Honestly horrible. Teachers don't care about you at all, often are rude to students! The teachers clearly have favorites, and don't hide when they don't like someone. Doesn't deserve the good reviews at all. Each day, i dreaded coming in, and would cry multiple times during the day. Would not recommend at all, the price is insane for such a bad school.
My daughter joined in Y7 from a local primary school. From the moment she arrived she was treated like a second class citizen compared to the girls who had been in the prep school. Blatant favouritism on a daily basis, staff children placed on a pedestal. My daughter was bullied and the school were not prepared to do anything about it. We moved our daughter to another local independent co-Ed school after Christmas when she was in year 9. Best thing we ever did, she has thrived both academically and with sport during her time there.
An unfortunate experience with Durham High School For Girls which I am glad to say is now behind us after we simply elected to depart after only 1yr (Year 8/9).
Our daughter was not particularly happy with the quality of teaching across a number of subjects with support lacking and some teaching staff were aggressive in responses. Post our departure we were informed by a pupil that one teacher in particular indicated to the class that they could now have a nice lesson given my daughter was no longer in school!
The senior management are unresponsive to criticism and close ranks when challenged on issues impacting overall well being.
They are particularly heavy handed when other pupils raise issues against other pupils which seems to be the modus operandi of the school. The accused is guilty until proven innocent! Interviews with two senior members of staff and one taking notes is common practice, which for us is simply incredible.
We were also subject to same practice, called to a meeting with one staff member and arrived to find another staff member present and commenced to take notes.
We had our daughter effectively harassed by senior staff when it became clear she was not happy with the school. Who pulls your child out of a lesson to effectively interrogate her with 2 senior staff asking why she is not happy let alone the stigma of returning to the lesson in front of the year group! No consideration for our daughter and how she would be viewed by others in the class! Truly astonishing and she wasn’t the only pupil to be treated this way. Borders on harrassment.
It is not the nurturing environment one may be led to believe and we would even go so far as to say can be quite toxic. If your child is coming in from outside to this school be warned the pupils that have been there for years from primary schooling can be quite immature. This does not help integration!
Teaching quality is variable across subjects and not what one would expect when you are paying to dollar for an education. We had instances where teachers simply refused to clarify questions from our daughter when asked for help with her work.
We were not the only parents to pull daughters from this school.
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