Thamesmead School

i would not recommend this school to my worst enemy, the teachers have no faith in the students. those who struggle have been majorly let down by this school and they have no sympathy. The teachers and the headmaster only care about results/grades only if they are high. They have massively failed these students and it’s disgusting. Do not send ur child here if you want them to come home mentally drained and feel like they are stupid. Very disappointed in Thamesmead it has gone down hill.

Absolutely Shit show of a school only a couple of nice teachers and they ended up leaving,the only nice teacher was the drama teacher Miss Hall . Wouldn’t recommend this school to anyone deputy head was very rude to all female students about there skirts

it’s pretty good tbh. i quite like it. canteen is nice, good facilities, good teachers etc. i hope they put more money into the art department

This school does not help with anything at all no matter what. They say they’ll do what they can to help but it’s all lies my situations never get helped and that gets me in trouble because I’m not getting the help I need. Their main focus is uniform. Everyone must look the same and wear everything the same. Girls are allowed to wear trousers or a skirt but boys aren’t allowed to wear shorts in the summer?

Many parents and students have made complaint about teachers but Thamesmead refuses to fire them because the school’s running out of staff so are keeping even the worst of teachers.

Some teachers are horrible to students. I sat down in geography and my teacher went up to a student and threw their bag on the ground just because they took too long to get their pencil case out. This resulted in their water bottle getting broken and water everywhere in their bag. The teacher merely said to the student “Grow up don’t cry over spilt milk” and started walking away angrily. Many other teachers are like this such as ones who grab students arms and pull them making the student feel uncomfortable and scared to be in the school. It is like a prison.

A report had to be made to the police due to verbal abuse that my friends and I dealt with due to our sexuality and gender identities. The police took it further but the school only dismissed it until the police got involved. As well as this, in the last few months, I have experienced abuse in the forms of bag-pulling, my earphones being ripped out of my ears, and being pushed down the stairs which resulted in me being bruised. My friends also tend to experience both verbal and physical abuse from the students. The teachers do not tend to do much about these situations. They say this is due to the instances not being reported but they are quite obvious and many of my friends have SEND needs (so do I) and so struggle to talk about it with the teachers. Lots of the students don't feel listened to, and so don't feel as if they can share their issues with the teachers. To be completely honest, the only reason that they're doing anything now is because my mother always makes sure to chase the school until they do anything. Now the new pastoral team is in place, my mother is having some positive experiences, especially with certain teachers. She hopes that now it will be better. However, the SENCO needs some improvement. Also, many of my friends struggle with their mental and emotional health, with many of them self-harming or struggling with suicidal thoughts. The school doesn't seem to try and help with this, even though it's quite obvious that it is happening, or they act too harshly and just end up making the situation worse. Online harassment is also an issue. One of my friends had a rape threat come through online from another student. While I do not know much about this situation, I do not believe that the school did anything about this situation. School communication is an issue too. If the needs of students were communicated more effectively, many difficult situations could easily be avoided. All in all, the school could use some major improvements in this area. The treatment that students who are even slightly different face from their peers is horrendous. I can't even walk around the school without worrying about being tripped or pushed. I recently got a fitness watch, and my stress levels have been higher whilst I've been at school then they were when my sister went missing. I think that in itself says something. Do not send your children here, especially if they have any SEND needs.

I have been so disappointed in the lack of support offered to my children at Thamesmead. I was so keen for them to attend but communication doesn't exist between staff and parents. If you have an issue you are just not listened to and neither are your children. Staffing is all over the place as well which I think says a lot. It really effects the G.C.S.E year groups too. Such a shame because the school used to be great. It's about time the school started listening to all of it's stakeholders and didn't just dismiss them.

After reading all the reviews, I can strongly say that I disagree with most of them. I understand where some of them are coming from but personally, I think they are over exaggerating. However, an opinion is an opinion and everyone is entitled to one.

I had a great time at Thamesmead. Although, I was a bit of a class clown and gave the teachers a hard time which I heavily regret.

There were a few teachers that were just blatantly unfair and rude yet some were extremely fair and only handed out strict punishments when absolutely necessary.

A teacher I would like to point out as being unfair, is a certain physics teacher, that also happened to be a head of year. This man was ghastly.

If you ever tried to reason with him he would shut you down on the spot and not even have the decency to listen to you.

I have matured a lot since being at Thamesmead and to look back on how I was treated by this man actually makes me feel sick. It has been 4 years since I left and I am nearly 20 years old so these words aren't coming from a child.

Other than him, most of the other teachers actually used fair punishment handouts.

The English department was absolutely impeccable. A teacher to point out would be**** **, she was the firmest yet fairest teacher in the department. I would never misbehave in her lessons purely out of the respect I had for her. She got my grade from a low 3 to a high 5 in the matter of 6 months. Her daily booster sessions were like gold dust, missing these would be like missing one number on a lottery ticket. If you were to misbehave in her lessons she had the power to make you feel so bad about yourself and she wouldn't even have to say a single word. She would never shout because there was absolutely no need to. Everyone knew that she was going to be the one to determine a fail or a pass. I would love to have a sit down with her today and show her where I am at, I think she would be proud.

The canteen was excellent, the food was extremely nice and we had a really nice dinner man called (from what I can remember)*** ******. He gave lovely portions, was unbelievably polite and treated you like customers instead of students.


This is the part where I will link to the other reviews.


I agree to a certain extent that there was a lot of homophobia in the school. I don't think that the teachers don't care about this, they just never caught anyone in the act. And there is no crime without evidence.

Bullying was a fairly big issue in the school. I believe that some students don't want to tell the teachers about it because they don't want to be labelled as a 'snitch, or a 'grass'.

We had a student in our year who was transgender and the teachers were accused of denying him to have his name changed on the register. However, these were only rumours. This is a touchy subject, so I am not going to say anything else on that matter.

I think overall Thamesmead is a great school. Yet, it does need improving. It seems to have spiralled downhill ever since the new headteacher was appointed.

I had a very good time with the social aspect of the school so this review may be considered biased and only came from my personal experience.

Thanks for giving me a great time throughout my early/late teenage years.

I left thamesmead a few years ago but glad my time ended there when it did. Most of my teachers were genuinely good and honest people and they began to agree that the rules of the school became ridiculous as the years went on, the headteacher and his deputy heads value uniform and discipline over the safety and happiness of their students, especially those in danger of hate crimes and bullying. A student in my year was denied his changed name and pronouns on the school system that lead him to years of relentless bullying from students, that could have been avoided by the school addressing his gender in a mature manner. On multiple occasions I, as a student with ADHD, found myself being labelled dim and unworthy of the same treatment as my classmates, some teachers even going as far as making fun of neurodivergent traits publicly, such as fidgeting and the inability to focus, which made me feel as if I couldn’t treat those who I just wanted an education from. This has only become worse as the years have progressed, my brother attends the school and is often alienated and picked on by teachers for his inability to remember or concentrate, which he cannot help, and they know this.

Years 7 through 9, before the new headmaster, were good and enjoyable school years, I have nothing against him personally but his ethics in an educational environment are becoming incredibly backwards, the racism and homophobia in the halls is getting worse and yet the concern only seems to lie with the length of school skirts.

I personally would look for an alternative school to send my child to, Thamesmead’s getting rougher and I hope the best for the students there.

The Thamesmead community is full of homophobia and staff members are unable, or often refuse to do anything about it. Me and my friends have often been talking or having lunch when someone will walk past and yell some form of homophobic or transphobic slur at us. We have told teachers about this many times and nothing has changed, apart from a new rule, banning the word gay because "it's an insult and derogatory term". Although I agree with banning the use of words from LGBTQ+ acronym as slurs, I fail to understand how stopping people who identify with or as a certain term from saying it makes them feel welcome and safe in this community. As someone who is a member of both the LGBTQ+ and Thamesmead community, I can confirm that i do not feel either safe or welcome. I have asked many of my friends who are also members of both communities and they also disagree with this rule and Thamesmeads approach to discrimination, and would not recommend anyone to join this school if they want to feel accepted and happy in a welcoming place.

This school is very poor and that’s seeing it in a good light, there is absolutely no fun allowed. They care so much about a number and our “future” it’s almost like they are just making our decisions for us. The school isn’t getting us to learn anything it’s just that you get a topic and revise. Revise revise revise. And boom if you memorise everything then you win, grade 9 and good life. They don’t even believe in support for the children and there is little to none mental health help, they are control freaks who want all their students to be perfect people that will get a normal job and just be another small piece in the already degraded society.
This school is unfair and you should defining send your children to another school.

It's a wreck. The GCSE work is so stressful and no support is given to students.
I've been told I'd be getting school counciling twice now, and never gotten it. Although others have told me the councilor doesn't help and is bad at their job, and that it's only a 10 minute session which just makes you angry or upset for the rest of your day. I feel unable to go to the LSR when I'm upset as its usually blocked off to students and I don't know I I'm even allowed there. I've had mental breakdowns during lessons due to stress from the work. One time being in the middle of science when the teacher couldn't even teach us properly. I was sent home crying with a headache due to her lesson, since having her I've been completely unable to understand chemistry.

There's little to no help for students with ADHD, Ausism, Dyslexia and ect. I've told teachers many times that I can't focus in class due to my energy and they've just told me to try focus. Wow. Thanks that really helps!!

The food is overpriced and disgusting. And the seating area is terrible. In winter we're made to sit outdoors as only year 7 is allowed in the canteen due to covid.

You get a detention for being late because of the 1 way system and students don't get told off for wearing their masks wrong, but if your skirt is 1cm above you're knee its a straight detention.

Mufti day rules once included no hoodies! Why? Because people wore their hoods up and this was "intimidating" to teachers and younger years. Personally, I just hadn't washed my hair that day and didn't want people seeing it. Also hoodies are banned in school, even when it's too hot for a cold but too cold to not wear anything over your shirt. My friend can't even wear a coat due to sensory issues and not liking the texture but the school doesn't care.

Overall, don't send your children here. I've wanted to kill myself so many times thanks to this school and they couldn't care less. Mental health is their last priority and your skirt length is their first.

Thamesmead. Where skirt length comes first.

Do not send your children here unless you want them to develop severe anxiety, depression and/or self esteem issues, the teachers at this school focus so severely on uniform and having all the students looking identical more than the actual well being of the students.

Several of the young students have been sexually assaulted and when going to the school about it, have been turned away and slut shamed by saying they were most likely dressed as if asking for it.

The workload is another problem, they expect their students to spend all free time doing homework that is far too difficult and lengthy.

Please do not send your children here

I used to go to this school from when i was in Year 7 to when i was in Year 10 and honestly, i do not recommend it. The school’s motto literally used to be “Where learning comes first”, and they don’t care at all about student’s mental health. I’m autistic, and while i was there the school would either baby me or tell me that i should just act “normal”. Whenever i needed a mental health day etc, they would start getting angry at me. It literally got to the point where i refused to go in for a year after a meeting where i was told that if i didn’t raise my attendance, i would fail my GCSEs.
The school forces their students to stay outside at breaks unless they manage to get one of the few seats in the crowded school canteen, even when it’s the middle of winter. Pre-Corona, lunch break was only 20-25 minutes and didn’t leave enough time for anyone to get everything done that they needed to. If you didn’t get to the canteen in the first 5 minutes of lunch (bare in mind there are 1000 students trying to get there), there’s no food left as the school doesn’t make enough food to provide for everyone. The detention system is way too strict, forgetting a single school book gets you an hour. They also seem to care more about skirt lengths than anything else. If your skirt is anything above your knee, they give you detention and tell you to buy new ones that are super expensive. They’ve even told tutors to get students to stand up to check their skirt lengths.

when i attended, the main focus seemed to be on the length of skirts rather than learning itself.
my sister still attends and says how they tried to get her to buy a new skirt as it wasn’t long enough (down to the knees) although it still fit her and was an appropriate length. our family can’t afford new uniform constantly and her skirt was no where near as bad as other students i’ve seen.
(my sister is in year ten at the moment, a bit of this is based off of what i’ve been told)
also seating areas:
-canteen: crowded, apparently only year sevens are able to sit inside at the moment (considering it’s winter and only one year group is allowed to sit inside, it seems quite unfair). my sister hasn’t been in there since the last academic year. she has to use the pod outside to get her food, which means waiting in a line with no protection from the winter weather.
-quad: not enough benches, a lot of students have to stand up (i’ve been told year eleven use this area). protected from rain.
-field: due to weather, sitting out there is quite obviously a bad idea. having to stand up all break isn’t great either.

-in my last year, sitting inside the corridors was banned due to mess left behind. this could’ve been solved by not allowing specific groups/students to sit there or punishing them for leaving rubbish. instead, the school chose to put all the students outside (including those well behaved).
since the new head teacher change, apparently mufti days have also decreased significantly. at one point there was a “mufti” day which consisted of being allowed to wear your christmas jumper OVER your uniform, ridiculous.

some of the teachers were kind to me when i attended but from the sounds of it, it’s no longer the same.
it’s a shame because i never had many complaints when i was there so it’s quite sad to hear how much my sister is struggling with it all.