St Mary's Catholic School

I have attended St Mary’s for 6 years now, and I can honestly say that this school are the least considerate when it comes to mental health. They honestly do not care. Of course they run meaningless assemblies where the teachers claim to sympathise with anyone who might be struggling but you know they really don’t. The school therapist is the loveliest and kindest woman on the planet but I’m not sure the school utilise her correctly because she deserves 10x better. Teachers are good at their “teaching job” but overall are rude, condescending and disrespectful- a few specific teachers give an impression that they were bullies themselves at school they way they make their remark but can easily get away with it once reported.

If you aren't a neurotypical, "popular", sporty or an A* grade student unwilling to challenge and out of date school system; pick some of the other options and stay far away. I rarely leave bad reviews only ever if I encounter something horrific, which for me, St Mary's was & remains to be. I reported how I felt recently and got in touch with the school, and asked for an apology from one of the teachers- but apparently since the teachers have left, it’s all my fault seemingly, put in a different tone of course. Bringing into it my school report and attendance when all I wanted was an apology?

Surely a seemingly "Catholic" school should care more about being kind and raising young people in the way that the religion suggests we treat others however when I was at the school (leaving in 2016 after year 11) I realised the mistreatment of several individuals at the school is extremely harsh and cruel. When I was at the school, my mental health decreased rapidly and I was very scared of my surroundings. I regularly got into trouble for forgetting homework and small tasks that were made into enormous deals with me being shouted at regularly on my own, to as an adult be diagnosed with ADHD, PTSD & Depression. I got put into "Unit" (where the actually misbehaved students go) advised by the "Head of Music" for forgetting to prepare a music (draft) piece and was horrifically shouted at by him- which I believe developed my PTSD as a result. I was shy and suffering from undiagnosed ADHD on the autistic spectrum alongside depression and struggled with memory loss and time management and anxiety. No one ever brought up to me the possibility that I had a learning difficulty and I was always punished - even though I was a shy pupil who never actually misbehaved ever. I would go as far to sue St Mary's for emotional distress, something I would consider doing in the future. I was even told by my "Head of Year" in year 10 if I should consider if St Mary's is the place "for me" or something along them lines. He also called out my name often in whole SCHOOL assembles to "talk to me after" (tell me off) it was humiliating and embarrassing as a shy pupil especially.

In addition to this, the French department of 2015 /2016 was equally as horrific, with a teacher openly laughing about me being absent to another teacher whilst I was unwell as I struggle with painful periods and health problems- that being one of countless worse experiences but one I particularly remember now.

Since then, the teachers at the local college I attended got back my confidence and support where I then performed well academically, going on to complete a Bachelor's and now a masters. At college I was surrounded to people similar to myself and my background so maybe if travelling a distance from the Enfield / Cheshunt / Broxbourne area, pick one of the good ones in the area. For the past 3 years I have been a Student Representative at my University because of the experiences I faced here to make sure all students are treated fairly. The time I spent at St Mary's I believe hindered my growth, happiness and health. Racism, bullying, homophobia appears unresolved problems. Does adopting cult like behaviours really help students come into their own?! Stay away if you want mental sanity and normality as a teenager or parent. Distressing experience to say the least.

This school has not been kind to me at all, even when I was in year 7. I’m reading am all the reviews and they are very accurate. My sister and some of the people in her year was called in to a group meeting with their “head of behaviour” and “head of year” because they were all getting in trouble for starting or spreading rumours about the school, those teachers began to shout out them and threatened to call the police to deal with them if they don’t stop “tarnishing the school name”. Most teachers are either racist or pedophiles who like to say weird things to make their students feel uncomfortable. Teachers don’t really care for you unless you’re sporty and academic, they don’t give chances to students who struggle with a particular subject and often brush it of as making it seem that you don’t listen and point the blame on you instead of helping you understand; for example my friend has recently left the school because she is dyslexic and school wouldn’t give her the support and supplies she needs, they would give those supplies and support to children who they prefer or kids who don’t need it and it’s setting us for failure. It really hurts me but there is only a small percentage of teachers that really genuinely care about you, your well-being and how you are coping and would go to great ends even risking getting in trouble just to help you. I had one really good teacher but she wasn’t liked amongst the other staff that much and was often treated like how they teach their students, one lesson I had her and she got asked by one of the members of staff that one of the teachers up in the high position wanted to speak to her; once she left the classroom we never saw her again, we had a substitute for the rest of that lesson. The students in this school are absolutely horrible, there is practically a fight almost everyday, the learning environment is terrible, the verbal and physical abuse that students pass on to one another is appalling. I was personally told that because of a small play fight my friends and I had during lunch wasn’t acceptable I would be moving down sets for my GCSE year which would mean I would have to be sitting foundation, this shows that this school does not care about your learning too, even teachers are talking to the students in their class saying that this school is not what it used to be. The amount of times I have came back home with tears is honestly uncountable, the school doesn’t care about mental health at all and often talk about it in PSHEE lessons like it’s a demon inside your body; a girl that is a year below me tried to kill herself with toilet paper because she couldn’t handle to stress that the teachers and students were giving her, when the school found out about what she tried to do they gave her a detention about it instead of asking and giving her the help that she needs. It also doesn’t help the fact that this schools last ofsted test was more than 5 years ago, and they’re constantly using the fact that they are a “catholic community” to brainwash the parents and some new teachers into giving the school a better reputation. If you’re not a well liked student then being in this school will honestly make like harder for you as you are getting verbally attacked online by people who could be in your year and your teachers. Last year they reinforced a new rule that you can’t go to first aid without SLT permission no matter how serious the injury is, because of this new rule the first aid office is locked, you also can’t go to the toilet without a toilet pass and the teachers often say that you should’ve went during changeover but you’re only given 5 minutes to get to your lesson and there is only 3 toilets for students to use that are around the school because the rest are “under construction” they have been “rebuilding” the toilets for 4 years now! Students also can’t go during lunch or break because the toilets in one of the blocks are locked most of the time with chains because of the state of them, the girls toilets in that block is not blurred out so people can look through the glass, male teachers also like to stand by the toilets to “look out”; another one of the toilets in one the blocks are rarely used because it is right in front of many classrooms so teachers and students and can see who goes in there and to make the matter worst is that they put cameras opposite those toilets so they know who goes in and out of the those toilets at what time so they don’t use them during classes because if they do, they’ll pull you out to question what you were doing in there, the last toilets are never used and is only used as a spot for people to vape because nobody goes in there as it is never cleaned. I am scared for those who will be joining the school later in the future as this school is truly not for the weak. I hope that I make it out of there safely and the others

Mostly a great school, most teachers are amazing, kind, caring and look out for you with only a couple of exceptions.

don’t feel with problems properly and staff are very rude and inconsiderate the food is very very bad the school is too strict and very toxic

A SHIT HOLE RE teacher picked on my 13 year because of his skin, the histroy room look like it was hit by 911 and world war 2 and the head of history look at small girl the goegraphy room it smell like vape and has a riped up old map that say rome is it own country, the science teacher look like Hitler and bullys black people, the food tec room has no cleen cookers, the food is shit never had worst even worst then poo the cooks are overweight and buy food from iceland and their alway hair in my food, the math teaher look like Medusa and is like 109 year old, the gography /history teaher is a sex afeder and the itc teaher also look at same girl and has no freinds the form tuter are shit and are twat
the busses are dirty as hell but the toilets have rats running arround the toilet are as stinky as cow shit there is wee all over the floor and poo is all other the door the water never works and there vape smell all over and the toilet and there is a exprison killer as a ceartaker the staff are rude it like living in prison they are rats stilling our money they say thay give it to charity BUT THEY DONT! THEY spend £4.4 billon on a new re block that looks like tike was hit by china. this school is a fake a guy took his life because of the school and they told uds that if we told we will be expleld and they didnt even give give the family money. they sell iligal dugs on site. and mr androw ceilino didnt care audout him i will rather go to aalktraz prison the head of this shit hole dosnt care adout drugs and said "this is a dug free school"

DONT GO

I had an awful experience whilst I was at the school, have left a few years ago now but as mentioned in reviews above there are massive issues with an out of date teaching system, a huge issue with bullying creating an unhappy and miserable environment. Also very selective treatment!! After leaving after year 11 to go to another institution I have never felt more relieved. A complete lack of up to date informed mental health issues dealt with which left me with issues I still deal with now. Only one teacher I had whilst at the school was understanding and kind. Needless to say I don't consider myself necessarily religious anymore!