Redhill Primary Academy

In summary: if you are a labour supporter and your child does not require any intervention, this is possibly the school for you.
I am a parent of three children at this school. The school is political and clearly supports labour initiatives to the extent they will orchestrate events with the local labour party and press. This will not surprise those readers who know the labour council leader's wife is a teacher at this school and is very much involved in labour party activities. The labour council leader himself visits the school to give assemblies. I strongly believe there should be a division between teaching and political views and I have registered my concern with the head teacher, but she is unwilling to change the status quo. In addition, one of my children requires additional needs and is on a very high banding, for which the school is very well compensated. Unfortunately, the SEND representative is extremely ineffectual and both his teacher and the head teacher are unwilling to provide the required needs. This is in clear contravention of their legal obligations but who is out there to enforce this? Certainly not the local authority (you cannot depend on them) and to take on personal legal representation requires at least five figures. Of course, no parent should require legal representation to force a school to support a SEND child, but sadly that isn’t the case here. Bullying is also a major concern to many parents and some of my children have experienced and are experiencing it now. The school takes a very soft approach to bullying, resulting in no consequences for the bully and, therefore, no reason to stop.
Unfortunately, there are so few school spaces in the area it may simply be a case of “better the devil you know” and “making the best of a bad situation”. Do not underestimate the level of stress this school will furnish you with – there are plenty of parents who have chosen to remove their children, due to SEND and bullying concerns.