John D.
1/5
I had written a review here last year about how brilliant and fantastic this school is but sadly that is no longer the case so now as a more weathered, experienced year 8, I return...
[!NEW REVIEW!]
I entirely take back everything I said last year. This school is HORRIBLE. Lessons are slow moving and constantly disrupted by both students and teachers. Almost every decoration in the classrooms have been taken down due to the fact that they apparently distract us. This means that now every classroom has lost its shine it had last year. The only classrooms to have kept some decorations are the science classrooms which feature some student work. Even the world maps in Geography rooms have been taken down. The school also has a major problem with staff who seem to never turn up. I had had 10 cover teachers in the last week and it has been pretty much the same for the whole year. We have no fixed art teacher, no fixed music teacher and no qualified DT teacher. For the entirety of terms 2 and 3, my class has made nothing in DT due to some sort of timetable issue that the school has been very vague about which means we have our lesson on the day when the school's DT technician isn't in. Our poor unqualified teacher for this lesson has to work at I think three other schools as well as teaching both art and GCSE photography in our school. It is terrible. We are horribly understaffed and the only subject with an abundance of teachers seems to be English. English however is an extremely slow moving and is constantly disrupted by kids who don't understand what the hell is going on. Me and my friends find these lessons extremely frustrating due to the fact that we rarely complete a lesson in the allocated time since we are forced to follow along with the entire class. It's the same in most lessons especially music which is the most chaotic lesson you could possibly imagine. If you have ever read the Bash Street Kids form the Beano, you would understand exactly what I mean. Kids are screaming. The teacher can't be heard. The lesson can't get past the register. One lesson it took the teacher 36 minutes to complete the register and a further 15 minutes to complete the "6 minute silent starter". One lesson where we don't have to wait three quarters of the lesson to get started though is Geography. Our brilliant teacher has total control over his pupils and is very engaging and honest and funny with the class. He is probably one of the best teachers in the school and I can't sing enough of his praises. It's nice to end a review on a high note but believe me, that is one of the very few high notes of the school. Other problems include overpriced school meals and very limited choice for those on free school meals, very dirty and disgusting toilets (though an improvement from most public spaces in England), lack of air conditioning in some of the most exposed classrooms, limited aid for special needs children and many other issues that I can't be bothered to go into. Luckily the man who put the school into this mess (Mr Kirkbride, the principle) is leaving at the end of the 2023-24 school year so hopefully things should make a positive turnaround.
