Ferryhill Business and Enterprise College

The school is the worst in County Durham in my experience. Teachers only care about the new year sevens, once they go to year 8 their classmates start to bully/be mean to their peers, the teachers do not do anything about the bullying and only care about the appearance of the students, they do not have a good pastoral care or wellbeing team, they don’t give a 💩 about your mental health and only care about your uniform being correct, any piercings or died hair colours that is not the student’s natural hair colour and also the wearing of trainers or leggings students will not be given a warning for a first offence and will be taken straight to isolation or given an after school detention, the year 11s get treated very poorly and my mental health suffered throughout my GCSEs and if you tell them you are struggling with your mental health and you tell them you don’t want them to inform your parents or caregivers they do the opposite and tell them anyways which made me feel worse and made my mam annoyed with all the phone calls, started to keep myself to myself which made my mental health suffer more , they also do not let students with health conditions such as autism, epilepsy etc attend the year 11 prom, in one year a student with a hidden disability was barred from the prom when previously they were invited but later told they cannot go anymore because they don’t have the staff to deal with their medical condition if something was to happen to them (have a seizure or a meltdown etc). Majority of the teachers don’t care but a few genuinely do, (however you must be a hardworking or popular student in most cases) School is way too harsh on all students but mainly bully the year 11s and they don’t put in enough support for the lower band groups. Anything relating to your mental health they call home and tell them the whole conversation you have had with them, try to refer you to CAMHs service in some cases and this made my mental health worse as CAMHs told the school and also my parents, teachers make the well-being of their students worse by not giving a care in the world about the mental health of their students. They think they are helping the year 11s in preparing for their GCSEs but they just make their mental health suffer by not supporting the emotional health of their students. Indoor environment is ok, in the summer it gets too hot in the school and they don’t let you take your blazer off, even those with health issues which can be triggered by heat, in the winter the school is pretty warm. If you don’t want your child to suffer from mental health issues in the future and to struggle with mental health for the majority of their lives then do not send them to Ferryhill School/FBEC.

This school is absolutely ridiculous. Year 7s are given main priority during the crisis of the Aero chocolate bar roof and are allowed within the building, and have congregated the Years 10 and 11 to a run down pile of 💩, with water leaks. Not only this, but the school meals are atrocious, cheese paninis are soggy and raw and have onions in them- DISGUSTING. I would rather send my children to crappy Whitworth than this place.

Teachers are great at teaching but the students ruin it and the teachers don’t do anything about bullies this school let me get bullied horrendously for 3 years before I moved. I told the teachers but they didn’t give a care and got no support from anyone even camhs are better at treating mental health I don’t know if they have improved it over the years I haven’t been there but it impacted my grades and everything but the teachers just let me crack on and get really depressed while I was there worst years of my life

Ferryhill Business and Enterprise College (FBEC) is an excellent school. FBEC produces OUTSTANDING results every year for GCSE’S and L1/L2 BTEC Subjects. FBEC has been handling COVID very safely with several measures: Temperature taken upon entering the school environment, masks are mandatory (unless medically exempt), in year group bubbles and a government track and trace seating plans that the students MUST stick to.