Kesgrave High School

This school will ruin your mental health. The teachers are cruel, the rules are strict and the school does not accommodate additional needs. The school also sides with bullies and does nothing to help the victims, which is an issue as bullying is rampant here. I am depressed and anxious because of this school so avoid it at all costs.

This is a terrible school. They prioritise what uniform you wear over what you actually learn. They don't even let you wear different types of socks, which don't impact learning at all and nobody would notice if the teachers didn't mention them. That's another thing, the teachers. Some are decent but some are way too strict/picky about minor things and will massively overreact (which also holds up the lesson), some will even punish you for arguing valid points against them. Some teachers also hold different students to different standards and rules, which can mean high grade students are punished for being burnt out while other students get away with doing very little and causing trouble. That also links to the massive pressure put on certain students to perform well in school, which negatively impacts students. Some teachers seem to not even care where the students are, I know people who ask to go to the bathroom in PE then skip the entire lesson without notice. Some teachers can't even really teach the content properly. If you go to this school and have a disorder like autism, welcome to hell for the next few years. The school does not effectively accommodate for such needs or different learning paces, and you will get made fun of for your condition by other students frequently. The school is overcrowded as hell (even for UK standards - to the point where some places can be hard to navigate), the chairs are super uncomfortable (you have to sit still on them for 90 minute periods unlike a lot of other schools with shorter lessons) and the place is filled with a bunch of toxic and nasty people who will make you miserable. The whole environment is stressful, it feels like a prison and is incredibly oppressive, several gates and doors are also arbitrarily locked which contributes to the overcrowding. The school does not effectively combat bullying or bad behaviour in class and often people who do nothing wrong also get blamed (sometimes the bullies even get no punishment), their whole attitude of thinking more positively does absolutely nothing to help this. Slurs and insults are common at this school, and some students hang out in groups causing trouble, pushing people, harassing people and being loud. There is a lack of good mental health support, the PSHE lessons about this are not helpful in the slightest and the school will often ignore your concerns if you tell them. The school often also spring things upon students with little notice and changes things last minute. Last year they were super pushy about attendance without even considering why some students may not want to go to school. The school also is prone to messing things up often. They even messed up the room I was supposed to be in for my GCSE Statistics paper 1 and I had to start about 20 minutes late. They did a similar thing with my GCSE English Lit mock paper a few months before that, by giving me the wrong date for my exam. These aren't even the only example of poor management though as I've had several work books lost in school care, essentially meaning I wasted hours of my time on them. The rules are stupid - you are not allowed your phone even at lunchtime which is your own time, and you cannot fill up your drink bottle or go to the toilet in lesson (which just makes it harder to learn anyways). Sometimes teachers will just make up new rules or punish you for no reason, and sometimes the school will make more stupid rules to add to the list such as restricting what bathrooms you can go to. The punishments for simple things such as forgetting equipment can also be harsh. Some of the lessons are also just generally very slow and feel like filler to pad out the day, while some of them you are practically scrambling to make notes the entire lesson before you miss them. The lessons also feel incredibly repetitive and unengaging, with students often disrupting them. Even the break times suck as they restrict you to certain areas and make you go out during the freezing cold winter. Overall, this school sucks and I feel bad for anyone who comes here in the future. If you are a parent reading this, please do not send your child to this school.

Kesgrave High School is rated “Good” by Ofsted.......personally I think they shut their eyes when doing this crucial review of the school. It’s no paradise: teachers swearing and grabbing students without permission, every lesson involves “WORK, WORK, WORK”, no fun activities like watching films or colouring, if you have one slight ear-piercing, that’s your whole break time and lunchtime gone, the time we are meant to have so we can take a break from this prison. No freedom, and I think these inspectors need to open their eyes, because the saying is true: Kesgrave is more than a school. It’s your vision of what hell could be......

DO NOT SEND YOUR CHILD HERE IF YOU WISH FOR THEM TO BE ABUSED CONSTANTLY AND THE TEACHERS DO NOTHING TO SUPPORT THEM!

im a current student and all the teachers care about is ur piercings and how much makeup you wear they say “we want the school to have a good image” but they exclude my mates for having a tiny nose piercing this school is appalling and u wish i could move .

I started at Kesgrave High School right from the start in year 7 in 2017, and quite frankly, the school had gotten worse and worse. The current head teacher Miss Upton has made the school into a place where no one can say anything, by this i mean if you go and speak to one of the safeguarding officers about mental health or anything personal that's affecting you, it gets completely ignored and brushed aside like it's nothing. The school will say that they will help you out and support you but there is very minimal support, leaving students feeling like they cannot take anymore and leaving to go home early just to get away. Also, the bullying issues that go on in the school are terrible, all the students know that it goes on but the teachers and safeguarding officers seem to have no clue about it, and if they are notified about it, they simply do nothing about it. This has lead to certain students feeing like they have to move to a different school just to feel safe, this in my eyes is appalling.
And the county lines that are associated with people in the school and the gangs that are in the school cause students to be lead astray and lead into situations that they do not want to be. They also encourage students to get into drugs and smoking which only gets them into trouble.
I would not recommend Kesgrave High School to anyone just because the things that happen there are poorly delt with and the dealing with students is done in the wrong way.

They never cared about me. I suffer from autism and ADHD and they couldn't care less for me. Absolutely disgusting behaviour towards kids with mental health difficulties

Good teachers bad rules