Norwood School

• Cons:
- Safeguarding standards & SEN department at this school are somewhat lacking (but honestly I think that’s the case for A LOT of secondary schools). More SEN staff are urgently required to meet the needs of the numerous kids at this school who need SENCO support — the current SEN staff are absolutely overstretched and this causes kids to slip through the cracks.
- First Aid at the reception desk could be better too, especially for kids with chronic health problems or disabilities, because “sit here for a bit then go back to class” doesn’t cut it for sick or injured kids.
- Norwood needs to be tougher on bullying and discrimination — one person in my year when I attended was consistently harassing other students based on race/gender/sexual orientation and nothing was done even when the incidents were reported to higher-ups by the affected students.
- The “Greenhouse” where misbehaved kids are sent needs a total overhaul. Kids in the Greenhouse are deprived of access to water, toilet breaks, and even a hot meal (they’re only allowed cold food from the cafeteria, and this has to be brought to them because they aren’t allowed to leave the Greenhouse room). This treatment doesn’t stop repeated misbehaviour and being sent to the Greenhouse instead of normal lessons means kids miss out on vital teaching. Not to mention it’s a massive health risk.

•Pros:
- On the plus side, there’s a few teachers & staff who really prove to be the school’s saving grace. You can tell that the teachers are actually passionate about what they teach, and it really makes all the difference. Having teachers that were enthusiastic about their subjects and actually cared about their students was absolutely the best part of attending this school. For all its faults, The Norwood School is generally very good at hiring the right staff. Students even actually get a say in who gets hired when they’re interviewing new teachers because they do “trial” classes with potential hires and ask the students what they thought of them afterwards.

TLDR; If you want your kid to be taught well, by teachers who actually care about them & their learning, send them here. But definitely check in regularly with your child and how they’re doing, and keep an eye on how well the school implements its safeguarding policies, because that’s where The Norwood School often falls short.

Grandchild went there with problems, ADHD and ASD no SENCO for over two years, the school dies not care. Bad attitude when trying to resolve problems. Staff on two occasions have copied and pasted information with another child's details total breach of GDPR, even had wrong sex, DOB and another child's name and address! She was assaulted by another student but nothing was done. Think twice about sending any child to this school.

Domenic here I have been harassed and bullies and it has been dealt with excellently

i was bullied for 3 years at this school and the teachers didn’t do nothing to help so i moved schools