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Alder Grange School
Secondary · Maintained · Rossendale
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Discriminates
This school is NOT inclusive. The Headteacher states on their website “Our school is inclusive in nature and values young people of all abilities…”This is simply NOT TRUE. The Governors do not do anything to hold the Head to account for failing the most vulnerable pupils at this school. The SENCO is not fit for purpose. Staff there need to be supported to whistleblow on the discriminatory and bullying practices the pupils at the school are subjected to. Or perhaps they don’t have the awareness due to a lack of training. If anyone from the school reads this, please revisit your policies, consider the claims on your website of being inclusive and valuing all young people, look at your data for exclusions what are the characteristics of these young people? Can you really make such a claim? Do not continue to keep giving up on the most vulnerable
Would not recommend.
This school is not a nice environment to be in, or for your kids to be in. The school has massively gone downhill over the years.
Bullying is a HUGE problem at Alder Grange, but nothing ever gets done about it. There are, however, a handful of staff that are lovely, and actually want what's best for their students and are willing to help their students if they ever need it. There are however, some staff that think it's "banter" to make fun of other students and/or staff members when they are supposed to be teaching a class.
On the subject of teaching a class, a lot of the teachers seem to believe it is much more important to 'make friends' with the students that to actually teach them. And yes, it is nice and makes students feel safer within the classroom environment, but when they miss out their education because of it, that's when it should be considered an issue. This isn't one of the bigger issues at Alder Grange.
Back to the topic of bullying: there are students being bullied at Alder Grange daily, in lessons, at break/lunch and before/after school. Nothing gets done about bullying and teachers pretend to not notice anything is even happening. There are a few staff members that stand around in the town centre to prevent fights (fighting in public makes the school look bad). Fights within school are unusually common, which isn't the school's fault, but they should at least try to prevent this somehow. For example, there was a fight between three KS4 students which was split up by a physically disabled student, rather than the two teachers that were stood watching (including the head teacher) and in fact, the supply teacher stood in the classroom next to the fight, had said "good luck" to the student who had two bigger students waiting outside of the classroom to fight them. If a student approaches a teacher and tells them that they are being bullied, they are asked to write the incidents into a small book, which is then never looked at (or lost by the teachers). There are a few exceptions (staff) that actually do help out the students being bullied, but this number is low (much lower than it should be). Bullying is normalised in the school. And nothing ever gets done about it.
The level of discipline at this school is poor. They say that they're going to bring in new rules and policies for the school, and the students will be punished if they break these rules... for about a week, or maybe a month if you're lucky. But it never sticks. For example, the phone ban policy. This was introduced around September 2022, and lasted for a little while. Teachers would send any phones they took off students to reception where the kids would then have to pick them up at the end of the day. Eventually this turned into teachers putting the phone at the front of the room for the rest of lesson, and then it became "put your phone away", with no real discipline.
There were "uniform checks" VERY occasionally - I'm talking like once ever year and it would be in the first week. Teachers cared more about makeup and false nails, than they did about the child's safety.
The corridors are tiny and very claustrophobic, then you get students running down them pushing everyone in their way and in some cases, resulting in injuries of other students (e.g. a sprained ankle) - with no discipline, despite the cameras.
Vaping/smoking is also a problem at Alder Grange. I am aware that this is not something to be resolved by the school, but there needs to be stricter rules around it. It is unpleasant for students to be blowing the smoke in other people's faces. It happens everywhere; outside at break, in the lunch rooms, in the corridors, in the bathrooms and even in the classrooms. The school even started locking the toilets during lesson because of the vaping, constant misbehaving and damage to property which was done by students. There would be fire evacuations when the alarms went off because of students vaping in the bathrooms, depriving other students of their education. But this meant that students who didn't vape, smoke or misbehave, were also unable to use the toilets.
The drawings on the desks is appalling. I believe the worst classroom for desk drawing is S1 (science 1). The desks are filled with drawing of inappropriate body parts, swearing, phone numbers (some with quotes such as "call for sex" - bearing in mind these are children), name calling, and much more. There is no discipline for this at all. Also the chewing gum under the desks is utterly disgusting.
There is not even near the amount of welfare staff there needs to be for the school. The children are like animals and there were only 2 welfare staff attempting to control them all. And these 2 welfare staff would be harassed and sometimes even assaulted. The swearing, talking to them as if they're slaves and overall lack of respect for them, whilst they are simply doing their job, is appalling. There was one incident where one welfare staff member had drinks poored all over her by a group students who also threw food such as bread at her.
Before the last couple of years, the school was completely unsafe. There were no gates to prevent members of the public from entering the school property. They couldn't get inside the building, but they could get to the outside areas where students go during their breaks. This also meant that students were able to leave school whenever they wanted during breaks without anyone knowing. There were at least 3 different ways where students could willingly leave whenever they wanted to.
The lunch queues are awful too. Students push in and crowd around the dinner staff to get their food. And while some students would wait patiently in line, they would be served last due to crowds of students coming inside and pushing to the front of the queues.
Overall, I do not recommend you send your children to this school. There are some 'okay' things about Alder Grange, but the bad things massively overweigh the good things. The environment feels very unsafe for students who are simply just trying to get a decent education.
Bullying is a HUGE problem at Alder Grange, but nothing ever gets done about it. There are, however, a handful of staff that are lovely, and actually want what's best for their students and are willing to help their students if they ever need it. There are however, some staff that think it's "banter" to make fun of other students and/or staff members when they are supposed to be teaching a class.
On the subject of teaching a class, a lot of the teachers seem to believe it is much more important to 'make friends' with the students that to actually teach them. And yes, it is nice and makes students feel safer within the classroom environment, but when they miss out their education because of it, that's when it should be considered an issue. This isn't one of the bigger issues at Alder Grange.
Back to the topic of bullying: there are students being bullied at Alder Grange daily, in lessons, at break/lunch and before/after school. Nothing gets done about bullying and teachers pretend to not notice anything is even happening. There are a few staff members that stand around in the town centre to prevent fights (fighting in public makes the school look bad). Fights within school are unusually common, which isn't the school's fault, but they should at least try to prevent this somehow. For example, there was a fight between three KS4 students which was split up by a physically disabled student, rather than the two teachers that were stood watching (including the head teacher) and in fact, the supply teacher stood in the classroom next to the fight, had said "good luck" to the student who had two bigger students waiting outside of the classroom to fight them. If a student approaches a teacher and tells them that they are being bullied, they are asked to write the incidents into a small book, which is then never looked at (or lost by the teachers). There are a few exceptions (staff) that actually do help out the students being bullied, but this number is low (much lower than it should be). Bullying is normalised in the school. And nothing ever gets done about it.
The level of discipline at this school is poor. They say that they're going to bring in new rules and policies for the school, and the students will be punished if they break these rules... for about a week, or maybe a month if you're lucky. But it never sticks. For example, the phone ban policy. This was introduced around September 2022, and lasted for a little while. Teachers would send any phones they took off students to reception where the kids would then have to pick them up at the end of the day. Eventually this turned into teachers putting the phone at the front of the room for the rest of lesson, and then it became "put your phone away", with no real discipline.
There were "uniform checks" VERY occasionally - I'm talking like once ever year and it would be in the first week. Teachers cared more about makeup and false nails, than they did about the child's safety.
The corridors are tiny and very claustrophobic, then you get students running down them pushing everyone in their way and in some cases, resulting in injuries of other students (e.g. a sprained ankle) - with no discipline, despite the cameras.
Vaping/smoking is also a problem at Alder Grange. I am aware that this is not something to be resolved by the school, but there needs to be stricter rules around it. It is unpleasant for students to be blowing the smoke in other people's faces. It happens everywhere; outside at break, in the lunch rooms, in the corridors, in the bathrooms and even in the classrooms. The school even started locking the toilets during lesson because of the vaping, constant misbehaving and damage to property which was done by students. There would be fire evacuations when the alarms went off because of students vaping in the bathrooms, depriving other students of their education. But this meant that students who didn't vape, smoke or misbehave, were also unable to use the toilets.
The drawings on the desks is appalling. I believe the worst classroom for desk drawing is S1 (science 1). The desks are filled with drawing of inappropriate body parts, swearing, phone numbers (some with quotes such as "call for sex" - bearing in mind these are children), name calling, and much more. There is no discipline for this at all. Also the chewing gum under the desks is utterly disgusting.
There is not even near the amount of welfare staff there needs to be for the school. The children are like animals and there were only 2 welfare staff attempting to control them all. And these 2 welfare staff would be harassed and sometimes even assaulted. The swearing, talking to them as if they're slaves and overall lack of respect for them, whilst they are simply doing their job, is appalling. There was one incident where one welfare staff member had drinks poored all over her by a group students who also threw food such as bread at her.
Before the last couple of years, the school was completely unsafe. There were no gates to prevent members of the public from entering the school property. They couldn't get inside the building, but they could get to the outside areas where students go during their breaks. This also meant that students were able to leave school whenever they wanted during breaks without anyone knowing. There were at least 3 different ways where students could willingly leave whenever they wanted to.
The lunch queues are awful too. Students push in and crowd around the dinner staff to get their food. And while some students would wait patiently in line, they would be served last due to crowds of students coming inside and pushing to the front of the queues.
Overall, I do not recommend you send your children to this school. There are some 'okay' things about Alder Grange, but the bad things massively overweigh the good things. The environment feels very unsafe for students who are simply just trying to get a decent education.
quite possibly the most awful place ive ever been
if i could give this place 0 stars i would. it is DISGUSTING. downright vile. most teachers are awful. the worst of the worst. most students behave like animals. smoking, vaping, drugs, fights, clique behaviour practically runs through the veins of the place. i cant stress enough. dont send your kids there. itll mess them up for life.
Poor Leadership
Poor management, not a strong leadership team.
Things don’t get sorted. SEND provision is all over the place with a lack of experienced staff, resources and commitment to children. EHCPs take forever to review and apply for. They are segregated and seen as a problem. If your child is autistic there’s no place for them long term at this school.
Things don’t get sorted. SEND provision is all over the place with a lack of experienced staff, resources and commitment to children. EHCPs take forever to review and apply for. They are segregated and seen as a problem. If your child is autistic there’s no place for them long term at this school.
Do not go!
Shocking how bad the head teacher is with how she thinks her school is the best when its clearly not. bullying is a massive problem and no one seems to care
It’s gone downhill
The school used to be alright however it’s gone especially downhill. The school doesn’t care about students bringing in e-cigarettes and being caught with them is a slap on the wrist etc. The school is rampant with bullies and people who are there to make others miserable. The teachers are ineffective of sorting out bullies or any similar situations. You are not given a voice here. Teachers even gossip about other students in the staff room! There are many other issues with this school however too many to list. With the current headteacher, she’s being delusional and thinking her school is the best however how she runs it makes these issues much more worse. The only thing this school can cling to is the paralympic swimmer that used to go to this school, mentioning him almost all of the time as this school is filled with people with no talent. I plead for you to not go to this school as it will be a mistake you don’t want to make.
Alder grange
This school holds so much trauma for me. I was bullied and nothing was done about it. I told staff multiple times. I was scared to walk into class. I have autism and they did not accommodate for me at all. Some of the teachers are lovely and I miss them very much. The learning style was not right for me and too much pressure was put on me
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