Helena Romanes School and Sixth Form Centre

Wish I could give zero stars. Worst place I’ve ever been, worst five years of my life. I don’t miss a single thing, hated every second I spent here. Absolute torture - I wouldn’t send a dead goldfish here.
I was undiagnosed autistic, severely mentally ill, being bullied and had underlying health conditions - none of these things were ever taken seriously or investigated and I was treated worse than a circus animal.
Teachers had absolutely no control over students, their behaviour was appalling but most of the teachers seemed to find this funny! There was a fight on the field nearly every day, so much bullying often in front of teachers who sometimes joined in.
It’s so dull and depressing, there’s hardly ever any lights on, the toilets are absolutely filthy it’s hard to believe they ever get cleaned and most of them don’t have a door or a seat, there was often blood smeared on the floor and walls, mirrors smashed…It was disgusting.
They don’t care about students wellbeing all they care about is attendance and grades so that the school looks good - I can’t think of one person from my year who wasn’t struggling with something, I saw someone cry every day, we were all just going through the motions trying to get through what can only be described as hell.
I had “counselling” with a teaching assistant who tried forcing me into lessons that overstimulated me and caused severe anxiety, instead of maybe hiring qualified staff. By year ten I was spending every break and lunch time with a teacher because I was terrified of being anywhere else in the school, I never felt safe, was always on high-alert in fight or flight, I only realised just how severe my anxiety had become once I’d left the school and sought help. I spent every day hiding in the toilets absolutely petrified to talk to anyone, I had no friends and isolated myself from everyone because of how I was treated just for being myself (autistic).
The amount of trauma I have from being trapped at this school for five hellish years still haunts me on a daily basis, I still can’t talk about it, still have panic attacks at the thought of it, can’t drive past the school without either crying hysterically or dissociating.
Please, for the love of god, do NOT send your children here - especially if they have additional needs or any health concern, they will not be accommodated for or treated fairly or shown any respect whatsoever and they’ll be traumatised for the rest of their life.

Where do I start, if you are looking to send your child here by either moving them or they are starting fresh from year 7 I wouldn’t recommend it what so ever. The policy and standards of this school are ridiculous. Let’s start with uniform, this school uniform has been viewed many times as sexist as females are able to wear both kilts or trousers, where as males are only able to wear the selected trousers. They also have a very strict jewellery policy which is very unfair when the teachers come in with lots of jewellery on, I feel if students have to listen to the rules then some of the rules should be applied to the teachers aswell. Another thing is the behaviour in this school. The school care to much about the uniform and not how the students are acting in school premises. The amount of fights and horrible behaviour that goes on in this school can be distressing to some students and make it feel like an unsafe environment to be in. The amount of litter in this school if ridiculous and is not taken care of Wich makes the school not only look bad but in some cases smell bad. Another thing is the teachers and substitute teachers. In many cases the bottom set classes get stuck with various substitute teachers Which then leads to the students not getting the correct education and help they need to succeed in their grades. Many of the teachers don’t adapt to the students and expect them to get the work done without helping them or making sure they understand. Both of these actions mean the students grades will drop and in some cases the students that need more help than others get left to the side and leave the classroom not learning anything. Overall I think this school needs a lot of improvement as it’s not a very good/safe school in many opinions. I hope this review help you

I'm a student at this school and let me tell you if you are looking to send your child here don't. This school is awful and I would not recommend it. There are so many downfalls to this school it should be shut down. The downfalls of this school is the Teachers, substitute/cover teachers, anti bullying policy, littering, cleaners, uniform, sexist and fights I could list more but I'm going to keep it short. Firstly, the teachers the teachers say they care and they will help you but trust me they don't. They are way too strict on the students and it's not okay, they also don't speak to students with respect, but expect the students to respect them after they have just screamed in there faces not good enough. The substitute/cover teachers they are horrible they are really rude. The teachers go on holiday which leads the students to be left with a substitute teacher. They give the students that need the most help and need more support in there learning (lowest grade) the cover teachers while there teacher is away for not a good reason eg: holidays I understand teachers need holidays to but they are taking it to a whole new level. There anti bullying policy is absolutely poor as I have had to go through it. The teachers say they care and will help if you tell that what's going on but when you do they leave it weeks to sort out which is poor and not good enough. The littering is also really poor there is litter all over the field which is not okay and this is why there is so many seagulls which lead students to be scared to go outside incase they get pooped on. The inside is just as poor though the litter inside is horrible. The cleaners the cleaners are also not good enough as they see rubbish on the floor and walk right past it. They only stand around and chat with one another. The uniform is okay but I'm not liking the idea of limited makeup, no jewelry, no hair dye, can't style your hair a certain way. This is not good enough I understand some to an extent but I'm not understand how all this is effecting there education that the teachers barley give them anyway. They want all the students to look the same which is ruining there independence. Were are the children's rights. If students have to follow these rules teachers should to, teachers should not set rules if they are only making the students follow them too. It's too sexist if girls are allowed too wear trousers and skirts why can't boys wear skirts they can only wear trousers why the girls can wear both. Lastly the fights your child is most likely going to be in a fight at some point in this school the students can't keep there hands to themselves and there was a child that got pinned up against a wall by a teacher to stop him fighting, being pinned up by the wall is too extreme! This school won't help if you have depression, anxiety and more. Please don't send your children here if you want them to do well and no be scared to come to school.

Horrible school. The cleanliness is unbelievable. Outside of lunch and break, all 1800 students are expected to use four unisex stalls that always have puddles and rubbish everywhere. The cleaners don’t even try, and instead just walk past it every day! There’s no soap, sometimes not even running water, and no sanitary bins in the stalls and it’s ridiculous. The gendered toilets aren’t much better.
The playground and fields are also covered with litter, which brings hundreds of gulls every day, which can be very distressing for students.
Many of the uniform rules are not only unfair, but at one point even sexist. There is no dyed hair, no jewellery, minimal makeup, and I can understand some of those- you don’t want your child worrying that they won’t look good enough, or that they may loose a ring or bracelet. But if you’re letting your child wear jewellery, they should know about the risk of them losing it, and if they aren’t trusted, you as the parent/carer are responsible for telling them not to wear it. I don’t understand the unnatural hair colour rule, as it encourages individualism and expression, especially since we all end up looking the same in the bland uniforms. Speaking of which, if you go onto the official website as of now, ‘girls’ have the option of the plaid kilt or grey trousers with the school emblem. However, ‘boys’ have no option of the kilt. I think that if they let one gender have both, then the other gender should as well. Or give one gender the kilt, and the other the trousers.
Overall, I think that the school needs a LOT of improvement, and I appreciate that there is a new headteacher trying to do this currently, but they also need to listen to and speak with the students to hear them out and make compromises. They need to focus on children with learning disabilities and the support they need, as well as students with mental health problems like anxiety or depression.