Cromer Academy

As an autistic teenager, my family expected me to get the support i needed at this school when I first joined and it was quite the opposite. The SENDco has little to no training and majority of the teachers don't have training in autism and other disabilities either. They treated my disability as nothing but a little bit of anxiety and refused for six months to allow me to wear the PE kit instead of the general uniform for school as I have extreme sensory issues. They only agreed when the council was brought into it and even then, they refused to adjust to my other needs. They have lied on their website about being an all inclusive school and has let plenty of students, including myself, down. It is clear their main priority is maintaining a 'picture perfect' reputation and image and do not actually care about the students that attend the school. I expected higher and left, in year 9, feeling disappointed, disrespected and honestly just angry at the way me and my family were treated. All of which is against the school's motto and values of 'manners and respect' that i'd been told countless times the teachers 'lived and breathed' the same way the students did - but it's clear for some of them that was not the case.

The community as well as the majority of students and teachers are absolutely amazing and these parts of the school I will very much miss. It's extremely unfortunate that they have the wrong people in the wrong positions, treating their students like nothing but a box they have to tick.

Honestly this school is so bad, treating kids badly and being strict. They only care about what grades we get at the end of year 11. We had a booklet handed to us saying "we must become the top school" and never talking about how badly students get bullied. The school is slefish. They say they will help with bullying and mental health in assemblies but when the latter happens to students the teachers dont care. Such as with bullying they would say "ignore them" or "we cant do anything as there is no proof". Excuse me but what fucking child would randomly go to a teacher and lie about either a mental, emotional or physical abuse towards themselves no one does that and the teachers could give a shit. Such as with mental health , they pressure us to say whats going on with us and the firsy question is "whats going on at home?" Like for the love of god why not a "how are you?" "Just talk to me i will help and will comfort you!" Like thats all we need as a student. When we do spill they say they will help and then immediately contact parents on everything we said, i get they arent fucking therapists but stipl could give us advice or extra comfort and use their "skills" to help us. The school is honestly so strict treating js as we are in the military, we do one little thing its either a dmerit or an instand send to ii. Missing our lunch and time to eat to go to detention for a stupid mistake we made, they say "everyone makes mistakes" but gets angry when we do make one. Oftenly we would show up with a new style of hair or something that we have changed about ourselves then the teachers would make "jokes" about the appearance which could effect mental health. Again ive heard plenty of teachers say yea we do talk about you students in the staff room which makes us worried or upset thinking they could be talking shit about us. I had one teacher say to my form that he had teacher training once and for an example on how to respond to a student asking to go to the toilet. He had to "imitate" a student asking to go to the toilet and he said to us "i thought of what this student has said to me before such as 'can i go to the toilet please and replied with oh i forgot to go at lunch" he did mention the pupil but i am not naming on here, while thay pupil is in my form and got publically humiliated for some stupid presentation. And overall they have unneccessary rules and will give detentions or demerits for silly little things like defending themselves in a conversation, chewing gum or talking once. We get forced to show good etiquette, manners and etc that you would see a royal gey taught, i get we have to have manners but this can hit hard for a teenager when that are worrying about grades and to be a good person for eberyone to lile because of this school. Also, as this school is shite everyone never expresses themselves because of bullying that the teachers don't sort out.

Lacks support for those with mental health struggles, lots of students dislike going to school/ the teachers.
Inconsistency with punishments and rules among students.
Bullying often ignored.
Teachers are also quite insensitive of children’s feelings, e.g making “jokes” that the students often take personally.
Most children feel they can’t speak up because the school has become so strict, school is now less enjoyable and it’s not a positive environment to be in anymore, which makes students not want to work or come to school.
This school tries to act like a private school with the strict enforcement of unnecessary rules and the etiquette they try to force us into doesn’t allow us to enjoy going to school or learning.