The Hazeley Academy

My time at Hazeley Academy has been deeply discouraging, and I feel a responsibility to speak honestly about what students actually face here. The school advertises itself as a place built on strong values and community, but the reality is far from what’s promised.

The academic pressure is intense to the point of being unhealthy. Homework, revision tasks, and compulsory after-school interventions pile up constantly. These interventions are enforced rather than offered, and they often keep students late enough that we’re walking home in the dark during winter. Despite this being a clear safeguarding concern, the school continues to prioritise these sessions. Yet, the sessions themselves rarely provide the support we’re told they will.

Communication with families is extremely poor. Many of these sessions happen with no warning to parents, and because phones are banned, students can’t even send a message to say they’ll be late. Staff have blocked exits before, insisting we stay, which makes it obvious that these “mandatory” sessions are not optional in any meaningful way. I have quite literally been followed by a member of staff and told I am not allowed to leave the building because I have an extra hour of revision time, doesn’t that sound more like a punishment rather than them trying to “help” us?

The school’s approach to mental health has been the most painful part of my experience. On three separate occasions, during a period where I was hurting myself and clearly not coping, I reached out for help. Nothing changed. Nothing was followed up. For two years, I received no proper support. When I was finally offered counselling, I hoped things would improve, but I left every session feeling dismissed. The counsellor often reduced what I talked about to “friend issues” and “girl problems,” which felt belittling and rooted in stereotype rather than understanding.

After four sessions, I arrived for my next appointment, waited, and no one came. When I emailed to ask what had happened, I was told I had been dropped. No explanation, no warning, no check-in about how I was doing. It’s hard to put into words how isolating that felt, especially after already struggling for so long. A school should at least be able to provide a consistent place to talk when someone is clearly in distress.

Another major issue that gets swept under the rug is discrimination. Casual racism, sexism, homophobia, and transphobia are all things I’ve heard from students and far too often, staff ignore it completely. There have even been moments where teachers themselves have made comments that came across as openly dismissive or transphobic. ( cough cough Mr 😮 ) When environments like that go unchallenged, it makes school feel unsafe for anyone who isn’t part of the “default” group. Instead of addressing harmful behaviour, the school seems more focused on how we appear on paper.

Bullying, in general, is handled with the same lack of urgency. Emotional wellbeing is treated as a side issue, something secondary to academic targets. The message students receive is clear: your grades matter more than your safety, your identity, or your mental health.

Hazeley Academy may look polished from the outside, but underneath that presentation is a system that prioritises numbers over people. If you want a school where your child will be genuinely supported academically and emotionally I would strongly suggest looking elsewhere.

im going to copy and paste a review that one of my peers created because i think it accurately captures my own thoughts and feelings.

Despite my frustrations with this school, I am going to try my hardest to leave an honest review. Hazeley academy is an absolute joke. I will say, the school itself is pretty big and has a wide range of facilities, but all that is proven irrelevant when discussing how the staff, and the school in general treat their students. The academy as a whole, from the outside, seems to encourage equality and community, but instead all they push is conformity and sameness. This lack of consideration for individual pupils is taken even further with their insane schemes and revision tactics. Students aged 15-16 are now struggling under immense amounts of pressure, given the additional work forced onto them. They are given mandatory revision tasks, homework alongside this AND interventions after school hours. Generally speaking, this sounds like a great idea, until you factor in how none of the students have time for their personal lives or anything else. I have had teachers confront me and other students about a 'lack of effort' outside of school hours, with them proceeding to tell us to just 'cancel our plans'. Doesn't matter if this is a family event, or something paid in advance, or anything like that. They don't care. Alongside this, they also have forced interventions and assembly's where they have physically herded us to stay behind after school hours. We weren't allowed to notify parents, as there is a phone ban, and we were told, and I quote 'you guys chose to be here, so listen.' Which is absolutely ridiculous given how there were staff members stood at each end of the school, preventing us from leaving. A lot of parents, mine included, didn't even know this session was on because NO ONE WAS EMAILED. now, even if this was a problem with admin or anything like that, it is still a problem which the school is yet to address.

Now, regarding the SLT staff, it is quite obvious in a lot of cases that they have complete disregard for anyone's feelings WHICH IS LITERALLY THEIR JOB, and fail to put proper safeguarding procedures in place. I have had multiple instances of me, and others, reporting potentially endangering information to said SLT staff, and nothing is done, even after promises are made. The school also has a rampant bullying problem, which they still fail to recognise, and would rather crack down on homework and uniform. They don't care about how the students are mentally and emotionally, they only care about how they're doing academically.

This goes to show that the school prioritizes grades over the students themselves, and completely disregards any criticism given. They only care about exam results and additional funding, this isnt a school, this is a corporation. I am not ashamed to say I am disappointed to be apart of this 'community'.

If you care about your children's mental and emotional wellbeing, please send them elsewhere. Hazeley, do better.

Despite my frustrations with this school, I am going to try my hardest to leave an honest review. Hazeley academy is an absolute joke. I will say, the school itself is pretty big and has a wide range of facilities, but all that is proven irrelevant when discussing how the staff, and the school in general treat their students. The academy as a whole, from the outside, seems to encourage equality and community, but instead all they push is conformity and sameness. This lack of consideration for individual pupils is taken even further with their insane schemes and revision tactics. Students aged 15-16 are now struggling under immense amounts of pressure, given the additional work forced onto them. They are given mandatory revision tasks, homework alongside this AND interventions after school hours. Generally speaking, this sounds like a great idea, until you factor in how none of the students have time for their personal lives or anything else. I have had teachers confront me and other students about a 'lack of effort' outside of school hours, with them proceeding to tell us to just 'cancel our plans'. Doesn't matter if this is a family event, or something paid in advance, or anything like that. They don't care. Alongside this, they also have forced interventions and assembly's where they have physically herded us to stay behind after school hours. We weren't allowed to notify parents, as there is a phone ban, and we were told, and I quote 'you guys chose to be here, so listen.' Which is absolutely ridiculous given how there were staff members stood at each end of the school, preventing us from leaving. A lot of parents, mine included, didn't even know this session was on because NO ONE WAS EMAILED. now, even if this was a problem with admin or anything like that, it is still a problem which the school is yet to address.

Now, regarding the SLT staff, it is quite obvious in a lot of cases that they have complete disregard for anyone's feelings WHICH IS LITERALLY THEIR JOB, and fail to put proper safeguarding procedures in place. I have had multiple instances of me, and others, reporting potentially endangering information to said SLT staff, and nothing is done, even after promises are made. The school also has a rampant bullying problem, which they still fail to recognise, and would rather crack down on homework and uniform. They don't care about how the students are mentally and emotionally, they only care about how they're doing academically.

This goes to show that the school prioritizes grades over the students themselves, and completely disregards any criticism given. They only care about exam results and additional funding, this isnt a school, this is a corporation. I am not ashamed to say I am disappointed to be apart of this 'community'.

If you care about your children's mental and emotional wellbeing, please send them elsewhere. Hazeley, do better.

Great school- children are fully supported. High standards and clear communication.

terrible school teachers are so bad. especially miss thistlewood, dont throw a paper airplane at her or the whale will get you...

Avoid working for this school if you're African. They will ruin your life. Used to be good, now bad.

I totally agree with what these other comments about Hazeley are saying. I also have this one perverted PE teacher who is male. Also the teachers only care about grades because the higher grade score everyone gets— the better reviews for Hazeley. Bullying is absolutely NOT taken serious and I’ve never EVER been so badly bullied and never KILLED from my bullies and teachers didn’t do anything. I am utterly disgusted. Please go to Denbigh or something just not here.