St James's Church of England High School

Student to teacher communication is horrible, they claim to be a very personal and informed school yet many pupils are lost and confused in their daily activities. They hardly ever listen to student's opinions and voices when concerns arise and are quick to blame students without listening to a complete story.
Many teachers had blatant favourites and hardly ever rewarded those students who were consistently doing things right, they have also acknowledged this previously yet make not effort to change.
Many teachers, who have been complained about consistently, aren't taken seriously by the school and allow children's education to be ruined as they are 'lacking in staff'. Many other teachers also start to leave after a couple of years after getting a taste of what St James' is actually like as a community.
The school is overall full of litter and nobody seems to enforce the rules of picking up the litter but the SLT are rather focused on make-up and jewellery instead of the rubbish-heap thrown across the school grounds. The student environment is very hostile and aggressive both in and outside of classrooms. Many students are violent towards each other both physically and verbally, with a heavy use on homophobic, racist and ableist language which staff seem to ignore.
Workload, from year 10-11, is incredibly heavy and most are unable to keep up without burning out. Causing more anger between students and teachers. Mocks dates in year 11 are too close together and stress out students as they are constantly flooded with tests and exams as teacher rush through the spec as they are unable to fit in all the content because of the mocks so closely spaced out together.
The canteen area is always dirty and left a mess between lunches and breaks as students have no consideration for their environment. It is also very crowded as the canteen has to accommodate 2-3 year groups of around 200 students at a time, there are little places to sit and enjoy food and not enough time at breaks and lunches to queue up in the long lines and sit down to eat.
Uncommon mental health symptoms, such as aggression and self harm, are not taken seriously at this school and are brushed under the rug. Many teachers, despite having a 'mental health team', are unable to help with many mental health symptoms as students are often described as 'erratic' and 'unreasonable' yet are clearly struggling.
The ridiculous rules, especially in the PE department, make this school even more of a nightmare. Having DT's for not having the right colour socks or PE kit once is ridiculous. Same with the no jewellery, no earrings (even clear ones) and sometimes even no pin badges, St James' wants their students to express who they are yet take away every opportunity to do so.

However, not all teachers are horrible. A few actually care for the students and understand they are teaching 11-16 year olds who are going through puberty and are prone to be emotional. The quality of teaching overall is decent but there are much better options outside of St James'.
The facilities are constantly being updated with new equipment, books and air conditioning yet are always out of glue-sticks or whiteboard pens.
The selection of food types is wide and interesting to celebrate all cultures and different tastes. Culture day is also a positive as it is the ONLY chance students are allowed to celebrate their heritage without being told off for colour in their braids.

Overall, If I had children in the future, I wouldn't send them to St James'.

An absolute nightmare, shocking staff, don't give any efs abt bullying, and over just a terrible school. They want the best out of you then put you in a classroom with the loud mouthed kids and just expect you to learn somet, it's shocking to be fair, don't send your kids there because you'll only know they're suffering after they've attempted suicide or actually succeeded in taking their life. The ofsted rating is from years ago but they lie on the website because they got outstanding 1 time were the worst behaved school in the Bishop Fraser trust, so yeah don't go ❤️

the school as a whole is a pack of lies they share on their websites, the majority of student are depressed and have developed anxiety , i one, from the teachers alone. Majority see pupils as grades and potetential pay rises and the lack of empathy for mental illness really describes staff. though few teachers fully understand anxiety and shapes lessons to aid EVERYONE the rest disregard mental illness and cause pupils potential panic attacks when put in situations they have said are uncomfortable in. since the new headteacher has took lead the rules became unbearable, to the point of many female student indeed having UTIs due to it being banned going to the toilet during classes.
their method of dealing with bullying was a telling off that caused 0 outcome.
the school was the cause of my depression and anxiety and i just feel as though parents need to see the truth.