St Vincent's Catholic Primary School

The school is very reliant on funds raised by parents. The parents that are wealthy enough to invest all their time in the PTA are given privileges such as being able to take their children abroad earlier than the end of term and return later from holidays and/or trips ‘home’ to see relatives. Other ‘normal’ less favourable parents are treated with distain, spoken to with contempt and even a simple request for an appointment during school hours is often turned down and that’s even if your child has very high attendance and is very well behaved. The teachers have favourites and these are often children who are less academically able but have parents that are well connected or on very friendly terms with the head teacher or other lead staff members. Assistant teachers shout at some of the children for very minor issues and larger issues such as bullying and the alienation of some children has been treated with kid gloves. Overall, it’s important that all children and parents at any school are treated the same regardless of their wealth, social/economic circumstances or involvement in fund raising events. I know of children with excellent academic ability receiving less favourably worded reports at the end of year 6 which seem to make it all a bit political, personal and certainly not professional. School politics should remain in the playground and never reflected in the treatment of parents or children by staff. The education isn’t anything spectacular. However, some of the form teachers have been lovely and made up for a significant amount of unpleasantness from other less professional staff members.