See all schools in South Ockendon
Harris Academy Ockendon
Secondary · Academy · South Ockendon
"I wish I knew about this website when I was about to choose School"
Lisa, parent
"Finally, one can access the opinions of other students completely transparently."
Fredrik, student
Get access to exclusive content, available only on SchoolParrot!
1 month
£2.99
First month. Then £4.99 / month
1 year
£19
Best valueFirst year. Then £39 / year.
For Schools and school staff
Do you work as a principal or school staff? Take control of your SchoolParrot profile. Click here
bad school
they treat you like shit
How the school is
It’s an okay school , I’m in my last year there. They have helped me a lot with my mental health, some teachers don’t care and are rude but some are really decent. I do think they do put a lot of pressure on students that are in year 11 but that’s what they have to do for us to get good grades, maybe they need to try and not put so many revision sessions after school because some students do still want to spend their own time at home but apart from that they are an okay school so if you have child they has no other school to go to I would just send them to this school.
Drama
THE WORST SCHOOL IN THE COUNTY 😡😡
I'm currently in Year 11 and I would definitely not recommend sending your children to this school because I was bullied from year 7 to year 9 and the school did absolutely nothing about it but the worst bit is that I still have to see the person who bullied me everyday and she is even in my drama class because the school didn't expell her and the impact that the bullying has left on me is that I now suffer with depression because of it
GCSE
Pretty Good At The Moment
I have been a student at the school from year 7 to 11 and, from 2016-late 2019 it was an absolute mess. Incapable senior leadership, constant fighting, bullying disruption in lessons, crappy teaching and a load of other issues. However, since the Harris Federation took over in late 2019 it has turned upside down. Qaulity of teaching has skyrocketed with a load of new, amazing teachers coming in, some old ones recieving better training and the bad ones being fired. The lessons themselves feel organized and are structured so they are not taxing or boring but we still get the work done. I have heard from other students that there is a lack of teachers as they often have substitutes however I have not experienced this myself and am sure as it is a new school they are working on getting more for the next school year. The new senior leadership is amazing, they have a load of expierience and seem genuinely interested in helping all of us and not just making the school look good with them mostly cracking down on misbehavior apart from the odd feud between people that they cant prevent. A big shout out goes to the music department whos head is probably the single best teacher in the school and once you get to know him is a great person to go to if you need to talk or just hang out. Now on to the negatives, because there are always some, due to covid the last year has been really taxing on the y11's. The school wanted us to still get high grades and forced us to sit through extra revision sessions twice a week. Now while this may have understandably seemed like a good idea from their point of view it was terrible for us. School days from 8am-5pm are completely awfull especially with only a 25 minute break for lunch and a 15m short break aswell. It was really mentally and physically straining. However, when exams were cancelled this year they stopped doing these sessions and it got a lot better much quicker. They treat us like adults and let us have our fun at break playing football and messing around within reason so that we are fresh when we go to learn and the teachers even join in once in a while.The school is completely different from what it used to be and I would definitely recommend your child go here. Keep in mind I dont know how it is for the lower years right now but as a y11 I feel like we get treated well, the teaching is amazing the breaks could be longer but they do let us have fun and the school day is just fine as long as they dont make people do revision again. Just watch out for the canteen food prices as they are a bit steep!
Place from hell.
Awful awful place. For starters, let’s talk about the favouritism over students to high up teachers. This favouritism has caused an uneven distribution of teaching and punishments meaning so many kids don’t get in any trouble for things like bullying because they are a teachers favourite. Next topic, bullying. At this school, bullying isn’t noticed by staff I think that would be too much work for them to actually help a student when getting bullied not like it’s their job to do so but my point is they let bullying happen as all they care about is if students are in lesson for them to get good grades so it looks good on them. Next point, mental health. Now this is a big one as the school as a whole contributes to students having this bad mental health and they still do nothing whatsoever to help students who are suffering, favouritism comes into play here as some who ‘suffer’ are allowed to have time out of lesson to get help whereas others who may not be as favourite to staff are not allowed that time out of lesson to get help making them feel even worse.
I strongly suggest so that your kids don’t grow up with traumatising memories of bullying and not having help from staff having to wonder what they did wrong for staff not to like them, that you don’t send your kids here.
I strongly suggest so that your kids don’t grow up with traumatising memories of bullying and not having help from staff having to wonder what they did wrong for staff not to like them, that you don’t send your kids here.
Don't waste your time here
They do not listen to any student. Most teachers cannot teach. They honestly do not care about bullying as my best friend has been bullied from Year 7 to 11 and is still going through it. The only thing decent about this place is the food. And that's not a compliment
Please avoid for the sake of your mental health.
I unfortunately did not have a good experience at this school, despite the fact that I love learning. The main issue was the amount of pressure put on students - in year 11, we had to be at school from 8am to 5pm, with only a 25min lunch break, and the teachers would stand by the entrance to ensure nobody escaped. This was very detrimental to my mental and physical health, eventually leading to burnout.
Also, there was a high staff turnover which caused uncertainty. For example, we didn't have a maths teacher for the whole of year 10, yet the school blamed us for not achieving top grades. There were some good teachers, but it was easy to tell that they were stressed with the pressure as well as us.
There were barely any school trips, or after school activities, except sport, which is probably down to the fact that lunches are only 25 minutes, and very rushed.
Even though this review doesn't reflect every aspect of the school, I hope it was useful in some way :)
Also, there was a high staff turnover which caused uncertainty. For example, we didn't have a maths teacher for the whole of year 10, yet the school blamed us for not achieving top grades. There were some good teachers, but it was easy to tell that they were stressed with the pressure as well as us.
There were barely any school trips, or after school activities, except sport, which is probably down to the fact that lunches are only 25 minutes, and very rushed.
Even though this review doesn't reflect every aspect of the school, I hope it was useful in some way :)
I love my school.
I’m a student, year 10. Even before and after covid-19 the teachers really show pure concern to students mental health and students learning. Although I myself am not the best behaved student I know that the teachers really do care about my learning and my future no matter how stressful it is for them having 30 students in a class.
Harris ockendon- former student
I think the school is great. The teachers are good and lessons are planned very well for
most subjects. However I hate the kids in this school they need to learn some respect for the teachers and realise that school is not time to play and mess around it’s serious business. Their education is a gift and they are so lucky to have it but do not care for it at all.
most subjects. However I hate the kids in this school they need to learn some respect for the teachers and realise that school is not time to play and mess around it’s serious business. Their education is a gift and they are so lucky to have it but do not care for it at all.
About SchoolParrot
- SchoolParrot is a review site for schools. We are a company that believes in more transparency within schools. Our platform is open to all users.
Read about SchoolParrot and our company - Reviews are published in real-time without moderation and we want to encourage our users to provide constructive feedback and keep a serious tone. The responsibility lies with the user.
Read our review guidelines