St Mary's Catholic High School, A Catholic Voluntary Academy

If you are an 'A' star student, the school will walk on hot coals for you. However, bullying is rife!!! They have a safeguarding teacher. I would be amazed if she could spell safeguarding!!!!!
St Mary's you are a disgrace. You need to look after your vulnerable, shy students!!!

Really weird school. Don't send your kids here unless you are a teacher in which case your kids won't be bullied and they will be made head boy/girl. Really bad school with strange rules. More like a cult than a normal school

Don't like this school.I was an employee until fired.

The education at this school is great, however some subjects are better than others. As a student, you get very little homework across all subjects (I am not sure if this is solely due to the ‘COVID-19’ pandemic), which is good for some, but bad for others who want to amplify their learning and knowledge of subjects. Teachers are great and show vehemence in their subject (especially teachers of Art), but sometimes they use the erroneous terminology when talking to students, especially displaying a lack of sympathy to student’s with personal problems.

Literacy is just left-wing balderdash, and discourages free and critical thinking; as you look at ‘examples’ of persuasive language devices being used, however they just denote modern day societal issues, but their are all all left-wing opinions and none are non-bias or conservative sources, which would help spark discussion (which is a principal point of English Literature) in class; however most students do not form their views on these ‘examples’. Different faculties are dissimilar to others: Maths and History are fantastic (as stated in the ‘Ofsted’ report from 2013), however Biology is a major weak point - you learn the same thing (ecosystems) in Biology and Geography, and Geography’s way of teaching is far superior. Usually the head of the department is the best teacher of that subject, but not always.

Behaviour discipline is arbitrary and based on the member of staff - some handle it in a professional and effective manner, while others are inept. When their is a quarrel between both genders, girls will always have the upper hand, even if the boys have a stronger argument. Both points is something I hear around school everyday, and needs to be addressed formally.

Personal, Social, and Health Education (PHSE), is something we do not have frequently enough, and is one of the most imperative periods (lesson) of the term. Learning about the influence of advertisements, mental health etc., is not frequent done enough; when we do have them, the quality is excellent and gives us time to cerebrate on how exigent our lives can be. However, the lack of PHSE lessons is something which has been canvassed, and I hope is ameliorated in the next academic year.

Bringing in ‘illegal’ (breach school policy) items isn’t clamped down on laboriously as it should be, unless it’s poses as a danger to others, but you should not bring anything apart from what you need for the day. Teachers do not have fanciful expectations for any student; just be well organised and do your homework to a good standard!

The bus system they use to transport students to and from school is comical at best. It use to be free and provided by the county council, however due to budgets cuts they couldn’t continue to sustain it (thanks Tories). Many buses date back to the Thatcher period, and are in need of changing for more modern ones - some people have clean coaches, while others have old buses. To save money they have merged routes together, and I have had cases where it was standing room only, bearing in mind these are not buses you can stand on legally, as stated in them. Once a different route came to my stop and I only realised once I got on the bus. It was a tight squeeze, but I thankfully found a seat at the back of the bus, the perturb feeling took a while to shake off; apparently my bus was late. I would have rather waited 10 more minutes for a bus which wasn’t breaking the law.

I would not say the food is expensive per se (£3 per meal, roughly), however the quality is contentious: once they covered up out-of-date food with a new ‘Use by’ sticker over an old one, which is patently preposterous - especially for a chicken sandwich! So be careful with the food you buy from the canteen. Or perhaps, for the same price, buy a cool bag, and get a meal deal before school at the local ‘Co-op’. An interesting observation was that the local council did a better job than the private catering company the school uses currently for value for money.

The school’s ‘Pupil Voice’ helps students to put their voices forward, and action, within realistic expectations, does happen. I would exhort that any student should put yourself forward to being ‘form representative’ - communicate how school can improve and it looks prodigious on your curriculum vitae (CV)!

Fellow students can be irksome - some amazing and benign students: others make it their duty to blight and scupper your day, surmise that they are morally superior, and crush you like a hydraulic press to get their own fanatical ways; some people could not keep their malevolent remarks to in their capricious heads, if their life depended on it. A lot of these people believe they are the Eagles (not the band) in society, but in reality, they are the Beatles (again, not the band). People join the bandwagon of trends, and anyone who tries to counter it, is usually ran over by the wagon. It is a microcosm of different beliefs, personalities, and interests, which help you develop socially - both for the good and bad of today’s overtly egocentric society.

Overall, I highly recommend this school and protégés are prepared well for the real world. Religion and academic potential are the cynosures of school life; howbeit like any school, it has its good points and flaws, but do not expect perfection - it is not ‘The Godfather’ or ‘Citizen Kane’ of schools! It is more like ‘Avengers: Endgame’, very good, but not breaking any boundaries.

Behavioural policies need to be effectuated more consistently, and the structural operation of the school needs to be more methodical. Apart from that, their are no other major issues, which I personally believe, would hamper your time at this school. Minor issues I have are fastidious, and common in every educational facility in the world.

Make sure to take part in all extra-curricular activities and opportunities which interest you, as this is something you can wrote on your CV and provides most value to your future life, and is what you will most likely to positively remember about school; in addition of making genuine friends, as most people are as fake as a Gucci t-shirt for sale for £20 at your local fleece market, and dupe anyone to get ahead of them.

School academically is an amazing school opening many doors for future pathways in life, however in certain lessons the school has a strong left-liberal stand point; which a school should always remain unbiased in politics. In certain lessons where discussion is encouraged bringing up any idea based on the right of the political compass is quickly turned away and sometimes Villainised. Despite this, Certain teachers preach about the make-believe theory of “White Privilege” which is wrong and should not be mentioned in a school of young people still shaping there beliefs of the world. My second issue with the school is there over priced, unhealthy dinners! The dinners are very over priced for a minute portion while tasting no better than dog food.

The school has handled the pandemic pretty well, the only thing that I think they should consider fixing is the one way system and wearing masks around the school. Some of the other pupils do not wear their masks properly and I think it should be taught in form times how to wear the mask properly in order to protect other students.
The food served in VIVA is also quite expensive and doesn’t include many healthy options, I think this should be changed to help with students health and mental well being.