed the toilet and she was like “woah woah girls stop woah go out you can’t be in here” and I was gonna literally like burst open so I just ignored her and walked to the toilet, and this woman starts yelling “get out get out I will not handle this rudeness” like I’m sorry there are no other toilets we can go to and I needed to go, not to mention I was on my time of the month. We mention it but nothings done, they praise mental health but they think a school nurse is gonna make me not want to die, and I got an award for better attendance, it was quite embarrassing and humiliating tbh because I got an award for having better attendance than the last thing and they tried to photo me on the jfc insta didn’t force me luckily but still it was bad. There are only a few nice teachers and they’re all leaving bc of how bad the new school is, I hate this school I genuinely can’t express it more, I don’t wanna go longfield I don’t wanna go here it makes me feel really mentally drained. Their leaderboard of importance goes: uniform, yelling at people, naughty kids getting praised for what we do naturally and us getting nothing, students, grades, and mental health. Don’t go here if you want to be happy, seriously

Go here if you want to experience bullying, sexist rules and homophobia.

this school is extremely bad. they damage your mental heath and wellbeing although they say they care about us, they just care about our looks. here are just some of the rules: no jewellery, no nail polish, no nails, not aloud to go inside at break/lunch(even for the toilet), no coats even if they are the uniform colours, ask to pick up a pen, ALWAYS smile... is this a school you want to send your kids to? they don't deal with bullying and rudeness they just say, "You will do it when you are older". We are not aloud mobile phones and in emergencies we cant use our own we have to use the schools, what if we needed to say something private? The teachers are not respectful of the fact we are young and should be able to go to the toilet, even in emergencies they tell us we need to "control our bladders" In conclusion don't send your kid here.

Extremely bad school, care more about uniform and how we represent the school than our education, the teacher cannot control a classroom at all, bullying is not handled I am learning stuff I learnt in yr 3 should not be a school!!

This school is most likely one of the worst schools in Leicestershire. Not only are the new uniform rules extremely sexist like another person said, but they are making over 400 students (year 10 and 11) try and fit in one tiny auditorium that barely fits either year group at break and lunch, and if you tell them there is not enough room, you are expected to sit outside in the freezing cold. As well as this, when I reported an extensive amount of homophobic behavior (such as people using "gay" as an insult, or people using the F or T slur), which makes me, an LGBTQ+ person, uncomfortable and often scared to come to school, I was told that *I* would be allowed to leave class or have half days, rather than the school doing something and taking action on this behavior. I have also been given detention recently for "low-level disruption". This supposed disruption was me wearing jewelry. Forgive me if I'm wrong, but how exactly am I wearing a little bit of jewelry affecting mine or anybody else's learning? I would also like to say that one of the teachers frequently makes sexist comments or remarks without thinking, then excuses it by laughing and saying "Haha wow I'm so sexist!". If this is the role model we set for young and teenage boys, how are we ever meant to recognize and move on from the patriarchal society we live in? Finally, at the beginning of the term after the summer holidays, we spent 2 days learning and practicing the new rules. As a GCSE student, I feel this was an extreme misuse of valuable time that we could have spent learning. We also spent a whole day at the beginning of the term after the October holiday doing the exact same thing. Once again, I feel this is a huge waste of time that could've easily been covered in an assembly or one lesson. In conclusion, I would not recommend this school to anybody who cares about their child or their mental health.

something that was recently introduced on top of the other ridiculous rules. students have to bring a red folder with cards that hager be signed by the teachers every time the student leaves he classroom, however if they forget it, they cannot even go to the toilet for the whole day. when i brought this up their reply was, well you can go at break, however when anyone is seen inside unless eating in the cafeteria, they’re immediately told to leave. even if they manage to go to the toilet, it’s still 2 hours that you have to wait no matter how desperate, because as the assistant head said “we all have bladders, we can control them”. i also brought up periods. i asked “if someone forgot their folder but was either on or got their period mid-class, could they leave or would they be forbidden, and to the absolute shock, i got a response of “no. i use good sanitary products and don’t leak, neither should you. a few hours won’t do anything” i went onto mention that i have a friend who needs to change every 30 or so minutes and people have heavier flows and she told me i was exaggerating and that person should get better products. this was when i was with the assistant head, although prior to this, when in tutor i asked these exact questions and was blatantly told to “stop” and “shut up” and told “no”. these were both women and so their responses were even more shocking to me and other students there. i will mention something else though, students are constantly missing hours of actually valuable lessons to be taught how to smile and sit up straight and so on. i asked when i will get my lesson time back, since over 11 hours of my learning had been wasted already, and was told all this would be made up however i still hasn’t seen those extra 11 hours. students with mental health are dismissed. no reason is valid anymore. if you’re late to class or tutor by even a second, no matter if you suffer from any condition, you are still sat in detention. the school preaches about mental health, but most students can vouch the rules have only worsened theirs. furthermore, next year they plan on bringing in ankle length, john ferneley logo, pleated skirts, however they fail to recognise people come in all shapes and sizes. when given a skirt by the school which was too large on the waist i was told to tie it up with a hair bobble, now if this school is all about looking presentable and professional, how is that either of those? there’s also a male staff member who ‘lowers’ people’s skirts and tells them their trousers are too tight. assistant head was told this but refused to act on it because they’re “rumours”. overall, avoid this school. they’re attempting to mimic catmose, however if they’re bringing in those rules, atleast up the standard and quality of learning to match the other schools. another thing would be that all of these rules seem to mainly be direct at girls. this school is a tragedy

uttershithole, new uniform is the worst someone should really kill off some staff - still better than longfield tho

I am a student here, Ferneley is a great school the teachers and student managers are amazing and really easy to speak to. Much better than long field

Great school, staff are nice. Better than longfield.