Coombeshead Academy

Horrible environment for children to learn.
AVOID
No proper management

so bad very poor teachers that can not handle students
right dont give a shit ab mental health all they do is send u to bridge never listen top what u have too say and the head teacher is vile

I have just come across this website today as I have someone who is going to primary school next year and I am looking at reviews.

Whilst I am thankful that this school has appeared on this website, it is such a shame - from these Reviews - that this school has gone downhill.

I would like to say that this school likes to think they have a moral high ground. From presenting a poster saying “some people are gay, get over it.”. To, seminars showcasing the repercussions of bullying. They thought that these were Nobel prize winning moments, huh?

I would like to put my 2 cents on this and to say that this has been a reoccurring issue. For a god damn while. Bear in mind that it’s just my opinion.

I was severely bullied at this school. I once had to report it to every teacher that I could find because my head of year seemed to not know how to do this on my behalf apparently. I was then threatened a detention by my Head of year, for causing a scene because I was going to every teacher that I had. So that they do not sit me next to the bullies.

Furthermore, I was once followed to the bathroom by a bunch of boys in my year. With their cameras on to record me. I felt so uncomfortable that I had a meltdown. My friend helped me get out of this situation and we both reported what happened to the teachers. Unfortunately, they looked the other way and we had to bare the insults thrown at us. People were calling us attention whores and everything.

When I had meetings with the teachers about the shit I was facing, I was told that kids will be kids and they mean no harm. Well I mean, following me and harassing me in the toilets is banter, I guess?

From year 7, I was in the bottom streams of all core subjects. The teachers had given up on you only because they thought you had no future and you won’t achieve anything. My maths teacher at the time thought we were so dumb that we were unteachable and at that point, we were given textbooks to answer questions from. We were not learning anything. It was only in year 10/11 where I was in the top sets I realised that the quality of the lessons were different. I was given guest speakers and people who were specialists in the field to motivate us. It was only then I realised how different the classes were.You might as well have JK Rowling come in as a guest speaker. (She won’t because she will be recovering a long time afterwards)

They also don’t do background checks on staff. There has been plenty of accusations that teachers were abusing the trust of students. One was even arrested of having illegal stuff at his home to the point that police had to come into our school and arrest the guy. You don’t believe me?. Maybe search up “Coombeshead teacher suspended”

Unfortunately, there are some cases where things like this were kept under secrecy. I knew too many.


Also, people would also send vile rumours about others at this school. I know this, as I was the subject of many conversations. Sometimes even teachers would get involved. I knew someone who was also was the subject of many convos. Teachers (whose job it is to safeguard) even told him that if he was to snitch there would be trouble. I had people who even tried to justify this behaviour saying, that he is autistic. So, bullying someone because he had special needs is okay? I guess?


Another fact is that he had his lunch money stolen and he fainted because it was so hot that he couldn’t afford a bottle of water. His water bottle was stolen and put in the bin before school.

It also depends on the background you come from. If you’re poor, you will absolutely stand out. I had a mate coming from a Low income background who had people making fun of how she dressed because her clothes were second hand. If you are a low ability student. Don’t bother. Students aren’t given the help they need.

Fun fact: they will give help to students that don’t need it. I was asked if I wanted to go to an intervention (I had no choice, why bother asking?). In fact I was forced to miss on GCSE subject lessons because of it and hated my grade as a result. I was even lightly threatened that if I didn’t go I would go to isolation because it was a timetabled subject. All about respecting choices eh?


Also, there would be incidents where students would want to be Naruto wannabes and jump on other students. I know this since a little year 7 whose arm was in cast, had it broken again because someone jumped on him. I had to report the incident as I was a witness. But no fret, the teachers couldn’t do anything about it. Since the person was a good lad (because he had a good amount of praise points). Good man? (I would think not).

Another fact about this school is that you will ABSOLUTELY meet some ‘interesting people’. People who have swastikas slanted on their hand. People who will call you a faggot, a long nosed Jew or a terrorist or even, the n-word. And finally, you will have staff that don’t care. Evident by the headteacher turning student support into his own spacious office. With creepy mannequins donning the school uniform. I know this as I had to visit someone who was at sixth form. As a result, some staff were made redundant and unemployed. So clearly they don’t care about staff either, as they want to make them redundant?

That is just a tip of the iceberg. So parents and kids alike, unless you have some sort of degradation fetish. Or, you hate your child so much that you want them dead. Don’t do it, your child’s or your own sanity will DEFINITELY THANK YOU.

My child came back from school with a panic attack. I tried to calm her down and ask what happened - she was getting picked on for a while. I asked her if she alerted any teachers, in which she replied yes on multiple occasions and was accused of making a scene.

If your child was getting picked on and nothing happened, you wouldn’t have it. I certainly didn’t and hence, phoned the school. When I phoned the school explaining what had happened, I was guaranteed that everything would be sorted out.

The next day, she came home from school in tears telling me that nothing is being done about it and the bullying is getting worse. I phoned the school once again expressing my concerns to no avail. On top of that I was spoken to patronisingly being told that everything is being handled and they are trying their best to sort this out. I argued back saying that I had called in the other day. In which the response was: we are trying our best. That was their only rebuttal.

If they are trying their best they would’ve sorted this out months ago. So no, don’t send your child to this school. It’s not worth the headache.

Terrible support at this school for children with additional needs or sen. Ran more like a prison and a puniative one at that. Lack of understanding or effective support. Teachers are more concerned with their own voice, power and policies than those of the struggling pupils and their well being. Just awful!

At my time there, the handling of bullying was appalling. I was accused by a teacher in year 7 of making a scene because I had to notify every teacher that I didn’t want them to sit me next to bullies in class (yes we had a seating plan). It should’ve been the job of my head of year to do this and not me. But they decided not to. So it was left up to me. Long story short, At my 5 years there, I have suffered bullying at the hands of my peers. Since, nothing was done about it. Unless your child is a high achiever, don’t expect much from this school. If you’re in top set for your subjects, a lot of opportunities are open for you. You had guest speakers, authors and opportunities such as trips to go to. If you’re in bottom set, the opposite is present. You’re not being pushed to do your best and you would have teachers giving up on you. What makes it worse is that I came to the realisation that in year 9 when I moved up sets is that I was behind on some work. I didn’t realise before when I move from my old class. We had people who were unteachable and hence, we couldn’t get much done. I was naive to think that’s every class was in the same page.

I have just come across this website when searching for my old school. It’s such a shame that it has come to this. From reading off of the reviews. There is a lot of discrimination towards students. When I was there, discrimination was present. But unlike recently, it was taken seriously. This is because the school had a competent staff to deal with this. This comes to my last point. I have heard from several students that the new headteacher turned student support, the only places that students can get support, into his own spacious office. If that’s not selfishness (which in itself is an understatement) I don’t really know what is.

Such a shame really.

said to have improved since it became an academy, but this could not be more wrong. coombeshead staff stressed diversity and equality once a year in the obligatory assembly, and claimed to effectively tackle bullying, but none of this actually happened in my five years at this school. they trained up anti-bullying ambassadors once, took them to a seminar, and never did anything with them again. students who were not cis straight white men were treated differently. these boys frequently made offensive and potentially harmful jokes in classes and around the school almost constantly. I have seen swastikas, racial/homophobic/islamophobic slurs scrawled on tables and heard them yelled throughout the corridors. the issue was that the targeted students couldn't come to anyone about it because nothing would be done. one of the people i knew was verbally abused in a group chat for being bisexual, being called all sorts by the boys who got away with everything because they said a few 'funny' thins every now and then and were good at sports. Coombeshead praise their views on equality, put up a poster about the lgbtq+ community and call it a day.
toilets are also disgusting- no matter which block you go to. most of my teachers were lovely, but it really depends on your abilities and skill set. the top sets get the best treatment, the middle sets get the scraps, and the teachers don't even try with the lower sets. they stick with the ideology that they won't move up anywhere in life, so why help them? as someone who started off in the lowest set for each core subject when i joined, i had to teach myself my lessons, particularly in maths, to eventually reach the highest maths set. my friend was in the lowest set in our final year, almost all bottom set kids didn't get the grades they deserved because their teachers had given up on them. coombeshead staff also did not take mental health seriously. so many kids i knew self harmed and were severely unhappy during their time at coombeshead- and when the new headteacher came, his first order of business was to shut the pastoral hub down. this was a safe haven for a lot of students, the only place they could go to, and they decided to shut it because a few people were abusing it? in the january/february lockdown, i was in a very bad state mentally, and asked my teacher for an extension on my assignment. she agreed and wished me well, i handed it in two weeks later. i had the same thing with another assignment, emailed her to ask if it was okay to hand in a bit late- she never came back to me. then my report came, she had downgraded me on effort even though i had explicitly told her over email. my gcse from this teacher later turned out to be below my expectations- because i was prioritising my mental health over school. coombeshead teachers tell us our health comes first, until it comes before school.
overall, coombeshead academy has issues with discrimination, quality of learning, and facilities for children who may need extra assistance to get the grades they deserve. they need to practise what they preach.

bullying was severe and was never dealt with correctly. the methods used to “fight the bullying” actually made it worse in my case. most of the students in the school are racist and homophobic, and it overall isn’t a great community. especially not for learning. nothing is dealt with correctly, and for the record, putting up a poster saying “people are gay. get over it.” doesn’t help one bit. the amount of transphobic comments and homophobic comments my friends and others endured actually made me extremely hesitant to come out — and i still haven’t to this day.
it’s a shame that my secondary school experience was ruined by the bullying i was enduring, with minimum being done about it.

absolutely terrible. dont do much for things like racism, homophobia and transphobia that can be heard coming out from 80% of the students attending the school. well, if you count putting up a poster that only says "some people are gay. get over it." as helping. if they're feeling generous enough, they might even swap out the word "gay" to "trans". the racisim (and other things like antisemitism and islamaphobia is also a major issue) seems to be completely dismissed aswell, many times have i sat in class watching the boys in there make threats, that could be taken as threats to commit an actual hate crime, and sprout bigoted bs while the teacher stood right infront of their table, absolutely hearing every single word, and doing absolutely nothing. staying completely silent and joking with the same boys a few minutes later, while the students who are part of minority communities feared for their safety. only when i asked the teachers afterwards to stop turning a blind eye and actually calling these kids, who are most likely going down an alt right hole that was sending them to be exposed to extreme ideologies, out on their actions. which, mind you, did not do much after said teachers just told them to stop one time, then continued to dismiss and ignore and act oblivious to their continuous speeches of hate and discrimination. so no, despite coombeshead saying its a welcoming and accepting place with no judgement of other people, it doesnt do much to actually make its minority students feel safe in their own fucking school.

if i could go into negatives i would. this school is small minded and full of bigots yet they pretend to want diversity and act like all students are equal. as a disabled gay transgender punk with autism, adhd, and a range of mental health problems i can promise you that its not true. from the first day i started this school i was harrassed and bullied both by my teachers and my peers and nobody did anything to help. one instance for example that really shows what kind of school this is that i remember off the top of my head would be when i was in art class trying to walk to get my sketchbook out my bag when one of the students yelled "faggot" at me. the teacher looked up, looked to the kid and knowing what had been said turned away once more. when i told him to f*ck off i was sent to the isolation unit for two days for using "fowl language" when the other kid who not only started it but was using slurs faced no consequences. sad thing is that wasnt even out of the ordinary, i dealt with stuff like that most days in the four years i attended combeshead and no child was ever punished except me, for defending myself. nobody ever fought my corner out of fear they too would become targets. the school never tried to understand my dissabilities or gave me any leniency because of them. i was seen as a nuisance or lazy and sent out of class to isolation. they never tried to understand how i was struggling or asked what the problem was. i couldnt read because my eyes would skip over the words because of my adhd, i couldnt do my maths equasions because of my dyscalculia (number dyslexia), i struggled with bright lights and noise and was prone to meltdowns and burnoits because of my autism. id have panic attacks in the middle of class so id ask to sit at the back away from people so kids wouldnt notice but i was placed at the front infront of the teachers because they thought i would mess around. they forced me to take my blazer off with the knowledge i had a big problem with self harm because of my depression and ptsd which was worsened by all the bullying i recueved for it. even after my scars healed i was ridiculed. the day after i tried to OD i was given detention for missing a homework assignment. i was locked in a rolm by myself for two hours when my tics were bad because my distress was a discomfort for other students. then as if that wasnt bad enough i was harrassed by teachers when i got a mohawk and buzzed the sides bexause they were "too short" even though most of the other boys had their sides shorter than mine and i was kicked out for having a septum piercing (under my mask and not visable), when i gave a list of 9 other students with the same piercings i wanted to see suspended also they said they were "not prepared to discuss other students". theu simply singled me out because i stick out more. priveliged kids always get away with things at coombeshead. racism, sexism ableism, homophobia, tramphobia are so normalised at this school that it is honestly disgusting. then for issues that are important but didnt bother me so much:
- very few meal options for kids with lactose intolerance or that are vegan/vedgie
-for older years the food is almost always gone at break and lunch, even trying to grab a bag of crisps is hard.
-if your child is neurodivergent or disabled and in the okder years they will not be offered much of the little support they give to neurodivergent/disabled kids as it is. me and my friend were both turned away because we were believed we should be able to handle our disablilities better than younger kids which were priority in a space for all age groups.
-kids are not allowed inside during break/lunch even in winter when it is freezing.

i honestly would not reccomend coombeshead to anyone.

Clear lack of diversity which has created a hostile and borderline racist and prejudicial environment for ethnically diverse students. Over the last few years the school has become more based on business orientated and the management of the welfare of the mental and physical health of children is shocking. There is an apparent lack of resources for children seeking help and therapy for their mental health and there is a clear issue with how teachers treat their students when it comes to effective teaching. It is apparent 99% of staff are only there for the money and not actually care about the education of the young people. The desperate efforts of trying to be modern and diverse is overshadowed by the clear lack of communication between staff and students with the tragic drive of wanting to be perfect and pitting students against each other to get the best grades. The ones in the lower sets are practically left for dirt and are only rarely given the option to move up sets, not to mention the clear lack of support and education between higher sets and lower sets.

Didn’t care about your problems maths department is awful the only good teachers are the sport ones

never cared about your problems and just made you sit in a room until they eventually told you to go away. going to this school made my anxiety so bad and i had panic attacks every morning before school. good at teaching i guess i learnt a lot

Some teachers great but most put to much pressure on us