Kinver High School and Sixth Form

If your child is perfect they may do well here but expect some shouty teachers in class, a poor pastoral service. If your child has SEN or suspected SEN do not go here. The headteacher doesn’t care about the kids. There is a Zero tolerance behavioural policy. No care, no compassion and no understanding from her. You have to follow her super strict rules or you’re out and they don’t support kids well with emotional issues, or neurodiversity. Be warned!!!! It’s like a prison. They watch your every move from the many cameras they have around the school and toilets. Hit and Miss with the teachers, some are great some are not. The good ones tend to leave. Toxic senior leadership team.

Hello. I went to Kinver 2 years ago and I have a lot to say about this school. Maybe some things have changed, but after consistently being treated poorly for the entire 5 years, I doubt that. I am still recovering from the trauma I picked up from my time there. This school prides itself in being helpful for neurodivergent and dyslexic students, but I highly discourage anyone from going there with these issues.

Firstly, in year 7 I complained about my chest and neck hurting two days in a row. Instead of getting me help or calling my parents, teachers took me into a room on my own and berated me about faking being sick, and suggested that I move schools while I still had the chance because I “obviously wasn’t happy here”. Two weeks later I was diagnosed with a chronic illness that caused these pains.

In year 7 I was also constantly bullied and threatened by other students, one pushing me into a locker and calling me a homophobic slur. No one even batted an eye at that, and no punishment was bought. I was also repeatedly told to kill myself by a student my age, and I told teachers but nothing ever happened.

The worst instance of bullying was from a student the teachers favoured. She would hit me, push me into walls, threaten to have her brother find where I live and kill me, constantly insult me to other students and be homophobic and racist towards me, mocking me for “sounding Chinese”. I almost got home schooled because of this, and I probably would’ve if we could’ve afforded that. Teachers were aware of the extent of the bullying but all they did was have a quick chat with her. She was continued to be favoured by teachers and treated like the best student, given special roles in the classroom and rewards.

There were also lots of instances where awful things happened but they were just swept under the rug.
Like one time a girl tried to jump off of the balcony and everyone saw it happen, but teachers just acted like it never happened.
Another time a school coach crashed and the driver got impaled, students in the crash were still required to come into school the next day.
One of the worse instances was a teacher that all of the students liked a lot being caught sending nude photos to year 10s. The school swept it under the rug and refused to mention it to anyone. I was unlucky enough to see these photos sent to year 10s, and I seriously worry about whether they background check teachers before hiring.

The rules about uniforms is also way over the top.
They changed the uniform every few months and required students to get new pairs and keep up to date or they would be given detention for not wearing appropriate uniform. These were also incredibly expensive.
They would also have our initials sewn onto PE kits and other items of clothing, which prevented hand-me-downs. This was awful for families that couldn’t afford multiple sets of PE kits and relied on sharing between children.
Another rule was about shoes having buckles. If your shoes had a buckle on it, or any metal at all, they would take them away and rip the metal off with pliers, essentially ruining the shoes. I only witnessed this happen once, but the student was distraught that his new shoes were being ripped apart.
I understand schools having to be strict about uniform, but they went over the top for skirt lengths. They even got a teacher to stand at the entrance and make sure all female student’s skirts weren’t too short. Paired with the fact that they hired a pedophile as a teaching assistant, this does not seem good.

Classroom behaviour was also awful. Students would drink vodka out of their water bottles, come to class high and even arrange drug deals. Students would use code words for the drugs they were buying and arrange time and location for the deal to take place, whilst INSIDE the lessons! Teachers did nothing and only rolled their eyes.

Towards the end of my time there I was unable to eat in the canteen due to autistic sensory issues mixed with PTSD. The school claimed to be happy to get a separate room for me to sit in at breaks. This room was nice, but whenever the teachers needed it for a meeting or ofsted was there and they didn’t want them to see a student sitting alone in a staff room, I would get thrown out. Students outside of the canteen were given detentions and all students had to pack into the tiny canteen. I couldn’t go there, so I would sit in the toilets for the entire break. This worked until teachers started to time how long I was in there, and knock on the door if I was in for over 5 minutes and throw me out.

The only solution to this I could think of was to simply move to a different block of toilets. However, this was ruined by further awful behaviour from students. One time I was in the toilets and someone kicked the door so hard that the lock broke and it swung open. Luckily I was only in there on my phone, but it could’ve been a different situation. I told teachers and even named the student who did it but they refused to do anything about it, and instead gave me access to the disabled toilet (which I should’ve had access to anyway). This did not solve the issue at all, since it could’ve happened to other students. Access to disabled toilets just felt like hush money.

My time in the room on my own was spent outside a staff office. I overheard lots of awful things said about my friend. She was transgender and one time I remember teachers complaining that she was standing in the corridor outside the toilets. The girls and boys toilets were next to eachother anyway, and she was just waiting for a friend. She was not INSIDE the girls toilets, just standing in the corridor. Teachers were calling her “it” and being genuinely disrespectful and horrible to her. I tried to speak up and walked into the staff room saying that she identifies as female, not “it”. Teachers just rolled their eyes at me and continued to treat her like a danger for standing in the corridor. This was awful, especially in a school that prides itself on being accepting to all.

In conclusion, I don’t think I’ll ever fully get over the time I spent in this school. I’m happy I never have to go back, but I feel awful for those who still go there. I know one person who still goes there and it seems like nothing has changed. I really hope my review doesn’t get deleted, since I know staff have been reporting lots of reviews to get them removed. They also have been caught writing their own reviews, multiple at a time all worded similarly in order to make the school look better.

I don’t hate this school, I just wish it could solve the issues it has. Despite everything, there were a few really nice teachers who I will never forget.

Thank you for reading.

Its honestly not as bad as people say but it is not good either. Like seriously a kid got given a vape forcefully and he got in trouble and kids smoke weed at the back of the new build almost every day and the teachers don't even care

I would give this school no stars if I could. Don’t send a child here with suspected SEN. You will receive no support from school and headteacher seems to think she knows if a child has SEN or not.
Some teachers are nice, loads have left since the Headteacher has arrived. Many of the teachers can’t control their classes and yell and shout at the students.

It’s okay. Personally I think the teachers should find more ways to connect with us. I think they should also keep the years separated, as the older years can be quite chaotic to the younger years (I know from experience). They should also make the art curriculum more loose. By this I mean not just copying other people’s art-styles that they have taken years to master, but finding different techniques with different things to find our own art-style.