Bristol Metropolitan Academy

Very good very nice very nice school bba very much worse

Bullying is never acted on teachers / staff. Food is alright, but either too dry or wet. Got mould in my roast potatoes once. Have stopped doing the bean and cheese wraps. Things have been stolen from me at this school, and has not been acted on by staff. Have replaced the lockers, and taken and destroyed my stuff that was in my locker. Have to pay £5dpp for locker, that is too small, and cannot fit anything in. My locker in the past has been broken into, because it broke, and was not fixed. Most teachers are rude, biased, and thoughtless. There's only a few good ones. Drama shows are good when watching, but if you're in them, it's lots of pressure, which is understandable, but we're kids, not professional actors. You aren't allowed to go to the toilet when in a lesson, without a toilet pass, and to get one, you either have to have a doctors note, and explain your health condition, which could be really private or embarrassing, to your head of house, or be female, and have to announce to your possibly male (mine is) HOH that you're on your period. Bathrooms are unisex, which is horrible for the girls on their periods, and always full. The sinks are always blocked by chavs and wannabe road men. In summer, teachers just have to have the fans on them, and not on us, however, if you bring a mini fan in, boom, confiscated. Get it back at the end of the day. In winter, you're not allowed to wear coats inside if you're cold. You just have to sit there and freeze. Some teachers don't let you drink in their classrooms, which is okay, if they let you out for a second for a quick drink, but most don't. They will also drink in their classroom, but you're not allowed. I have barely learned anything in year seven, and I'm a week into year eight, and the only PowerPoints we've been shown, are about uniform, and expectations for us. I always get sat next to people who I don't like, and don't get along with, but am not allowed to move. My German teacher, told a year nine, to jump off a cliff, and that has not been acted on. Website hasn't been updated since like June, and still has last year's dates up. Only the "best behaved" students, earn rewards, but these are mostly made up of badly behaved students, who get rewarded for any good thing they ever do. The rewards also usually cost money, which many people can't afford. Uniform costs like £60-£80. They except you to buy all your own stationery. This school doesn't care about your finances, mental health, or physical health. Do not go here.

The educational system in itself isn’t bad, it’s the same as any other UK school. Plus there are many GCSE options. The problem I have most is how they prioritise the students appearances over their actual education.

So many students are taken out of valuable lessons, sent home, excluded and put in isolation weekly because their uniform, hairstyle and general appearance isn’t perfect. I for one was unable to afford a full uniform and was still punished countless times for it when I couldn’t help my family’s income and expenses. I felt like I was being bullied.

Another issue I have with them is that they don’t know how to handle their students. My mental health at the time was poor and so a lot of the time I would have breakdowns at school. Their solution most of the time was to lock me in one of their tiny offices for the entire school day (6 hours), sometimes unsupervised and unable to get fresh air or even just go home, even if I were supervised. They also refuse some students with learning issues extra time in exams, or a pass to go outside when things became overwhelming, even before Covid.

It’s probably more of a personal issue, but if you are financially struggling and/or are struggling mentally I would definitely not recommend the school. They don’t know how to treat their students at all.

The school education is good which has been proved in past exam results but their discipline system for uniform is not . They blame the students instead of using the school uniform policy as the reason for telling you off. Their help for mental health has improved, they do have one school councilour so the waiting is quite long. Personally if I was a principal I would have at least three councilours so the waiting list is not as long but apart from that the school is average.