Parkside Community College - Cambridge

TLlightning14

I'm a student who's about to leave parkside in Y11, there have been highs and there have certainly been lows. Some teachers like Mr Turner or Mr Roberts Rayne are amazing and the school isn't too big, you can learn the name of everyone in the year. Also, there is of course excitement during the summer months and some lessons can be quite fun. However, some teachers enjoy nagging the whole year for a few people doing things wrong, and they are way too focused on uniform. Also, food has been a common critical point, and I'm not one to advocate for it. A lot of lessons are boring too and us students are often way too restricted (strict uniform rules, no phones and limited activities on Chromebooks). Also lunch is only half an hour long, bit of a joke. I am probably giving it 3 stars since I am in a happy mood right now, just had leavers assembly and going on study leave but in January or something I could have easily given 2 stars. For memories though, it's a decent place to go.

Banner H.

Parkside Community College is a secondary academy school with 600 places for children aged 11–16, situated in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England. It is part of the Parkside Federation, along with Coleridge Community College.

Abbeydale Park is home to Sheffield RUFC (formed 1902) who have been based in the area since 1919. The rugby club are situated in the southern half of the complex and share their facilities with the cricket teams. Facilities include a large club-house and bar, pitches for both cricket and rugby union, a stand and floodlights to ensure matches can be played throughout the winter. There is also a choice of two car parks at the complex.

Charlotte D.

My children both attend this school & have settled in effortlessly & with genuine enthusiasm. Staff are very professional & keen to help if needed. The teaching staff come across as very dynamic & motivated which has impressed me greatly. I count my children as very fortunate to attend Parkside.

T T.

Ok, my child was at Parkside for secondary and 6th and I was a governor there. I am afraid I do not have good things to say. First. As an academy, they had a lot of non-qualified teachers. Way too many. Some teachers were fantastic but more often than not your child will be taught by stressed out, non-qualified people and supply teachers. There’s no consistency. If they have any special need, forget any support: they will not get it. Staff move on all the time, and when United Learning took over it got 10 times worse. Education isn’t a commodity people! I would put my kid elsewhere if I were you. Also a huge drug problem there which everybody knows about and does nothing about - given the police station is 100 feet away, it’s ridiculous.

joe H.

I am a student starting their GSCEs and Year 10 this year, I've seen this school at its highs and lows for 3 years. Not surprisingly, I'm writing this review to critique the absolute disaster we are in right now - possibly the lowest since the founding of this school in 1913.

Not enough staff, not enough equipment, not enough funding - you get the idea. The management and communication between staff has clearly been lackluster at best. And the only way to prevent things from going slightly astray from the astronomical standards of behavior is to makes more rules. The rules in question, are usually something useless and don't contribute to anything. For example, the banning of hoodies or sweaters; which simply doesn't make any sense. And this enforcement of rules is only going to make winter harder when everyone will be outside and not everyone being able to afford other clothing.

It's to the point where the school will rather care about the reputation within the public and punishment over learning rather than the students wellbeing and education. This school depends on its rules and to be seen as a near perfect school (well, that explains the hoodies doesn't it. makes us look more.... presentable. and less thuggish).

Throughout the few years I've seen many staff (and students) leave due to the stressful environment United Learning creates. The ever-changing-but-not-in-a-good-way environment where nothing ever feels tranquil. It's somewhere where you are constantly stressed or worried about something.

I said ever-changing because the school just seem to not be able to settle into one thing. Whether it's new uniforms, new punishments, or even the IT service we are using, which I am about to critique.

The transition to Microsoft Teams over Google Classroom could've been alright if not for the horrendous communication between staff. Literally half my class has had a problem with it somewhat. New emails so you couldn't even contact the teachers (unless they explicitly said so.) since you are only allowed to message within the domain you are in (where the older students are NOT IN. YOU CANNOT EVEN CONTACT YOUR TEACHERS). The new IT staff has been particularly useless too with him being only there around once a week, and even then there is no exact schedules of where he will be of assistance. When teachers are told students have IT problems, they will simply answer "go to the IT guy". Which is fair enough if he was actually there. This endless loop of madness only creates more confusion. And students missing homework due to them not being able to even access it.

The problem is that, although something has worked in the past, they always feel the need to change it because its ''not good enough"'. United Learning seeks perfection yet they tend to somehow create more imperfections than they do.

For a school that marks itself as progressive, the only thing its progressive in is their stupidity. Not only do students find this infuriating, I'm willing to bet the staff does too. In fact, I sympathize with the staff employed (except for a few) being able to keep up with all the changes.

Part 1 end

Bahar S. A.

I helped out at a number of Science club sessions back in 2010 and found the Science team very welcoming and helpful. The students were also very polite and courteous towards guests.

Void S.

This school is draining to go to, the work is ridiculous, we don't gain any new knowledge using bedrock, the school is way more focused on the uniform than the actual learning.

Lily L.

I love the school😊 I go there myself and I'm in year 9 it's been a really 3 years ❤