Balshaw's Church of England High School

Very nice. Lots of opportunities to do stuff like that. Teachers are quite kind

It was the worst ever school I've been to the staff made Me feel belittled stupid and not enough and the head teacher was a lier and they did nothing about my trauma about being bullied the school is the worst and they say things about that they are gonna deal with the issues right away but really they don't give a shit they have given me so much ptsd and depression and if it weren't for that horrendous school I might have some self confidence and self esteem please who ever reads this don't send your child to this school you will be making the biggest mistake

This school is awful. the consequences are way to harsh. Somebody in my year got iscolation for the day just because they expressed a controversial opinion. The rules are even worse. Girls are told to unroll their skirt because it affects others learning, but if my skirt being short is affecting anyones learning I think those students are the problem not the ones rolling their skirts up, if the school didn’t make the skirts so long in the first place students wouldn’t feel the need to roll up their skirts. You are not allowed to wear a coat if it is not black or very dark blue however the school don’t even allow you to wear coats inside the school building even on the corridors so making somebody go out to pay money for anew coat is just extremely unfair. There are lots of barriers you are not allowed to go past in balshaws which are completely stupid, they are just doors leading to corridors with classes, these barriers have made lots of people get in trouble for being late because instead of a 30 second trip to class it has took them an extra 4 to 5 minutes but you only have 3 minutes to get to class before you are late.
They teachers are awful. They cannot control the students and they lash out if somebody misbehaves which just makes the classes behaviour worse. One of my teachers told the class that if they didn’t get an answer right they would receive a negative point on synergy getting them in trouble at home, because apparently if you didn’t know the answer to the question you weren’t listening even though the stuff he was talking about could have been from weeks ago. The teachers obviously favourite people and could not make it more clear. You can tell the people they like and dislike. I have a bladder issue so was given a toilet pass but if you do not have one you are not allowed to go to the toilet in lesson or imbetween lessons which is ridiculous. One of my teachers made me give him my phone when I went to the toilet and simply said he was doing this to everyone who needed it but when one of the students who didn’t have a pass asked they were just excused however if anyone else asked to go to the toilet they would not be allowed. This is simply just favouritism.
The same teacher asked me about my self harm scars on the wrist infront of the whole class and now people make fun of me because of the issues the school and other sistuations have given me. Personally I am not easily offended but this was something I was quite insecure about and did get a bit angry when he mentioned it.
Lots of people get bullied in this school, for gender, sexuality, race, religion and the school don’t seem to deal with it very well, they tend to just give out detentions that no one really cares about. Because the school doesn’t deal with bullying people have stopped reporting it.
I would love to say that the only good thing about balshaws is the education but I would be wrong. If you aren’t smart and don’t spend hours a night revising and doing homework you are pretty much forgotten about. If you struggle you are just told that you weren’t listening. Personally I have struggle to concentrate and fidget a lot I am just constantly told off for this. As I said I struggle to focus so in English when we were reading I was looking out of the window and I I was told that I wouldn’t pass any of my GCSEs by my English teacher and he threatened to call my parents about this.
If your child is a Christian white male who is extremely smart and has no other commitments other than school I would highly recommend this school.
If not than send your kid somewhere else

I am actually appalled at the treatment I received in my final months at this school. I wrote a review in October of 2021 which is still up for anyone wanting and in-depth overview of how awful Balshaws truly is, but after this review I really saw how vile and corrupt this place is at it's core. I am now at college, but I still have friends who are in their final years here and even though I will be mainly talking about my experience I will brush over their experiences too because it honestly disgusts me. I know that if anyone who knows me reads this review they will probably identify who I am, but that doesn't matter. I don't want anyone to face the hell I went through, and that's why I believe in sharing this experience.

I struggled a lot with my mental health in the final year of high school, mostly due to the high school itself but also personal issues. I started taking weeks off school, often due to illness brought on by my anxiety of going into school, but also due to severe burnout and constant breakdowns over the stress I was being put under. The school, obviously, got concerned about my attendance. The school was made aware that I was struggling mentally, and they didn't really care. They started unauthorizing my absences and if I actually became ill during school hours they wouldn't let me go home. I suffer from migraines and IBS and other issues that can be brought on due to stress so if I had a migraine or really bad stomach pains they refused to send me home. When I took days off they would ring up my dad who has hates talking over the phone to ask where I was and to complain about my absence. They even sent letters saying that I'm going to get bad grades because of my low attendance and even borderline accusing me of skipping! And that's not even the worse of it, they even said that my parents, THE ONLY ONES THAT CARED ABOUT MY MENTAL STATE, weren't supporting me and that the school was doing their best to help (they weren't). As you can imagine this did not help with my anxiety. This then lead to meetings with the deputy head, I can't name her but anyone from Balshaws will know who she is, and her assistant. In these meetings the deputy would explain that I need to come in more and anxiety and panic attacks are not an excuse to miss school and that because I don't have any "medical documentation" of these issues that they can't authorise my absences and that THEY WERE LOOKING INTO FINING MY PARENTS. Me and my family are low income, we already struggle to make ends meet as it is and obviously the school does have basic insight into our financial status and know this. I, of course, confronted the deputy about this, asking why she can't authorise them, because I know for a fact they don't need full on "medical documents" to authorise absences, but she insisted that she couldn't do anything about it. So, I went to my GP who knows about my mental struggles and asked if they could write up a letter for me school, and they happily did. As well as that I also got my therapist involved who also contacted the school. Despite the letter from my doctor and my therapist's emails, they still refused to authorise anything and still complained about my attendance. They had some "medical documents" now with the official letter and from my therapist, so what was the issue? Nothing. They just wanted to scare my parents into forcing me into school so they didn't look bad for having a student with low attendance. Finally my therapist got into a meeting with them with me and my mum as well.. and the best way to sum up how that went is in what my therapist said to my mum afterwards, which was "That was the most uncooperative meeting I've ever had with a school.". My therapist asked the school to put in a support plan for me, and although the deputy's complaints, they finally managed to agree on some aspects. One of the points on this agreement was that I would get free access to the hub (the offices where they had a couple free quiet rooms for students) at any time to calm down. Well, that never really worked. Often times I was turned away from the hub by the ladies working at the desk or told I could only stay for 10 minutes, and I often had to explain over and over again why I was there in front of other students, which is not helpful for my anxiety. Also, in the meeting, the deputy gave me like a 50p fidget toy to use in class to help me... like wtf I'm not going to play with a fidget toy in class in front of people.
Anyways, it gets even worse. One day when I was off, the deputy and her assistant CAME TO MY HOUSE UNANNOUNCED. My mum is not good with surprise visitors, especially people she doesn't really know on a personal level. So, my mum being taken by surprise accidentally overshares a bit too much about my personal struggles and that lead to some safeguarding alerts being set off. Support workers got involved and it's a whole mess. I didn't want the school knowing about these issues, and my mum knew that it was just by accident she overshared due to the surprise visit. I was treated differently then on by the staff, they treated me like I was fragile glass and I hated it. In one meeting my mum told them I was dealing with "not good" thoughts, and the schools response to that? Stick me in a small room for a week, not let me out for break or lunch, have someone walk me to the bathroom and back and even have one of my family members walk me to and from school, despite me not living that far away, all so I don't hurt myself... Seems a bit odd that they think I'm going to be able to hurt myself in school, they really think it's that unsafe huh? They should really consider the safety of their premises if they're that concerned I could hurt myself. Despite mine and my parents complaints about these crazy precautions, it took my therapist complaining for them to stop. Like, they think not allowing me out at break and lunch and stopping me from socialising is going to help? Seriously? Plus, it wasn't like I was in that room alone, other kids would come and go and although some were nice some seemed really aggressive which didn't help calm my nerves. I even witnessed someone try and hurt themselves in one of those rooms once... it was heart breaking.
Anyways, there was just a lot of meetings and a lot of me and my parents having to deal with the school's constant complaints over and over again for the last few months. It was horrible and just ended in more stress.
Also, an extra note to this, the schools authorised all my absences after I left.. seems like they're trying to cover their tracks. As well as this, I got a couple 5s, mostly 6s and even two 7s in my exams, didn't even fail a single subject and had the grades I needed for college, so it seems that letter was completely incorrect in the end :).

Leading on from this, here's a few more examples of bad school management:
Once someone I'm close to was having a panic attack in school, and I was in the hub at the time studying for my GCSEs. In the middle of my work I had a staff member come up to me and ask me to come and help my friend calm down... Why is that my duty? I'm supposed to be studying? The pastoral staff and counsellor exist for a reason? I'm not mad that I had to help my friend, I'm mad that the school didn't want to help my friend themselves. Plus, I had to talk to them in a room with another staff member like a couple feet away from us, no privacy. It was awful.
Another person I know has experienced a lot of harassment and bullying at the school hasn't done anything to help, it's actually hurtful to see them suffer and me, not being in school anymore, not able to help.
And finally, another friend of mine has experienced racism towards them due to them being a foreigner and it honestly makes me sick to hear what they have to deal with on a daily basis just because of their nationality (I hope that's the right word).

All in all, this school does not know how to handle any student struggling and does not care at all about their mental wellbeing. This school is one that should not exist.

Thank you for reading and sorry for any bad grammar or spelling mistakes.
And if you know who I am or anyone I mentioned, you don't :).

bad. can’t even deal with bullying they think sitting down hm and having a chat is gonna solve all problems. we’ll look at the world babes. + students get absolutely destroyed for not wearing the correct uniform while the teachers who correct them are violating multiple dress codes within the facility, it’s beyond dumb. sexist too.

Terrible school.
The teachers are average at best and most are unable to handle their students.
They only care about their outwards appearance, and despite the fact that they claim to care about mental health they single handedly decrease the mental health of students by a substantial amount.

If you send your child here, they'd get better education at a prison.

terrible, not a good place to go.

The school is full of favoritism and the punishment system is far out of proportion, the rewards are minor and the teaching is steadily going downhill. It used to be good but if you have not been in the paet year you no longer know the school

This school has changed me a lot, from my ability to learn and make friends.
I have learnt many valuable lessons from the school, and while punishments may seem unfair to some they’re just preparing you for the outside world.
Overall the school is really really good and i recommend coming to this school.
Lockdown learning wasn’t so great as we had to teach ourselves topics which is hard at GCSE level, however coming back into school after lockdown i felt safe and i’m finally feeling confident and myself.
Im in my last year at this school and i have been taught so much, not just from the academic side but also from the social side
basic social skills, stuff i couldn’t have achieved without this school.
Although the school don’t know exactly how to handle bullying they do a pretty good job with what they can, and i respect them fully.

During my 5 years at balshaws I have experienced bullying and not everyone is as they should be in an educational place teachers don’t adapt their teaching to students needs and most teachers don’t make the time to help the students with personal problems the school is also very sexist in quite a few aspects of their education

The school is alright but when you take into account the rules and punishments of the school it get out of hand to the point of it actually comical