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Cardinal Hume Catholic School
Secondary · Academy · Gateshead
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GCSE
In my opinion, the worst school in the area, ignore Ofsted.
Overcrowded and Overruled: A Student's perspective.
At secondary the rules were over the top especially when you're a literal child in years in years 7-9 and still learning the ridiculous rules. Then you get the over the top reactions from many teachers for simple forgetful things such as: tucking your shirt in, not taking your coat off fully before walking inside the building, walking on the right-hand side, standing outside in the pouring rain, not allowed being let back inside to get your coat because its "your fault for not getting it before hand". It's not pleasant having a teacher stop dead in front of you shouting "LEFT ONLY". It's just a super unneccessary power over you, and then if you refuse to let that happen its "give me your planner" and you're wasting hours at home writing codes of conduct, no wonder certain labelled "bad"-students never get anything done, its super easy to end up with multiple codes for stupid stuff & then hours of homework on top. And then also the fact you have to put up with the massive queues at the canteen (breaks should be longer to accommodate this).
On top of all of this, the school is SUPER oversubscribed, to the point where getting feedback takes forever (particularly newer teachers who maybe bite more than they can chew), and some teachers resort to just peer assessment which is fine for "objective" subjects such as maths but is not okay for others like english lit/lang. During breaks you're squeezed with years 7-11, for context they split lunches for 7-9 and 10-11, and at that point the entire lunch area is FILLED, so you can imagine how 7-11 during break would look. The toilet situation, if you know, you know. It's ridiculous. And also getting between lessons and being asked why you were late.....
Teachers are very cliquey with each other so if you have a complaint about the standard of teaching (this was at a level by the way *ahem history*), they gossip about it with each-other and then ambush the lesson just to threaten you with "who marks your grades" etc.... Overall sixth form standards are very inadequate, shouting at students shouldn't be a normal thing... & then being forced to do mindless work for hours of so-called "directed" and "independent" study from 8am-3pm, even if you only have 2 lessons in the morning.
If you're child is more of the shy-quiet nature or neurodivergent, this isn't a good place for them.
On top of all of this, the school is SUPER oversubscribed, to the point where getting feedback takes forever (particularly newer teachers who maybe bite more than they can chew), and some teachers resort to just peer assessment which is fine for "objective" subjects such as maths but is not okay for others like english lit/lang. During breaks you're squeezed with years 7-11, for context they split lunches for 7-9 and 10-11, and at that point the entire lunch area is FILLED, so you can imagine how 7-11 during break would look. The toilet situation, if you know, you know. It's ridiculous. And also getting between lessons and being asked why you were late.....
Teachers are very cliquey with each other so if you have a complaint about the standard of teaching (this was at a level by the way *ahem history*), they gossip about it with each-other and then ambush the lesson just to threaten you with "who marks your grades" etc.... Overall sixth form standards are very inadequate, shouting at students shouldn't be a normal thing... & then being forced to do mindless work for hours of so-called "directed" and "independent" study from 8am-3pm, even if you only have 2 lessons in the morning.
If you're child is more of the shy-quiet nature or neurodivergent, this isn't a good place for them.
HORRIFIC
staff treat you like 7 year olds. the amount of bullying that is not dealt with is atrocious. mental health is absolutely nothing to them. they only to one side of the story. the amount of homework is unbelievable yes homework has to be done but we have a life as well i could never get anything done not even manage to finish my homework and ontop of that one question unanswered would result in a full 2 page code and redoing the homework from scratch. arguments are not dealt with one child gets punished depending on how much they are liked my the teacher. if you are being threatened their only result is sending you home early and nothing happens to the other student. this school allows children to be told to “sh” and “kys” by other students with no corse of action. its despicable. this school everything take everything from you including your will to live and i would hope no other student has to go through what i did from the moment i walked through them gates 4 year ago in year 7.
needs improving
the GCSE options are very little to choose between and a lot of irrelevant subjects are required.
It needs to change
It seems that the teachers care more about the smart students that will succeed much more than the students that are not so successful. They blame it on lack of-effort, lack of attention when it’s not! It’s the fact that teachers aren’t understanding that people need help learning that subject. Some teachers get mad if you ask a question such as “I don’t know how to do it” they blame it on lack ov attention when some teachers can’t even explain it properly. some teachers just sit at their desk telling us about something but not actually teaching us. How can you teach when you’re not interacting with the students? It doesn’t make sense! They should make the lessons fun and make students want to learn but they don’t they make it miserable and they wonder why people are getting 70% on their attendance! It’s ridiculous. Not only the teacher but the lack of care! They care more about what you look like more than people getting bullied or have bad mental health! They don’t get you help if you need it. They would keep you out of class for a boy having short hair when they are boys they commonly have short hair they say it’s a “distraction” when quite frankly it’s weird for someone to get distracted over a hair cut if it’s distracting teachers they have a problem and they need to sort it out. The rules need to change and the care of students need to be upgraded.
Mental Health Neglect
unless you’re a smart student , to most teachers, you aren’t valued enough, what I will say is that some teachers really do care about the students that aren’t the best academically and do want them to succeed, but definitely not all, the success of the school itself and the appearance of the students are the most important it seems, not the actual wellbeing of the students, for example low attendance, why do students not want to come into school? automatically they’d say laziness the lack of want to achieve, when if they stopped being so naive they’d realise it’s not due to laziness but other factors like how the school make it harder by putting pressure on the smarter students and making the less academically gifted students a harder time to push for higher grades leading the students to struggling with their mental health and not giving them a break away from all the pressure, bullying is also a huge factor, they don’t look into the situation but want students to still come in? the students aren’t being heard! that’s the problem
It’s an okay school
I mean it’s okay! Rules are so stupid and dumb! some teachers aren’t the best at teaching. Get over the top homework and get course work an top of course work and they expect u to revisit aswell which makes you not wanna go in. Get forced to go outside even if you don’t want to. The boys hair rule is the stupidest thing iv ever heard of in my whole entire life.
Cardinal Hume
I’m a student there in my opinion the school does help students get good grades but the school rules are stupid and over the top .the school is very strict.most of the staff are lovely but there is a small number that are not as nice or understanding .the school meals are horrible and you don’t get much time to eat and you are forced to go outside even if it is wet and cold students get a high amount of homework
Great School for all children!
It’s one of the stricter schools, which keeps them in a strictly order meaning they’re well educated and being taught well, there’s the odd few silly people in classes who need to be taught a lesson, due to covid there is a one way system which keeps students from mixing, they have year bubbles and have to wear a mask all day, with a short break at lunch in the open, we can’t gather in gangs around school and we can’t wait for friends after lessons, most teachers are very friendly and give really good help, they try hard when we’re in lockdown, with live lessons and recorded lessons, plenty of help and teachers to talk to, one of the only decent schools that have tough restrictions!
Over all reccomended
It’s very strict but due to COVID there’s a one way system
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This school does everything it needs to do to show that it gets the best results, if this means putting your child in the bottom set so they do not get pushed to do their best, that's what they'll do.
The school is all about how's they look and DO NOT have the best interests of the students as priority one.
The teachers are more hung up on skirt length, how the students walk through the corridors, rather than actually teaching.
This was such an issue at one point it started to come across as weird, where one teacher had an obsession with girls skirts, I made a call and expressed my concerns, and fortunately it stopped, my daughter had the proper Cardinal Hume skirt by the way.
Furtehr to all this after numerous calls to the school (10) asking the deputy head to ring me back to discuss my child's GCSE results, I got a message via reception stating that GCSE results would be reviewed in 30 days.............not really very helpful when you're trying to obtain 'A' Level placements.
I would NOT recommend this school.
The school is a disgrace, teachers need a reality check that they aren't high and mighty and they are there to actually TEACH.