Saint Benedict, A Catholic Voluntary Academy

Complaints disappear here. The governors don’t even know the reputation of the head who has been described in the same way on here in reviews as she is by children I know, as a bully with a uniform obsession. If you complain about her, records will not be kept. She said that she had never had a formal complaint before 2022 yet anyone with kids there or students actually attending all know her behaviour is a real cause for concern and has been for years. If you have a complaint about her, make sure it is brought to the attention of the head of governors. I would not trust emails as they are vulnerable to interception.Post it, marked private and confidential for addressee only. It was unbelievable how little they knew and probably still don’t know, about her behaviour. The effort it took to actually have them listen was monumental. Expect obstacles at every turn.

I had worst experience with this school since my child started this school in September he was keep bullying by children and school staff didn’t do anything thing being racist every single time making rational comments children are mannerless as well as teacher they said we will give our words that your child is safe but unfortunately nothing like that making false promises one of their favourite hobby discipline 0 highly recommended that think about at least hundred times to put your child in this disgusting school environment is not good very bad school teacher gives OR as. Detention to kids but they need this one as well for being deaf and dump.

I hate it but I still have to go unfortunately. They're raising the bus fairs just because they don't spend their funds correctly and now students parents who have to pay two pind for sing and three fifty for return every week who r struggling have enough have to pay more . Bad school.Bad teachers.Bad headteacher.Absolutely bonkers funds. Ps students were forced to pay a fiver for "food tech ingredients" which ended up being funded towards school repairs since they are soo broke Only good thing abt school is the shows and form tutor

Mrs molumby makes me feel drained and unhappy I don't like coming to school I cried the other day because of her I want to be happy when I come to school but I'm not just because she doesn't like the way I'm standing like what I come to school because I just want to get good In my GCSE's

Saint Benedict Catholic Voluntary Academy is a Catholic school, meaning the options kids get to pick are limited. I wasn't able to do business studies, for example, because I was forced to take both History and Religious Studies, which is not very helpful in the career goal I've had since I was ten. As said in most reviews, there is a classroom called 22B which is commonly called by everyone, "the soggy cardboard box". It is quite literally falling apart. Students aren't allowed in the entryway unaccompanied because it's a hazard, the insulation (which most likely has glass in it) is poking out of dozens of tiny cracks I the walls and the ceiling has poster's on it to hide the rot from the leaking it does under heavy rain damage. It does deserve to be bulldozed and replaced, as they've been promising to do since 2008 when my older sister first joined. The teaching staff are mostly nice people. Except for the religious studies and foreign languages departments, and this very horrible science teacher who shall not be named, who, because she is so bad at teaching chemistry, a friend of mine has actually hired a tutor so that she doesn't fail her gcses. Most of the religious studies department are openly homophobic and one (the one preventing 22B from being shut down) told a bisexual girl that she was going to H*ll. Also, senior staff team are also cruel and unnecessary with shouting. The uniform policy is by far the most disgusting thing in the world. Badges aren't allowed on blazers (a new addition to the rules), when I asked why this was I was treated with disrespect, belittling, and told that they weren't allowed for political reasons (nobody has ever worn a political badge in school so I'm forced to assume that the headteacher was talking about the pride badges that a group of yr 9s had started wearing to make themselves feel more comfortable in school). Ankles can't be shown (which if you didnt know is a sexist belief dating back to the victorian era, because poor women who wore shorter dresses, that showed their ankles, so that they didn't get dirty, were expected to be pr*st*t*tes). Short skirts are also banned, boots are banned (which is stupid since they've banned ankles and boots HIDE ankles), pencil skirts are banned, wavy skirts are banned, beards are banned (which causes obvious religious based problems) and bald heads are banned. Students can't go to the toilet during lessons, and most of the toilets are locked no matter the time of day anyway. There are no non uniform days or days for recreational purposes, no support for mental health. There's a ridiculous amount of mandatory homework that teachers are forced to set more than just every week. There is a dr*g and v*pe problem among some of the students, which staff know about but do not discourage, along with a few racist and sexist reasoned physical assaults that have happened, with the guilty party never having any punishment. Other than that, the school is average. The food is good, the OTHER teachers are kind, there's a lot of help for people with physical disabilities, the music and art departments are well funded, the chapelin is a very kind lady who helps people wherever she goes, and the students are generally nice people.

This school was already somewhat bad when i joined (2015) however it managed to get worse and worse every year. This peaked when a new member of staff joined the school who I can see was anonymously mentioned in another review. She brought in extremely outdated and misogynistic rules, whilst breaking all herself and forcing other members of staff to abide by them, clearly harassed other staff members which was evident by their attitudes and views of her and she even bullied many of the students as a fully grown adult which is completely pathetic (an insult she used on me once whilst leaning over me and shouting in my face). It is clear that not even the staff like her and the behaviour she exudes is completely ridiculous and childish, she abuses her power constantly to harass literal children who are just trying their best to get through school which is already stressful enough. The only way to describe her is a school bully who never wanted to leave. Other issues seem minuscule in comparison however I will mention them here anyway; one of the RS classrooms is falling apart, mouldy and constantly has drips coming from the ceiling, GCSE options have recently become even more limited meaning that some students are unable to study a subject(s) that it vital for their aspired career because it is “not academic enough”, many teachers think it is okay to shout at students as a form of discipline or control (this is not okay, go back to training), by this point I’m not convinced the school even has a nurse anymore, there is a cycle of teachers letting students out late then their next teacher shouting at them for being and letting them out late as a punishment meaning that this whole cycle continues again and again and the only people who get in trouble are the students when they did nothing wrong, adults constantly presuming students have done something wrong without any reason, a ridiculous one way system meaning that to get to the next door room one may have to leave then walk around the entire building, re-enter and then go to their classroom, severe lack of mental health support, blatant favouritism and general lack of care for students or aspirations for their life after school. I have hardly scratched the surface on how awful my experience at this school was, no wonder my two favourite teachers left after my last year.

Really poor. Learned Nothing there. Bullying was NEVER dealt with and suffered physical harm in a physics laboratory with wires (strangled). Those kids were never excluded or in any further case at least sanctioned. Absolutely appalling.