Glenthorne High School

I have moved my son out of Glenthorne for the sake of his mental and emotional wellbeing. It was heartbreaking for me to see how he deteriorated during the time he was there.

He started the school as a lively and popular boy with many friends at the school. The feedback from teachers about his behaviour and focus in class was consistently positive. He never had a fight, bullied another child or damaged school property. He doesn’t vape or do drugs, was never late to school or absent without reason and he never failed to do his homework. He’s just an ordinary kid. Yet it was literally impossible for him to stay out of trouble at Glenthorne, no matter how hard he tried……

Because the behaviour policy at Glenthorne is completely insane and is rigidly applied. This creates a culture at the school which is intolerant and extremely punitive. It’s an environment where any misdemeanour - no matter how minor - will carry a punishment. Children are given after school detentions because their shirt is untucked, or their skirt is a couple of centimetres too short or because they wore their coat inside the building. But should a child attempt to speak up in their own defence, they will likely be sent home or suspended for defiance or rudeness to staff.

There are staff at the school who expect to be treated with respect, yet do not model that behaviour themselves and will speak to the children in a manner that would not be tolerated in any other workplace. But this is accepted within the school, as the protocol seems to be that the teachers are always right. Even on occasions when the teachers have been proven to be in error, it’s unlikely to result in an apology.

Before long, my son had turned from a lively, popular, sociable boy to one who was depressed and constantly anxious about what the day ahead would hold. He began asking me to buy him school shirts that were 3 sizes too big and which looked ridiculous on him, but he wanted them because they had enough length in the body that they wouldn’t come untucked without him realising. He started wearing long sleeved T-shirts under his school shirt in winter so that he wouldn’t get cold (because no coats inside, right!), but he got into trouble for that as well! He missed so many guitar lessons (which he loved) because of schools detentions that his tutor began getting annoyed. So he asked to stop doing his guitar lessons.

When he began getting depressed on Sunday afternoons about having to go to school Monday, I realised that the school was actually harming him. I asked him if he wanted to move schools, and he was so happy at the thought - he hadn’t realised that it was an option!. I started looking for alternative schools the next day.

He’s now in another school and already I believe that moving him was the best thing we could have done. The transformation has been incredible. He’s been there less than a month and he’s already back to himself in a way that he never was in Glenthorne. He loves the schools because, in his words, “It’s so different from Glenthrone! The teachers speak to you nicely.”

Glenthorne is a good school if your only interest is academic achievement. But if you value your child’s mental and emotional wellbeing, there are other high achieving schools in Sutton with a good academic record that will treat your child with kindness and respect. That school is not Glenthorne.

Our child who was always seen as a Leader, all kids looked up to her, teachers talked highly about her, always loved going to school, excelled in her subjects, was always confident, RESILIENT and happy got a place in this school in 2023/2024 school year. It only took a few months in this school and our child started to be disengaged, her performance in all subjects was worsening, she was slowly but surely becoming depressed and this was affecting all aspects of her life and obviously our whole family.
Headteacher of this school is everything, but human and she shouldn't be allowed anywhere near to kids. She believes in punishment which obviously doesn't work.
Leaders and Teachers don not respect neither kids nor parents, but are demanding respect from all. If you don't submit to them you will be punished. Its all about Detention, Isolation and Negative comments about your kids.
`Positive Feedback from school does not exist`. They make you feel like your child turned into some criminal only because child forgets to take out earrings who might be 2mm bigger than their rules says. Kids are never forgiven and are not given 2nd chance. They are constantly punished, criticised, disrespected, belittled, shouted at by members of school. It might not surprised you that these hurtful acts and phrases hit deep and got huge effect on mental health of kids.
Our daughter is not submissive child and does not fear to stand up for herself when she knows she is right and adults are wrong so she was basically punished a lot just for being there and daring to question disrespect of teachers towards students.
Now thank you to 1 school year in Glenthorne school we have nearly 13years old whose confidence was totally knocked down, she lost trust in all adults, she is suicidal and started self harming.
We now have a place in new school for her and we can not even imagine how long it will take to repair her mental health if this is even possible now. She is scared for life.
If you can just avoid this school in all costs. It really is not worth it. I have not heard a single parent or student saying anything nice about the school.

Treated like animals, from year 7 breaks and lunches had to be in a “metal cage” which they classed as “courts” it had 2 basket ball hoops but when needing to leave even to go to the bathroom or to get food you would have to ask permission. During rainy days everyone would be forced to go outside and if sat inside they’d be threatened with detentions.
During lessons, you’d have to ask to remove blazers even in the summer. Throughout school year tights are compulsory for girls, when it hit 30°c that’s when Pe kits were allowed, however in year 10 & 11 girls wore leggings as a part of their Pe kits, but in summer if they wore the leggings they would be sent home or sit in “isolation” if they couldn’t go home to change.
The food in the diner is also overpriced for what it is, for a child with pupil premium they are supposed to get a free breakfast on their fingerprint however if they never had enough on it they would get turned away even if it’s meant to be free which I find absolutely absurd.
Teachers would repeatedly call students lazy and slow and not give proper support to those with dyslexia or other learning difficulties.
For sixth form I moved to another local school which then made me notice how awful Glenthorne really is and I wouldn’t advise anyone sending their child there if they value their child’s mental health

As a student at Glenthorne High School, I have not once fully enjoyed my time there. The teachers there couldn’t care less about helping their students enjoy their time and don’t care about helping them. They seem too focused on getting paid and trying to make all of their students afraid of them. For example, drama teachers expect everyone to be amazing at their lessons like they are professional actors (which is NEVER the case). It feels like they forgot about the pupil that are less confident and don’t enjoy speaking out loud. They also separate boys and girls during PE, which as a gay boy I find myself a lot more likely talking to girls and having a lot more female friends as we share similar interests when a lot of boys don’t. Glenthorne somehow believes that all boys are sporty and enjoy these lessons when I really do hate them and the whole week leading up to these 3 lessons (dance, drama and PE) I am praying that we have cover lessons and don’t have to do them, which wouldn’t be the case of these teachers help us and somehow make our minds looks forward to their lessons. In dance the teachers are making us do ballroom/court dancing. So, before the teachers thought of this idea I imagine them all sitting around a table going “yes they will love this! Especially the people that find it hard talking to others”. A lot of these teachers shout randomly as a boy asked “where do I put this paper?” and a teacher replied “WHAT DO YOU THINK!” It feels great to get this out somewhere as there is really nowhere else to say it.

I attended Glenthorne High school in Sutton through year 7 - the start of Year 10 (2016-2019). And I had an absolutely miserable experience.

To clarify I am a female with autism and SPD meaning I had a SEN place at the school. I was in their special needs unit they called the base. I remember the first day of year 7 being excited to make friends and they wouldn’t let me go out at lunch with the other students I was segregated and told I had to stay in the base at first. I believe this greatly effected my chances at making friends as everyone had already been out at lunch and break together for a few days except me.

I was very self conscious of my autism. I didn’t want anyone to know I was different than anyone else. I wanted to keep my diagnosis to myself and didn’t want my peers to treat me differently. I remember making this very clear to the staff in the base. We had a lesson on autism once in PHSE and the TA from the base sat next to me and said incredibly loudly “You Know You Have Autism?” I was absolutely distraught and I felt completely exposed. (I know learning difficulties are not something to be ashamed of but at the time I thought differently) the students in my from the would treat me like I was weird and stupid from then on.

Some students would call me names in lesson they would refer to me as a “faulty or broken computer” laugh at me, shake my desk while I was writing loudly in lesson. Not once did the teacher who very clearly knew what was happening would do anything.

The school rules were ridiculously strict. We were never allowed to remove our blazers unless it was a heatwave even if we were genuinely too hot. We got in trouble for the smallest accidents causing me to be absolutely terrified of getting in trouble despite not trying to do anything wrong.

It was a miserable environment. I didn’t feel encouraged to learn at all. I felt pushed down, segregated from the students without learning difficulties, held back and my love of learning and subjects such as history silenced by teachers that would scream at me for not writing the date correctly in my workbook.

I will say though despite this some teachers were lovely such as my year 9 PE and photography teachers.

I later developed a multitude of mental health issues I still struggle with today I largely blame my experience at this school for. It wasn’t until I started refusing to go to school as I hated it so much my parents finally decided to take me out in year 9.

Since leaving I have become so much more confident and studying what I love at college.

This may just be my experience but I would never recommend parents send their children to this school. My mum thought it was going to be a school that could support me as they had a special needs unit. However we now both agree I would have done better in a less academic school that prioritised students health and happiness over uniform and grades as they all should.