Claverham Community College

The food is really nice but you have to queue for ages sometimes. I like the after school clubs. Pastoral is useless. I went there once when I was upset about a lesson in pshe I just had (topic was black racism and the news reports hit a little too close to home) they did not make me feel better at all just made me late for food tech. Useless at sorting out fights and bullying. I have not been bullied in experience at this school but I’ve seen all the drama that’s gone on in year 7 and someone ends up going to pastoral about it. Pastoral does absolutely nothing except pull whoever’s been blamed for the ‘incident’ out of class one day to yell at them. Doesn’t actually stop the drama.
I’ve made so many friends this year and I have to be grateful for that. A lot of people complain about how many students there are but I like it because you’re not stuck with the same 20 kids for six long fricking years and the same repeated assemblies like I had at my tiny primary school.

There’s a very wide range of teaching styles. Like you’ll have a teacher that would let the class get so crazy that you could literally just sit with ur phone under the table eating ur half finished lunch, and the teacher would write somebody’s name on the board and say ‘Quieten down, children now,’. Ngl those lessons are ok.
Then there’s a bunch of actual decent teachers. Then there’s the ones that literally pick two or three favourites and despise the rest of the class. And if you do something silly in class trying to be funny or whatever then some teachers will actually appreciate the joke while others will hold a lifelong grudge against you.

Recently the teachers have just introduced a new thing where if you’re late to school or to a lesson twice in a week it’s an automatic after school, unless you have a ‘valid reason to be missing VALUABLE MINUTES OF LEARNING’ Honestly this is way too harsh.

I can’t say the same for every year in claverham since I just finished year seven, but they start really easy on the homework in September and then it starts piling up. It’s like an hour of homework every single night because otherwise if you leave it you end up having a panic attack at 11 on Sunday night. Most of the stuff is all right but the one thing I LOATHE is FRICKING BEDROCK. They said that you get homework difficulty based on a test you take at the start of the year but honestly it’s way too easy and I never learn anything. And it takes me ages watching repetitive boring videos and answering questions like ‘what’s a full stop?’

Term 6 is the best because you get no homework and since the year 11s leave early you can actually use the canteen.
Overall it’s an ok school. Parents, Send ur kid there but don’t be afraid to make some angry phone calls occasionally. Kids, you’ll make tons of friends but BEWARE OF PASTORAL! I confide more in the three art teachers (super nice).

Also it would be cool if they taught Ukrainian since like a quarter of the students are Ukrainian and we can’t talk to them.

It's not great. Some of my friends go and they say pastoral is a poo but I've only been there for transition days so I can't say much about it. Most of the teachers I met were nice enough but some were a bit annoying. However you can make lots of friends so overall average

Overall its kinda average. Food tastes great but I swear me and my friends have to literally sprint to the canteen if we have a chance of getting our food in less than like 2 hours. Pastoral team is absolutely useless sorting out fights or stopping bullying. I was upset about a lesson we had on racism that hit a little to close to home so my friend took me to pastoral. I FELT EVEN WORSE!!!! Like they didn't even make me feel better they just asked me about why it was making me feel upset. They were like did you have a traumatising experience with this type of experience or whatever and I was like, well no, and they said then why r u upset! Most of the lessons are ok ish. But when the class misbehaves the teachers will make the whole class stay behind for a few minutes which means ppl have to run to not miss the bus or if ur getting picked up . And the school is so blind to people literally having a vape right behind there backs. But I've made so many friends there I'm gonna be honest. 2

awful school the teachers are very unpleasant to kids/teens loads of bullying and nothing been done about it .teachers making fun of pupils and no care for mental health whatsoever

The school is terrible and so is most of the staff to

When it comes to homework I think Claverham is absolutely terrible. The teachers set the homework as if their subject is the only one we learn not thinking about the other 15 or so subjects meaning that even if they set the simplest homework we could still spend an hour doing it. Homework can be so stressful sometimes especially since people have gotten told off because the teacher forgot to tell us about it. Also it’s so unfair that teachers can go weeks FORGETTING TO BRING OUR BOOKS IN yet the one day we forget to do our homework we get a detention to stop us from eating. How is that fair?

yes amazing school :). you should send your kids there.

amazing school :). yall should send your kids there. better than something like st leonards academy

they made my kid apologise to their bully and the pastoral team do not help with mental health in the appropriate way. The canteen card limit is also a sickening idea for kids may not be able to afford food at home, let alone in a learning environment.

Please don’t send your child here I am still at this school now but it is terrible classes are all very distruptive don’t learn much because of this. Pastoral is bad they don’t deal with things probably. Bullying is never dealt with well I still get bullied and when I report they just talk to the person which isn’t helpful. If there is a fight the person just gets isolation for a day. All round very terrible school do not send your child here.

Terrible school. The pastoral team are narrow-minded dictators. Bullying is ignored. They automatically take the side of who they deem to be the respectable and more academic student. They will then disregard any facts in your favour, put words in your mouth, break you down, isolate you and even start rumours about you.

Glad that I am away from this stressful environment. I swear that I am a more anxious person due to attending this school.

Parents, if you are reading this DON'T send your son/daughter here if they need a nurturing school. This is NOT the place for them. Grades and class are rated over everything else.

The only reason to go here is for the (supposed) better average grades. Beyond that, it is all kinds of bad.

As people have mentioned, the 'Pastoral' team in the school is one of the biggest issues, alongside the increasingly strict systems put in place. It would not be overreacting to say it is a (toned down, for legal reasons) example of an Orwellian nightmare.

And I don't mean 'oh I set fire to my teacher and got an afterschool detention literally 1984', I mean there are underlying themes of superiority over others throughout the school. I'll start with the system. Every term or two the school implements another unnecessary system to the school. One example would be the simplification of form activities. Beforehand you would have activities and presentations tailored to your year group. However nowadays all years have to do the same activities, meaning older students feel patronised due to the simplicity of the topics. One instance was (as far as i remember) we (a year 10 form) had to write how to make people feel better or something similar on paper buntings. This sounds fun until you want to talk about any serious issues that need discussing, like for example the Israel and Palestine conflict that was happening at the time, and the tutor tells you off for not doing a meaningless task. The one way system introduced is also laughably backwards, as now more students are late to class and corridors are even more cramped, thus entirely defeating the purpose of needing the system. This leads onto my next item.

The Pastoral team is a group of 'teachers' that do both the mental health support and the brutal punishments (there are now only afterschool detentions, and are given out for very little reason.) This makes them threatening, as you assume they are there to isolate you for tapping your pen on a table, so there isn't really any support in that regard. If you do build up the courage to talk to them, or they mysteriously know everything without you uttering a word (they have eyes and ears everywhere), they MIGHT give you patronising group therapy sessions, or call your parents about your personal life. Bullying is ignored as well.

The ironic thing is, a 'Pastoral' lifestyle is shepherds herding sheep. Which is interesting, as they make us all do the same useless tasks in form, herd us with one way systems and when someone steps out of line, set their 'dogs' on them to put them in isolation or an after school detention.

Word of the weeks include 'subdue' and 'monarchy', alongside other words with the same theme. They create this idea that they are above you, an omnipotent group of middle aged people who do nothing but torment and terrorise their students. There are also rumours of one member being a pedophile, with enough evidence to fill a library.

They subdue their students, stress them until they break, then keep them behind for just over an hour or isolate them for days. They alternate between being brutal monsters and calm mentors, manipulating your psychology until they believe you have learnt your lesson. Oddly similar to the Ministry of Love from 1984. 🤔

They hear everything and see everything that happens, like the Thought Police. They force endless meaningless assemblies and powerpoint presentations down your throat, like in 1984.

DO NOT SEND YOUR CHILD HERE. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

PASTORAL IS WATCHING YOU.

Claverham is the place of education for a large number of anxious, stressed and in some cases bullied students. Although I can't speak on behalf of all the students there, I know that a large portion (including me and my friends) find claverhams atmosphere very stressful. From the moment we arrive, all that matters is our final grades at the end of our 5 years there and any mental or physical health problems are often treated as 'inconvenient' and a waste of time. However, I believe this is partly a problem with the schools system itself and is not a reflection of most staff, who are genuinely trying to help and guide students. One of the worst things about Claverham is that its pastoral/mental health team is also in charge of punishing students for bad behavior. This makes them very unapproachable, because we're all terrified of them and immediately assume that we're in trouble when they approach us.

don't really do much about bullying or harassment apart from "give warnings", people definitely get no punishment just because of the teachers bias. There is also ingrained sexism. school is also incredibly cramped with a small canteen for all the students, there are always long lines and the food is poor.

A lot of the teachers there a pretty boring. They make lessons hard to learn in. The bullying aspect of things is even worse. I got bullied for 4 years there, reported every time, and nothing was really done. There are a few really good teachers but it's not the majority sadly.