Hethersett Academy

I hate everything about this place

The first couple of years at the school were fun and relatively stress-free, however after choosing gcse subjects and starting them in year 9, the workload increases dramatically. The school definitely prioritises grades, uniform and attendance over the wellbeing of the students.
One thing I personally feel the school should improve on is evenly distributing the amount of homework the students get set. Obviously not all of it is bad, and there are some teachers that do genuinely care about students and support them, but the amount of pressure and stress from others is unacceptable. Being at this school has been extremely detrimental to my mental health as I, like many others, try my hardest but every lesson every day we are told how our gcses are the most important time of our lives and there gets a point where we are just burnt out. a lot of my friends feel like this as well, often under large amounts of stress to complete everything by the time it's due in.

If you are thinking of sending your child here, my advice would be to bear in mind the school is very academic, and they require good attendance and good behaviour from their students in order to teach them properly, it definitely is not a school for everyone and my experience has been bad

The first couple of years at the school were fun and relatively stress-free, however after choosing gcse subjects and starting them in year 9, the workload increases dramatically. The school definitely prioritises grades, uniform and attendance over the wellbeing of the students. Teachers will pull the students out of lessons with "safeguarding concerns" over the most minor things but when other students are genuinely struggling with their mental health, the school either don't notice or don't bother to provide support. I have no free time anymore and being told every lesson every day our gcses are the most important thing in our lives is so detrimental to my mental health as I already lack self confidence and the pressure is concerning.
A lot of my friends feel like this as well, often under large amounts of stress and pressure to complete everything by the time it's due in.

If you are thinking of sending your child here, my advice would be to bear in mind the school is very academic, and they require good attendance and good behaviour from their students in order to teach them properly, and even with that said, I truly believe this school is overrated and there's more to students than grades, attendance and uniform

VERY HARSH AND STRICT WOULD NOT RECOMMEND DETENTIONS DONT SHOW UP MISSING 2 HOMEWORK GETS YOU A FRIKING PRICIBULS DETENTIEN WITHOUT KNOWING THE BREAK LUNCH AND AFTER SCHOOLS DETENTIONS THEN TO A PRINCIPULLS DETENTION I KNOW HIGH SCHOOL IS SUPPOSED TO BE A BIT HARSH AND HARD TIME TO TIME BUT! THIS SCHOOL IS EMONINALLY DRAINING AND DEPRESSION.

went to this school up until year nine, and then left at the end of that year (I'm now In year 11), my experience with this school was honeslty terrible. I suffered issues with insomnia (due to ADHD) since the age of about 10-11, however it wasn't too bad until y8 where I was struggling a lot more, the support they claim to give was nonexistent, and instead of being helped I was just ignored and expected to exceed in my work regardless. due to my persistant sleep issues, there would be days where I would come into school with either no sleep at all, or 1-2 hours, as you'd expect , this would lead to massive exhaustion, and there were days where I was so Ill from fatigue that I needed to go home. despite being aware of these issues, all the times I approached them about going home and feeling ill I was met with very bad experiences. one example being a day where me (a person who usually refuses to cry in public) was sobbing at the lunch table after being told in the morning when I came in and my dad dropped me off that the minute I felt too I'll they would ring up my dad and he could pick me up, but when I went to student support to go (after really trying to stay) that they wouldn't ring my parents at all due to my attendance. so obviously I was distraught. I went into my English lesson still sobbing and you couldn't even understand what I was saying i was that I'll, and I asked for first aid again, so my eng teacher (who was an absolute sweetheart she was lovely) let me sit outside while she called dthem and agreed that I needed to go, however when the student support staff came to me, she just gave me two paracetamol and sent me back into lesson sobbing, so of course I texted my dad begging him to come pick me up, and when he rang the school he was told.inwas lying, had been seen laughing with my friends all throughout lunch, and was absolutely fine THAT WAS NOT TRUE! dad didn't realise this was the case until I got home, still Ill and massively upset and threw up everywhere 👍. I had things like this happen multiple times, a few leading to panick attacks from where they had lied and got me into trouble with my parents before they realised what they were doing. This obviously led me to leave the school as it was becoming Unbearable and obviously leaving me quite depressed and scared to even go into school. sorry this is long winded but the short of it is: DO NOT SEND YOUR KIDS HERE IS THEY ARE NEURODIVERGENT OR HAVE DISABILITIES

Ever since I started school at Hethersett Academy, my mental and emotional health has decreased. They prioritise attendance, grades and working. I barely get free time anymore due to the homework given out and the amount of stress they put on students is ridiculous. It's sad to see so many students buckle due to pressure from exams, studying and just general work. The students here are expected to be kind and respectful to everyone, especially teachers; but a good amount of the teachers don't give you respect in return. The uniform we wear is not practical whatsoever, the blazers are too thick to wear yet it is mandatory to have a blazer on. A fair amount of what we learn in the school is quite useless and they don't teach the students what we need to know, such as finance (how to manage money, crypto, etc). A lot of my friends feel a similar way about the school and my family mostly agree that the rules they give out are mainly not right. If you have the chance to avoid Hethersett Academy, please use that chance.

All the teachers are horrible the behaviour system is far to strict we have to walk on lines like soldiers around the school the lunch hall is not big enough so people have to wait there whole lunchtime to get food there more worried on attendance and how well you do it rather than your mental health and on a Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday extra hour was added end of the day for extracurricular activities but now he’s just filled up with maths and English The headteacher says 3/4 of your personal life should be used to study and the homework we get is unbelievable.

To keep this review short, the Headmistress said that 3/4 of your free time should be spent studying. That should be all you need to know. The only thing outstanding about this school is the amount they paid to OFSTED

as a current attending student here, who struggles with various mental health issues, as do my friends, the school does not care. the school only cares about good grades, attendance, and having good uniform. they hardly ever care about the students and their wellbeing. the emails sent to parents and carers are drastically different to what is said to the student. some of the staff are just plain rude and even disrespectful, in a lot of cases. if you go to some of the teachers feeling tired or at the time not in a good headspace, they hardly ever ask if the student is alright, you would be told to "work harder" or you would be shouted at for talking to someone about it. way too much pressure and unnecessary stress it put onto older students doing exams, and teachers have said to them that they are "disappointed", or that they "arent trying hard enough", even when they are trying as hard as they can. some students will go to the teachers and tell them that they think they may have something wrong with them, and some teachers have replied with "youre fine, just not trying hard enough", or "maybe youre just in a bad mood", which isnt acceptable. some of the teachers are actually quite nice and will listen, but some are the complete opposite.

wouldn’t recommend. as a student and someone who has friends who deals with mental health as well as myself ect,, the school don’t care whatsoever. they only care about the grades you get, attendance, the uniform and so on and not the mental well-being of the pupils. what is said over emails is completely different to what is said in person. some staff are rude and disrespectful in most cases. if you come in tired or just not in the right mindset, instead of them asking if you’re okay or if you need someone to talk to, you would either get told “if you’re not working you might as well not be here at all” or you get yelled at for the most unnecessary things. too much pressure is applied on pupils in the older years, yes i know exams are coming up but the stress and little comments they give like “i’m disappointed” “you’re not trying hard enough” (when we are trying out hardest) and that is unacceptable.