St Helena School

teachers are rude and lie to parents about children to make students look bad when they are a shit school

Bro someone literally brought in a knife to kill someone in like year 9 (kinda recently) Like that's crazy . some of the teachers are the absolute best though 💗

I am in shock with the comment that i have just read from an employee. St helena is not a good school and were not spreading lies were just telling you what they want to hear. Honestly this school is the worst school i have ever been to. They except bullying and the staff will do nothing abt it. When receiving death threats i was told that 'they wouldnt do that' or 'no not that person'. They say they care abt pupils mental health but they dont care. Since moving out of this school i have been so much better off. If ur planning to send ur child here than pls dont. Save their mental health and run while u still can

I've just read review about this school saying it's a wonderful place and people need to stop spreading lies about the school. They aren't lies. It's the truth. The school is just scared of their name being dragged in the dirt. This school never listens to what the students have to say. I have never been more mortified at a school system in my life and that's saying a lot. a day or two ago, a student went to their designated "safe place" and got told to leave because they were "too busy". This student was in tears and crying out for help and the pastoral team turned her down. This is what this school does and i don't even want to get started on some of the teachers here. One of the teachers gave a student a detention for "truanting" because they were upset and needed to calm down. They don't understand some of the problems some of these kids may have. They need to realise that some of the bad students that act up in school are crying for help because they desperately need it. And the lack of hygiene in the school is unbearable. One of the students that i know from that school has informed me that the floor in the science class rooms are appalling. They told me that the science floors look like they haven't been mopped in years. The amount of mud and dirt and dust that's on the floor, no wonder why they're all getting sick. And I've also been informed about the toilets. It makes me sick just thinking about it. They always smell, they're always dirty and they're barely safe to use because some of the students in that school like to break the locks. Its horrific. I hope one of the teachers from that school read this and make improvements to the school because it's unfair on the students. And the food there. Just ew. A few of the students there have eaten bright pink chicken and some of them have eaten human hair that wasn't from their heads. Unbelievable. Despicable. Disgraceful.

I've seen a lot of negative reviews about this school and I want to clear something up. Nothing is wrong with this school. The school atmosphere is lovely, I've never been more satisfied. The school facilities are up to date and beautiful. This school provides a safe and happy atmosphere for all its students and handles bullying wonderfully. Unfortunately, some of the students think its funny to say that the school has awful disciplinary skills, that it allows bullying or that the school itself is run down and dangerous, especially the library. Let me clear this up.
There is nothing wrong with the school, especially the library. Stop spreading lies about the school, saying you had a terrible education or that you keep hearing weird noises coming from the library, especially "during the winter months when it gets dark sooner", to quote one of these reviews. It disgusts me to say that even former staff are spreading these lies. To all my colleagues using this website, let me remind you that the librarian did not "go missing under suspicious circumstances", he is currently working at another school, where he is quite well.
To all those who are looking to work here or to enrol their children, I highly recommend this school, and ask you to please ignore all those terrible lies being written about us. That girl was very troubled, and there was absolutely no correlation with her being a part of the book club and staying late in the library.
There is nothing in the library. Stop asking about the library.
Have a nice day!

this school is a massive joke. Honestly its unbelievable. dont send your child here unless you want them to be overly stressed, depressed and feel uncomfortable around every male teacher

As a student here currently, i hate it. Theres more nonces here than ive had hot dinners ngl. if youre a parent reading this, dont send your child here. this school is the definition of depression. hope this is helpful

So, this school may appear quite good during an open evening or on the prospectus. However, that isn't the reality for most students. There are quite a few teachers I really get on with but that's my personal opinion and It doesn't really affect my opinion of the poor school because they haven't got anything to do with the system, timetables, or rules. Not to my knowledge anyway. I don't really know where to start, I'll just start on the fact they always are yelling about acting like young adults when they have to escort us everywhere we go, and wait for us outside toilets because of a select few misbehaving students that they can't be bothered to deal with personally. Our timetables literally destroy mental health and cause such tiredness with year 11's having straight two hour lessons with no chance to rest their brain. The subjects are really limited and the school is generally run down, they say that the cleaners 'clean' yet you'll find scruffy lunch tables with crumbs everywhere- but blame it on the students. Even though the majority put their litter in the bins provided. Lessons drag because of the long time we spend inside doing work, so I can't say I'm an engaged student. I've tried again and again to get the required support for my personal needs but pastoral only allocate two minutes standing outside of a classroom and will then force you back inside despite you either crying or not able to breathe, which I think is neglecting but at the same time I can understand if they're busy. They do try to support less academic students with after school tuition or morning tuition but It's mandatory and the students can feel drained and run down with the extra lesson then pressure to revise.There isn't much interaction between years because of staggered lunchtimes. You're only allowed in one square of space during your break but when I was younger, before Covid, you could spend lunchtime nearly anywhere you wanted and didn't have to line up at the end of your break. During the summer season, you're still not allowed on the grass and students can get frustrated when teachers start yelling because your foot is slightly in a greener area. The food is, ew. Not too bad I guess but pretty disgusting and the options for food were more varied before Covid, which I guess might be because of the budget but still, it gets boring. The medical nurse has made me feel un welcomed numerous times and everybody says they're unhelpful. There are also teachers who make the students very uncomfortable, mainly girls, but I won't name who. The uniform is very strict and they will look you up and down to check for a problem, students struggling with heat and visibly sweating were forced to wear their blazer when walking around and you're forced to have your sleeves down when attending assembly. you get hour long detentions for minor things, such as being one or two minutes late to class despite the corridors being congested during change over. I could talk for hours on other flaws but I can't but if I had the choice, or could go back in time, this school wouldn't be for me. I hate attending here.

Have terrible metal health/bullying/disability help. Teachers ,though not all, will take out their frustrations on the students, verbally abuse and even bully them. Known to have a severe favouritism problem and a tendency to lock some children in the pastoral room against their will without there being a concern of a student hirting themselves or others. It used to be somewhat decent a few years back but has gotten worse and worse going onwards. Theyve had multiple rat problems and the bathrooms near music look absolutely terrible and are usually closed . They refuse to let girls on their periods go bathroom and punish them for going (usually because they bled through thier bottoms) even when they discreetly let the teacher know why.The big field is also now mostly off limits to students at break and lunch which can be annoying because theirs a lot of students at st helena. Some students at st helena suffer from anxiety and have 'exit cards' that arent supposed to be questioned yet are constantly by teachers, humiliating the student in front of their class. The exit cards also allow the student to sit just outside the class , many have to sit on the floor because they get weakness in their legs and body .passing teachers , usually higher up teachers, will berate students who sit , more worried about the schools reputation from visitors and will give debits on students accounts for it and tell them to stay standing. The front door exit/entrance for students is too small for the amount of students that attend and has a carpet/mat thing that ,at the end of school) rides up and trips students. The exit crowd is very dense and this has caused many injuries in the past. Some places in the school are rundown and the supplies in some subjects are very low on funding yet they have spent money on usless TVs in the halls that only present slides singing the schools praises (in other words are only for show) instead of potentially usefully information for students. The foods somewhat nice however the breakfast toast/coffee/tea knives and spoons aren't sanitary, they leave a cup of water next to the spreads and students use them and are ment to just put them in the cup for the next person to use so they arent clean, most students either come in super early for it or dont touch it because its disgusting.

my experience is okay but things could be a lot better.they need to be less strict than they are. phones should not be banned as it keeps everyone who has one entertained. the school needs to improve a lot with facilities and the uniform.

Terrible. Teachers are rubbish and don’t support you with learning. Pastoral are rubbish aswell, they don’t sort anything out despite the amount of friendship issues. All they do is get you to write statements. You are not allowed to the toilet unless you physically beg like a 5 year old. At break and lunch they close the toilets quite early on. Which means stuedents are banging on the door asking tk go to the toilet which they are being refused by lunch time duty staff (they lock the door). It’s just overall rubbish. The only good teachers are LSA’s 😂

Have to call for someone to collect you and take you to the toilets at the age of 16

What kind of f*cking school makes you put your hood down in the rain. I'm sorry but this school sucks in every area. Please I beg you sort yourself out.

this school is the equivalent of your bathroom after your dad just took a hot, steamy shit

I think St. Helena is a an average school, there isn't anything fantastic about it and It's very run down. I'm a student and to be honest there are many teachers who don't listen to you and speed through slideshows and don't explain what you need to learn in depth. They always go on about exams with out any actual support. The rules are totally irrational, with no self-expression allowed.You get hour detentions for being 1 minute late, even if you are on the school site. The teachers are nice yeah but not amazing at their job. The only thing I find positive about the school is the pastoral support who have practically kept me going.
Students are horrible, there is smokers just outside of the site, violent too. Teachers don't have much control over chavy bad-behaved students. There isn't anything about the school that makes it stand out, classes and working walls are not engaging. I think, as horrible as this is maybe look into other schools before you choose this one as your own. There are for sure more negatives then positives. Bullying happens all of the time, with name-calling and teasing happening right before the teachers eyes and nothing being done about it.Rules and website are purely for show, they put their appearance before how it makes the students feel. rubbish to be honest.

the head of year is incredibly biased and favors the smart kids and the kids who are part of the lgbt as the school cares more about appearance and representation than actually doing anything useful

Absolutely terrible school all they care about is how things look not how it actually is, as long as it looks ok from the outside the head of school is rude and treats the school like a boot camp I’m all for children learning but where is the freedom and the mental health side is disgusting the staff need to be trained properly not some cheap training where they can’t be assed some proper training on this where they actually understand and have some compassion the school only cares about there image not the core horrible school I cannot and won’t recommend at all this school is discriminating towards mental health they roll their eyes and can’t be bothered with it they say they dont have the facilities when they should have and only help who they want to and pick to like a pick a mix and if your face don’t fit this school is full of crap and I’ve pulled all my children from it please avoid I’m not just saying it everything will look great on outside because that’s all they care about teachers and the boot camp doors being locked no way out it’s wrong !

Despite some of the negatives, the school has really improved in helping children with their school work and mental health, especially with year 11s. In our year a lot of people developed tics and we were very highly supported and given ways to help and make us feel comfortable and safe whilst also being to focus on our school work. A majority of teachers were very kind and non judgemental and wanted to ensure that we had the same educational opportunities. Overall a very good school in my opinion.

Pretty s*** school to be honest, about a third of the teachers are spineless and never get anything done, instead of teaching maths they tell their life stories and joke around with the c**** that are expected to get a grade U.
Most of the good and memorable teacher left since the new headteacher joined, now the school is mostly former Colchester Academy teachers that either have no clue what they're doing or can't handle a class at all.

This school wasn't that bad up until the second half of 2019 when we got the new headteacher, there are still some great teachers but the majority have either left or moved elsewhere.

*extra note: people are too sensitive and teachers are biased