Westholme School

Westholme is a School of Aspirations… explore and you will see… book a visit… our sons have been at the school for several years and have always consistently thrived…

Only the elite need apply! Your child is offered a place one day then phone call next day offer retracted. Great for my child's wellbeing. So lucky escape I guess . O and you get to pay for the privilege.

Awful Poor teaching by some - complained for years before maths teacher was got rid of Pupils miss lessons and staff no idea where they are - so dangerous New head is bad - staff are treated badly and paid less than in state schools Bullying ignored

The most horrendous experience with this school. Cares nothing about a child’s mental health. Many excellent teachers but the management is truly awful, complete bullies. ‘

It really helps people with learning disabilities. It has a really good teacher which will help you with the work instead of falling behind!

I totally agree with all the other negative reviews here! I left Westholme in 2011, part-way through year eight. It got so bad by the end that my parents took me out of the school two weeks early as I simply couldn't go in. I've never fully come to terms with my time spent there (age 5 - 13), but reading about these other people's experiences and now doing Teacher Training myself, I realise the extent to which the school let me down, both academically and pastorally. I've always known that my low self esteem (which still effects me today; I'm 24 and currently on a course of CBT) had its routes in my Westholme years, but I'd always blamed myself for it. Now I realise that it probably had much more to do with the school than I'd previously thought, especially seeing the experiences of other reviewers on this website. Instead of inspiring pupils to learn, this school favoured the naturally cleaver children and pretty much ignored the needs of those who struggled. For example, I have never been great at maths, I am a divergent thinker and excel more in creative subjects, but the maths teachers failed to recognise this and continually set me work which was too hard for me. I still remember the hours of trauma spent trying to complete the weekly maths homework set from a text book and my mum basically having to do it for me. I now realise that I should have been set tasks more appropriate to my ability level as these tasks were teaching me very little but causing an awful lot of stress for both myself and my parents. This eventually resulted in my parents having to get an external maths tutor (on top of the school fees!!). Furthermore, when the methods which my external tutor taught me proved much more effective than those I was learning in school, the teacher at Westholme wouldn't let me continue to use those methods in her class - instead she forced me to continue her way. I remember not understanding why I had to go to school, what it was all for. I thought maths was the only subject that mattered, and spent most of my time battling with it rather than being praised for the subjects I was good at and enjoyed. As a trainee teacher, I now know that children learn best when they understand the importance of learning and are inspired to want to learn more. This was NOT how I felt at Westholme. My parents eventually moved me to Stonyhurst where, within the first term or two, my whole mindset and understanding of learning totally transformed - it's like I woke up. I remember my History teacher at Stonyhurst telling me for the first time that I was good at History and valued my opinions on the subject! It was such an amazing feeling and I took a real interest in the subject from then on - now I'm going to be a History teacher! That interest was never sparked at Westholme, because I wasn't valued. Despite all this, it was the pastoral care which was the main reason I left Westholme. I noticed in another review that someone said they left Westholme having made no friends - I was exactly the same. I was at the school for 10 years and was well-loved outside of school; since leaving I have many wonderful, supportive and life-long friendships, so it's certainly not a reflection of my character. My mum says she used to be really confused about why I was struggling with friends so much at Westholme because I was so well liked outside of school. I think it was the school's inability to nip issues in the bud - they simply didn't care how pupils treated each other, particularly if the bully was clever because the school only cared about its reputation; those who did well in exams were loved and adored because they made the school look good grades wise. There were a lot of nasty characters at Westholme, some of which I can tell you are still nasty to this day (which is strange because people usually grow out of these things). Some girls were lovely, don't get me wrong, but I'm sure that's more a reflection of their family life than the school. Another thing to mention; for years and years I did a Summer-school at Westholme called Theatre Week. I was always really good at drama, having got a distinction in LAMDA in year 7, and I always added something to the roles I got in school plays. However, my roles were always very minimal. My mum asked every year if I could have a role with more than just a couple of lines and every year they promised "next year" - but it never happened. Favouritism once again??? I know it's a while since I went here, but judging by the other reviews and some of the inspection reports, it doesn't seem to have changed much. I really hope something drastically changes here as it breaks my heart that parents think they're doing right by their children by sending them to this private school, but it could be doing more harm than good.