Shenington Church of England Primary School

This school should be avoided at all costs. There is a strong issue with bullying at the school and it’s not with students , though when this does come up the school does little in the way of dealing with it but leadership at the school is well known for it. Leadership at this school encourages segregation of families and partakes in their own bullying behaviour, wether it’s with students or parents , it is not uncommon to have witnessed parents crying through stress and anxiety due to this leadership behaviour. A high number of children have been removed from the school due to this, children have their break, sports or any school activities that are deemed fun removed if their work is not deemed up to par , not regarding the child’s abilities, to make sure results stay high. My own child has had to witness children self harming at the school due to this , This issue was also not dealt with by the school as most complaints are down played or made excuses for or completely ignored by leadership, at the highest level also. The high amount of child withdrawal is also downplayed . The school takes no accountability. Safeguarding is often used as weapon towards the parents , so families have the mentally of “ don’t put your head above the parapets” so as not to have their child become a target. You often hear “ well as long as my child doesn’t get noticed” said. Over the years leadership has managed to segregate the school from the village community, it was once a thriving part of. Leadership at this school is more akin to working in the penal system than educating small children. Staff turnover is high, there are many TA’s compared to teachers at the school due to this. The leadership at this school spends much of their time correcting the staff to do things in their manner rather than letting the staff flourish or writing long winded often insulting newsletters than concentrating on running a school where the children feel safe and confident in. Parents and students are often made to fill out forms about the school , these are not anonymous so the school can correct the child to the answer that is in favour to the school or the parent can be encouraged to change their answer to be in favour. So generally it’s felt the forms then paints the school in a better light rather than a truthful opinion. My child came away from this school with anxiety, low self confidence , and stress after what they had to witness. Thankfully the school they now attend has done wonders to build them back up though the damage will always be there.

Since the current Head Teacher joined the school in 2009, there has been a huge turnover of staff, governors and pupils. Lots of families residing in the village within walking distance of the school moved their children out to neighbouring village primary schools. Whilst the school gets good academic results, there is a huge focus on maths and English, with other subjects being overlooked. There are many overly strict rules in place, and passive aggressive notices often appear in the weekly newsletter. Parents are subtly discouraged from interacting with each other. If they congregate for a chat in the car park the head comes out on some pretence to ‘have a quick word’ with one of them. I moved my child because I was concerned they would be given a really hard time moving up into the head teacher’s class.