Heart of England School

Recently visited the school in relation to our child possibly starting there and we were so shocked by what we saw just felt we had to leave a negative review.

Would like to highlight first this review is not a reflection of the staff member who showed us around the school. She was obviously a very dedicated and experienced member of the staff team and good at her job. She answered all our questions readily and (for which we are very grateful) was very honest with us in relation to our concerns of what we saw at the school. She is a credit to the School and the issues highlighted below are not a reflection on our interaction with her.

In total we walked around the school for just over 70 minutes.

Arrived at the school to be checked in at \ by a very professional smart looking Reception \ Receptionist and were in turn greeted by the member of staff who was there to show us around the school.

We were firstly shown around the dining hall and kitchen area and whilst this looked a little tired and in need of refurbishment I suppose that’s to be expected for an area that’s used by hundreds of kids a day.

However once we got to the area that the kids were in class \ meant to be class things changed for the worse.

I expressed surprise at the low ratio of children to teachers in the 6-7 classes we viewed, there seemed to be not many kids to teachers, a good thing in our eyes as it meant more focused teaching. However when raising this it was explained by our guide that in many cases this was due to the exceptionally high number of truancies in the school.

We were told truancy was a massive problem and the school had “large numbers” of pupils who either don’t turn up for class or turn up and then just roam the school grounds.
When asking about the expulsion rates we were advised there had been 5 expulsions this year and “a number more” under consideration.

At class change over time we overheard 2 separate teachers asking children “Why weren’t you in my class this morning” to which one replied “F off Miss” and the other simply ignored the teacher and carried on walking.

Neither Teacher took the pupil to task.

Once classes had changed over we noticed a larger number of kids (an estimate 15-20 kids) simply walking the corridors and kicking balls around on the playground or hanging out in the stairwells. When asking our guide who they were she advised “The Truants”. When she challenged them and advised that they would now be reported by the reporting system on a mobile system they were not phased at all and treated the whole thing as a joke and continued on as before.
When entering one of the classroom corridor areas again we were then confronted by a pupil shouting “Get back in the F** classroom” to another pupil at the top of his voice right outside a classroom door, mucking about. The teacher in that classroom stuck their head out of the door, looked at the pupil, said nothing and shut the door. Our guide again threatened to “report” the pupil via the truancy system, again no reaction from the pupil other than a laugh and a mumbled “F** you in response”.

We moved on to another class and at this point the pupil and his friend decided to start following us around the school trying to intimidate us.

We were taken into an empty classroom to be shown the facilities and the pupil followed us and stood outside the door, shouting, swearing and kicking the door trying to intimidate to the degree that I thought it safe to lead the way out of the classroom when we left and had to stand between the pupil, the female staff member, my wife and another member of the party who was with us to ensure we left without incident.

Due to my previous career I’m used to handling confrontation and not being bothered or concerned by it and above all not being one to embellish or exaggerate issues but I couldn’t shake the continual feeling whilst we were there there’s an unsafe edge to this school, an undercurrent of things only just being held in check and that people there felt unhappy. Just a personal feeling but one I could not shake whilst there and one that has stayed with me after we left.

We continued to tour the school for another 10-15 minutes and again noticed a large number of kids simply wandering the school (a number with mobiles in their hands) doing as they pleased without worry of being challenged by staff. Again we were advised these were “Truants”.

By the time we went back to reception to leave the aggressive pupil was still following us 20 foot back with his friend and by now another 4 pupils had joined him. All a big joke to them obviously and again no intervention by staff who were aware they were there.

Aside from the issues with pupils roaming the school we noticed the other areas of concern:

Beyond reception the fabric of the building is poor, lots of areas needing to be refurbished and updated or refreshed. This might be a reflection of school budget cuts but does it also reflect the amount of rubbish in the corridors and drinks and food thrown up walls and even on the ceilings?

This school has an inner city feel. Not necessarily a bad thing when you consider what wonderful things some inner city schools achieve but not this one. There is a feeling of staff having lost control of the school, a minority of pupils acting as they please and most staff there perhaps “hanging on” until things improve or they can move elsewhere.

The teaching staff have obviously lost control of pupil discipline and can’t even implement a simple policy of a teacher walking the school between lessons and rounding up those truant kids and placing them in one classroom under supervision. How can you have a functioning school for all when the truancy rate is so high and some of those truants roam the school like feral animals challenging teachers’ authority and receiving zero comeback??

Of the classrooms we did view even taking into account expressions of teenage angst of which we all displayed at that age, none of the pupils we saw seemed particularly engaged and happy in class. Even the lower school classes kids seemed peeved off, uninterested and again just counting time until the end of the lesson. The 4 teachers we spoke to aside from our guide to be honest looked tired, also peeved off and certainly didn’t promote the school or seem enthused about what they were doing. One exception was the teacher in the girls dance class who was very enthusiastic and welcoming, strangely enough she was a supply teacher on her first day……..

One thing we weren’t shown was the Head Teachers office, a shame as I would of liked to have had the opportunity to see what the head is doing whilst all the above was going on, perhaps looking for a transfer to another school?

Some reading this review will understandably say “Well you only saw the school on one day for just over an hour”, I totally agree to which I would reply visit the school yourself during the daytime, avoid the polished open evening the school will hold for new pupils and see the real day to day running of what’s happening. Hopefully your experience will be much better than ours and I’m sure some pupils will have a positive experience at this school but this is our honest review of what we saw and the very definite negative impression it left.

So overall a very shocking, disappointing and disturbing visit to a school we had high hopes for.

We are open minded, easy going parents with zero bias toward the school and we’re certainly not naïve as to how schooling has changed since our time at senior school. Despite the very noticeable numbers of parents at our child’s current school who have had pupils join Heart of England and are now unhappy with their schooling we went the HOE with an open mind. Our thoughts were “well you only hear the bad stuff don’t you” but I can 100% now see the basis for their concerns.

The last OFSTED report I think was October 2018 (partial not full report) and we were advised another one is due any day now. The same head has been in place since the last report so it will be interesting to see what the next OFSTED report finds.

And HOE school please read your own policies on your website relating to expecting pupil behaviour. You clearly state on there the expected student behaviour and more importantly what the school will do to react to bad behaviour, what a shame you don’t implement your own policies !!

One of the worst schools I’ve ever heard of. The relentless bullying, harassment homophobia and racism that go on in this school is no joke. I attended this school the whole of my secondary school years and they failed me and so many other students. In year 7 I lost my best friend very unexpectedly, which was also another student who attended that school. I was with her the day she died and the school knew this. I was expected to go straight back into lessons, with no help offered to me. None. Not even a chat with my form tutor, pastoral manager or ANY of my teachers. Absolutely nothing. For years of keeping this inside my mental health deteriorated which they did notice, only because I wasn’t attending school, once in year 11 my mom complained that they had not offered any help and that’s why I had deteriorated so far. 5 years after I watched my friend die they sat me down during my lunch break and offered me counselling through the 10 stages of grief, which I had already dealt with ALONE for the past 5 YEARS. Ages 12-16. Now as an adult I have received help, been diagnosed with AuADHD which was OBVIOUSLY never picked up by the school, even though constant comments and reports stated that I didn’t concentrate, had emotional outbursts and many other things of course it was never looked into. Had a teacher from the maths department tell me “it’s almost like you’ve got adhd but girls can’t have it” and that “you’re just naughty” which shows there complete LACK of education. Any bullying that went on, the teachers don’t take seriously. With some of the teachers actually stirring things between students. I was friends with people who were consistently bullied for being gay, had slurs shouted at them on a daily basis. This male student was forced to get changed in the staff changing rooms for PE as they TEACHERS couldn’t control students not to bully him in the male changing rooms. He once shouted the slur, that they had been shouting at him all lesson, back towards the bullies. As our PE teacher heard him say it, he was given a principal detention for using the word he had been violated with. Not to mention they had a teacher who formed an sexual relationship with a student at this school, while his wife also taught at the school.

After leaving school and speaking to other people I’ve realised how backwards this school is. Other children, who didn’t attend this school, did not experience these things. It is not normal!! Do not send your students here, especially if they have more complex needs as they will not get the help they school promise you.

i went to this school for 2 years, i ended up home schooled for a year after due to the trauma that this school gave me. i was sexually assaulted by boys in the higher year groups at the time and nothing got done, no punishment was put in place for them, i got told i was constantly thick by the teachers especially in the maths department, teachers swore at me and when i would go to report the matter i would get told i was a liar, i got blackmailed into sending pictures of myself that got sent round the school and bullied by people from higher year groups and i was told i was the problem even though there was proof of blackmail, i would be put in isolation for things that were out of my control or not my fault… the list goes on. i’m now 20 and after being told i would never get anywhere i now work in the mental health industry helping people like myself who were failed by schools or similar places like heart of england where massive things would get brushed under the carpet. bullying goes unnoticed or blamed on the wrong people, nasty crowds are formed and the support system is a joke. parents or carers who are thinking of putting their children in this school please be mindful, some of the stuff that happens behind closed doors will stay with some students for the rest of their life.

As a student who actually goes to this school i am not here to just criticise the school as many others would. But there are some things about the school that make it an awful place to be. For example, the fact that there are no school trips. I have only been on one school trip at the school and that was in Year 7 where we walked up and down the road for Geography. Not much is done to support students’ mental health. The staff try their best (most of them) but some are just blatantly lazy. Some just throw 20 year old textbooks in front of us and tell us what page to start on, which is hardly teaching. Most days that I attend heart of england, i hate it there. I hate how some staff are so rude to students, caring more about our uniform than our well-being. I hate how they will get so angry at you for being in the toilets during lessons but if you’re on your period, you can’t go? I hate how every time my stuff has been stolen or broken, the teacher will just say “it’s just boys being boys” and leave it at that.

It’s not all negative though. Some teachers are great and are really trying to make the school better. Anyone who goes to the school definitely knows who I am talking about because everyone loves these teachers for how nice and understanding they are and how they can help you understand the work so much better. I also love how some teachers understand your issues so much and they sometimes let you sit by friends in lessons so you don’t feel uncomfortable next to some rando. I also love those times when you actually understand the work and actually enjoy doing it. There’s so much more I could talk about in this but I really can’t be bothered haha