Queen Elizabeth's Girls' School

Lovely school which teaches the girls not only the value of academia, but also independence, worldliness and how to thrive in the world beyond QE. I have two daughters at the school and have been particularly impressed with the sixth form. A couple of small criticisms would be a tendency to be very cautious with H&S which prevents the girls from playing on their lovely school fields for most of the year and a lack of decent school trips.

— I write as a student at this school, I come as an immigrant, and this was my first school I joined. As I was completely new, excited, and scared, the school had an amazing reputation online, and I mistook that this school would be amazing to join.
—My first day at the school was.. pathetic. No teacher had a look out for me, and I wasn’t explained about the school rules, structure, and how things go on in school. The structure of the school is a literal maze, and it’s so unsafe to walk through corridors as students are running, fighting, or pushing each other. I didn’t know where or which class I had to go to, and I literally had no one to help me.
—The teachers really didn’t care, and neither did the students. They completely ignored me. I was mentally tired of the situation I was in and also experiencing cultural shock. I thought I would get support from the teachers or the students, but they lived in their own world, without any care. I got lost multiple times at school and later thankfully found a nice friend that helped me out when I really needed it. Those days I was happy once I made a friend as it was all I needed to survive.
—Later I experienced severe racist bullying by my own classmates and they themselves started acting like victims… the teachers were very slow in escalating situations like this, and were really careless about bullying and biased to students (they always supported fun popular students who had more confidence to speak up and were their favorite students)
—the teachers gave a “kind of didn’t care” vibe and were here just for the money, (said by a teacher) and just wanted to make us forget about the problem instead of fixing it. After months, the students who bullied me were supposed to receive detention but didn’t. I had a teacher who allowed phones and vaping when it isn’t allowed in school whereas all students favored him because he was the cool teacher.
—The situation with the fire alarms was so horrible once, that we experienced 3-4 fire alarms in a day and about 10 a week that was really annoying and disrupted the lessons and learning for a month. We had an insane shortage of teachers that disrupted the learning pattern.
—In year 9, I didn’t learn anything from that entire year and I got really disappointed at the lessons as the teachers were more inclined about gossiping about their personal life and shows they watch. The students still are found to have no care (in studies and academics) and talk a lot about vaping, drugs, looks, bullying, hating on teachers, and other stupid things.
— The food is stupidly expensive and the wait line is long as they aren’t organized. Many year 7 and 8 students are given a lot of freedom and go rebellious and have no discipline and this affects their attitude in their later years.
—As a student, I see 80% of the students bringing their phones to school even though it’s not allowed. It would make more sense if the school allowed phones to be taken in and given after class instead of creating a “hide your phones from school before it gets taken away”
—During lunch and break, we’re not allowed to come inside the building and they lock the doors and it’s really hard for me to stay outdoors in the winter. We are allowed to sit in the hall for lunch sometimes but I don’t believe that should be the only solution, there is a lot of litter left and it stinks.
—Everything is very unorganized whereas the heaters and boilers malfunction a lot. The only reason the school is still running is because of the funds. I don’t know if it is a normal rule for schools in England but when it’s so cold, we are normally forced to take our coats or jackets off. This has caused me to be sick quite often.
—The school's hygiene is horrible! The toilets are normally locked, whereas the school is filled with sick students everywhere, coughing and sneezing. It just feels depressing and sick to go to school normally.
—Being in set 1 for maths, I received regular bad behavior points for my bad handwriting, whereas people in set 2 get behavior points for being very rebellious and homework reasons. There are many stupid school rules and it’s too tiring to be complaining about them.
—This isn’t a big problem, but the cover teachers utmost do nothing in the lessons as they are clueless about what is supposed to be taught.
—These issues haven’t been brought up much and like me, there might be many other students planning on applying for this school, thinking, it would be an amazing choice to join. I hope sharing these issues will help parents understand what’s really going on at the school so that action can be taken to improve the overall experience for students.

a lot of the teachers are rude and annoying , the school rules are too strict for no reason , you can't have phones because of a little situation that happened probably a decade ago. the lessons are boring as hell and i don't learn anything because i can't engage , the food selection is bum and the prices are unreasonably high :|

PLEASE READ:

This school is the worst school ever. As a student who went to this school and is now 20 I was bullied a lot. I was beaten up in my English class by this girl in front of the teacher and 30 other students for no reason whatsoever believe it or not. The students were shocked as much as I was.

I was taken out of the room and I called my mum via my phone to tell her what happened my phone then got confiscated by them (SLT) as ‘ I was not abiding by their rules’ the punishment for the girl is exclusion for one day ! Can you believe it one day ! My earrings were ripped out of my ear and I was left with bruises and the girl was excluded for one day only ! I went to the hospital straight after this incident. My parents couldn’t believe it!

The reason as to why I couldn’t leave the school was because I was doing my GCSES therefore I had no other option other than to stay. My parents had to call the police on this girl as she was so aggressive and violent and was not raised right.

They never changed the abusive girls class from mine and I just felt in danger. The year 11 head at that time was Miss Barney and I’m telling you she is so inexperienced and so unprofessional. She does not know what she is doing. Stop the bullying or if you can’t at least have it under serious control because my mental health has deteriorated after this incident and it was the schools lack of help and support and carelessness that caused me to feel very unsafe.

I’m begging you don’t go to this school please don’t even consider it as they honestly do not care about the health and safety of the children.

Awful school! Headteacher does not care about students wellbeing, and their ethos and own policies are not followed whatsoever. So much bullying goes on at this school, but they try to brush everything under the carpet. The most uncaring, awful staff I have ever met at any school. Avoid sending your child here, there dreams and confidence will be crushed.

this school is very messed up. Its unhygenic, racist, homophobic and teachers are shockingly rude. The head teacher clearly, only does her job for the money and the SLT are horrible and careless. The teachers seem to also favourite white people and when it comes to a poc they dont care. There was this one situation where a white girl said the n word 4 times to people and she didnt even get a detention, Yet she got suspended for having her phone with her in class! They are terrible with mental health issues and they would for sure rather a student to suffer and kill their self. All they care about is your grades and the reputation you put onto the school. The food there is horribly over priced and its small portions! So many fights break out due to the depressing atmosphere. At break and lunch, students do not have anything to do. There is no playground , no football pitch, no basketball hoop nothing! you just have to sit there and do nothing. It is very rare to get a good teacher. Most teachers scream and shout at people and if you start crying then they will go all soft and pretend to care. They are also horribly sexist especially in debate club. They also have really weird rules which include ; your hair cant be shaved below grade 3,you cannot dye your hair un natrual colours, only prescribed hair bands ae permitted to be worn. Finally, teachers hardly show up and you usually get a sub that doesent even understand the subject!
Please dont send your kids here!

Since the start of my time at this school there have been issues. Our school building is not of the correct size to accommodate the sheer amount of students; some hallways become so packed it can take five minutes just to get through a doorway, all the while you are being pushed and shoved, with no teachers are around to mediate the crowd, and when you get to your lesson you are reprimanded for being late. The school seems to not care to keep their high achieving students at the school, as I had an A* performing friend who had to leave the school to go abroad because of a family emergency and, upon returning to the UK, she was told by the school they could no longer have her at the school because they had no room, yet when I returned to school it appeared they had accepted new students, and not left room for my friend whom they knew would be returning back to school. The school likes to try and give the illusion that they listen to their students, however there have been instances where the only changes allowed to be made by the student council has been only superficial, like a school headband, which nobody asked for. It is very hit or miss with teachers, I have to admit some are lovely, however when they are bad, you are very aware. There are teachers who barely hide the fact that they have favourites, for example some students will be getting low grades yet be told they are doing fine and upon being asked for advice on how to improve their grade, will not receive said feedback. I have even been ghosted at parents evening by my teacher because my grade wasn’t bad enough for me to talk to them. This school has caused me plenty of mental distress; I have been referred many times by the nhs for an adhd assessment yet they will not tick the symptoms I exhibit on the test, which subsequently has barred me from diagnosis and help in my studies. This has understandably caused distress, and when I have stated I need a day or so off for my mental wellbeing, they seemingly do not understand that being mentally unwell can be equally as rehabilitating as being physically unwell. KS3 and 4 are also only allowed brick phones on the premises and toilets are locked when it is not break or lunch, so good luck if you have an emergency.
All in all would you go to this school based off of this information? Probably not.

Headteacher wrote a horrible letter to my friends daughter. Teachers are racist and unhelpful. Disgusting school.

The headteacher and members of SLT all favour white students and do not bother to investigate claims of bullying when they come from ethnic minority students. They claim to be inclusive in their SEN policy but instead choose to exclude pupils with disabilities or tell them to move schools. The headteacher acts disgustingly and is very unsympathetic and rude to pupils struggling with mental health. They would rather a student commit suicide than ever help or take accountability for their actions. Please do not send your children here if you want the best for them or want them to be happy. School should be ashamed of how they run and how much they lie.

It is terrible science department terrible, all physics and chemistry teachers are terrible. i asked my chemistry teacher to explain electrolysis properly and she said no and refused to. Many teachers are bullies and enjoy picking on students particularly in science the only good part about science is biology. English department is smashing it though ! I am in year 11 and i got a high grade 6 for my maths mock but will propbably be downgraded. For my last business test i got a grade 7 a but i’m predicted a grade 5? They downgrade you so bad to get you to stay in the sixth form especially for maths, science and business (unless you do triple science) . The school is so broke i belive barnet council is pocketing the money and not giving any to the school 🤦🏾‍♀️ we have no playground or anything no way of having some fun time running around at break and lunch. School food atrocious and their system is slow. The only reason i get good grades is because of myself and my hard work and CGP. The only good thing about the school is that it’s diverse and if you are of an ethnic minority you will definitely be with people from your country, but it’s very unorganised the tech never works and it disrupts a lot of my lessons. Some girls from pavilion even broke in and we had to be evacuated so the schools security system is terrible. People in this school only get good grades because of their personal hard work. SLT too entitled and treat you like dirt if you are anything other than white.

i mean, i hated it so much from years 7-11, but the sixth form is genuinely so good. wouldn’t recommend the lower school, but if you’ve just done your gcses elsewhere, i would recommend applying to the sixth form, especially if you’re doing english/ humanities. its genuinely the best for that imo. we are treated with dignity and respect; equals to the teachers. if we want things to be done, they will get done.
i’m so surprised at how good the sixth form is, i was dreading staying for it, but i genuinely could not be happier anywhere else. our teachers actually care and want us to do well, and classes are so small that falling behind isnt an option - they genuinely do everything to help you understand. its a great environment tbh.

The school on a whole isnt bad, although there have been a developing amount of rasist teachers and unsolved racist problems within the school.The school seems to struggle to solve problems towards people of color,but are quick to react when something happens to someone opposite.

Absolutely awful. The only good departments were English & Biology, but even then depending on the teacher it’s pretty bad. Went months without a qualified teacher in Maths (just gave us cover teacher) then when we finally got a full time teacher turns out she was only qualified in English NOT MATHS. Most of the time the students had to teach her from the textbook overall really poor quality of teaching my grade dropped by 3 grades in 1 half half term because of this. One male teacher screamed at a student and trapped her in a classroom allow not even allowing her to leave while she was having a panic attack due to feeling really scared and intimidated by his actions and words. Head teacher is an absolute disgrace and is 100% only in the job for the money she doesn’t care about the students at the school at all. Hair was always found in the food which is far too over priced and they won’t allow you to exchange food once the hair has been found you either go without or buy more. One teacher was know to hit the students on multiple different occasions and my friend had a blind fall onto her head during lessons (very poor health and safety). This school needs help they prepare the students when OFSTED come in and sometimes threats are even made to make the school seem better than it is. Overall disgusting school and should be investigated without them knowing so they can’t put this act on and students don’t feel the need to lie for them. For an all girls school the staff are very sexist (particularly the male staff) and have also been known to make racists comment & very homophobic. Don’t handle the bullying properly one girl got sent home instead of the bullies because it was easier for staff which is again disgusting to me they’re punishing the victim not the bullies. Students are okay just make sure to mind your business and they’ll leave you alone older students very nice and helpful too

decent but i’m excited to leave, some absolutely horrific teachers abd the people aren’t too great either but if you find good friends and keep your head out of other people’s business you’re generally ok, teachers tend to only remember kids who misbehave but like it’s whatever. my grades throughout my time there have been ok i guess i wouldn’t say i hate the school but i would hate to go back. many unnecessary rules and for a school who claims to be very feminist, it’s quite sexist. there are a wide range of students in terms of diversity, representation for the lgbt community abd poc however rascism and homophobia isn’t dealt with well by teachers. many white teachers are known to have done or said racist things. food is overpriced and portions aren’t good enough

My time at Queen Elizabeth’s Girl’s school was the worst of my life. They do not care about their pupils, their pastoral care is practically non existent it’s so ineffective. They only care about results. They let people who aren’t the highest of achievers just fall through the cracks and ignore them. The discipline is awful as the teachers do not comply with the behaviour and discipline policies. Choosing to attend this school will be my biggest regret for a very long time.

The community isn’t that great but you do find your ‘clique’. It’s all about popularity at school, you get bullied if you’re irrelevant or not the social standard. If i’m honest teachers don’t deal well with problems. There really is some nice girls and if i’m honest the ‘beef’ has calmed down this year, but i’m guessing it’s cause of corona. Over all the school isn’t bad academically and the teachers are lovely and don’t deserve students being rude to them.