I was at plantsbrook for a year and a half, it ruined my life to say the least, I was bullied since day one for no reason whatsoever and every time I told the teachers I just got told to suck it up and ignore it, it took one s* attempt for the staff to realize that it was a lot worse than just name calling. I really hope you reconsider sending your child to this school.
Terrible school no time for mental health issues whatsoever.. as for the attendance officer she's the most useless person I've ever come across! How on earth she got that position is beyond me.
I would definitely think twice before applying for this school especially if your child has sen .
at this school they will over work you until your on the floor crying. no amount of work will ever be good for them, no matter if you do 100 pages of work it will never be good enough for them..
if your sending your child here just be prepared for the work overload
It's an ok school however its extremely crowded and you will be pushed and shoved. Most of the staff are helpful when you can get a hold of them but if you're a person who needs extra support it can be extremely difficult to find when you need it as there arent a lot of support staff and the ones who are support staff are usually busy teaching or dealing with class disruptions/difficult students.
Mental health isnt overall handled very well, the teachers overload students with homework and unrealistic timelines (mainly for the older years), harassment from other students isnt properly dealt with and those with existing mental health problems will suffer as the support staff are always busy and never there for the students who need them
It is not a bad school however it is by no means excellent. There are certainly flaws which, I believe would be easily ammedable yet there appears to be a lack of effort/response to do so.
Lessons are not bad and there are certainly some good teachers but if you're in a class with mixed ability, every lesson works at the rate of the slowest (instead of them getting more help independently) rendering our learning ability lessened significantly. As well as this, disruptions in class are appalling as students are (in my opinion) not disciplined properly nor for the right things.
There are obviously good elements to the school but I believe this to be the easiest way to decide if the school is right for you.
I left in 2013 and that was probably the best part of this school. I came out with few GCSES to which my head of year told me I would make nothing of my life with that. But now I am half way through my masters! I was badly bullied at this school for two years and not one teacher helped me and when I did tell teachers they just moved me to another class to avoid conflict. Every day got worse and mainly my head of year used to single me out and blame me for my troubles so my mom had to come in to school and tell her she needs to stay professional as it was clear she didn’t like me as I was not a student getting A’s which she loved. The new headteacher i think would of turned the school around after Mrs cambell left, she only cared about grades not about students. But a lot of teachers were this way and mental health was not considered I ended up being diagnosed with ptsd and severe depression through the struggle of school life, no academic support or help from teachers to progress and stop bullying, I hope it has changed although I still hear vile things go on here there all about grades, even a few teachers committed suicide I’m shocked not many students did the same as I know a lot of people had tried, a lot of people have suffered from this school with long term affects, I still speak to people from my year and they still struggle with their demons from this school, terrible.
Headteacher said I should've left the school rather than sorting out the bullying (even on the application to leave the school), very unprofessional.
Deputy Heads (4) did nothing but accuse me of lying despite CCTV (multiple times), but as soon as I retaliated (after 3 years of bullying) it was suddenly justified.
Head of Years (2) did virtually nothing to help, and blamed me or tried to share the blame onto me every time. Definitely the most useless out of all 6 of the "Heads".
All 7 only listened once my dad came in, because of course they wouldn't listen to a student. Headteacher actually never spoke to my dad throughout the 3 years.
Got bullied for 3 straight years (8-10), the only reason it was ever "sorted out" was because I had to switch playgrounds, and had to be split into the otherside of the year group, it was never truly resolved.
My form teacher was the only sympathetic one, who actually agreed with both me and my dad that it was unacceptable by the Heads, but he didn't have much power besides looking out for me.
The PE and Science teachers are notably bad. I remember one of my Science classes around 5 kids complained about one of the teachers it was that bad.
Out of all my teachers from Year 7-11 there was a total of 4 good teachers and 1 good Deputy Head.
The "new build" really isn't as good as they make out, it's okay but definitely nothing special. I wouldn't send your kid there based on the "new fancy building". The school bought 4 4K TVs yet blamed the kids for the school being unable to afford gluesticks.
Overall no issues that you/your child have are ever going to be sorted out *ever*, the teaching is extremely bad in the PE and Science department, fairly whatever everywhere else, the facilities are just standard nothing special, and the grades are only maintained by the top students, other than that the grades were particularly bad for the entire year.
teachers do not care about the students. Do not deal with bullying, do not do anything for mental health, Teachers are too invasive - one came up behind me and pulled my skirt down herself without any warning and i caught one looking at my phone while i had it taken off me. Do not send your child here if you want them to be happy.
Grabbed by a teacher
Removed from lessons for accidentally dropping a pen
Dinner lady refused to let me eat although I had payed for food already
Experienced death threats from both students and teachers
Was accused of lying although there was cctv footage as proof
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