Saint Benedict, A Catholic Voluntary Academy

I hate it but I still have to go unfortunately. They're raising the bus fairs just because they don't spend their funds correctly and now students parents who have to pay two pind for sing and three fifty for return every week who r struggling have enough have to pay more . Bad school.Bad teachers.Bad headteacher.Absolutely bonkers funds.
Ps students were forced to pay a fiver for "food tech ingredients" which ended up being funded towards school repairs since they are soo broke

Only good thing abt school is the shows and form tutor

Mrs molumby makes me feel drained and unhappy I don't like coming to school I cried the other day because of her I want to be happy when I come to school but I'm not just because she doesn't like the way I'm standing like what I come to school because I just want to get good In my GCSE's

Saint Benedict Catholic Voluntary Academy is a Catholic school, meaning the options kids get to pick are limited. I wasn't able to do business studies, for example, because I was forced to take both History and Religious Studies, which is not very helpful in the career goal I've had since I was ten.

As said in most reviews, there is a classroom called 22B which is commonly called by everyone, "the soggy cardboard box". It is quite literally falling apart. Students aren't allowed in the entryway unaccompanied because it's a hazard, the insulation (which most likely has glass in it) is poking out of dozens of tiny cracks I the walls and the ceiling has poster's on it to hide the rot from the leaking it does under heavy rain damage. It does deserve to be bulldozed and replaced, as they've been promising to do since 2008 when my older sister first joined.

The teaching staff are mostly nice people. Except for the religious studies and foreign languages departments, and this very horrible science teacher who shall not be named, who, because she is so bad at teaching chemistry, a friend of mine has actually hired a tutor so that she doesn't fail her gcses. Most of the religious studies department are openly homophobic and one (the one preventing 22B from being shut down) told a bisexual girl that she was going to H*ll. Also, senior staff team are also cruel and unnecessary with shouting.

The uniform policy is by far the most disgusting thing in the world. Badges aren't allowed on blazers (a new addition to the rules), when I asked why this was I was treated with disrespect, belittling, and told that they weren't allowed for political reasons (nobody has ever worn a political badge in school so I'm forced to assume that the headteacher was talking about the pride badges that a group of yr 9s had started wearing to make themselves feel more comfortable in school). Ankles can't be shown (which if you didnt know is a sexist belief dating back to the victorian era, because poor women who wore shorter dresses, that showed their ankles, so that they didn't get dirty, were expected to be pr*st*t*tes). Short skirts are also banned, boots are banned (which is stupid since they've banned ankles and boots HIDE ankles), pencil skirts are banned, wavy skirts are banned, beards are banned (which causes obvious religious based problems) and bald heads are banned.

Students can't go to the toilet during lessons, and most of the toilets are locked no matter the time of day anyway.

There are no non uniform days or days for recreational purposes, no support for mental health.

There's a ridiculous amount of mandatory homework that teachers are forced to set more than just every week.

There is a dr*g and v*pe problem among some of the students, which staff know about but do not discourage, along with a few racist and sexist reasoned physical assaults that have happened, with the guilty party never having any punishment.

Other than that, the school is average. The food is good, the OTHER teachers are kind, there's a lot of help for people with physical disabilities, the music and art departments are well funded, the chapelin is a very kind lady who helps people wherever she goes, and the students are generally nice people.

As someone who used to attend here it was really good until year 10 & 11. They started locking the toilets during lessons & breaks in one building and if a teacher didn’t have a key you’d have to walk all the way to the other building which is probably 200 metres away, holding it in. The poor students now don’t get a lot of variety in GCSE choice. If you get given a ‘blue card’ (i think it’s called) you have to choose a language, a humanities subject and one other of your choosing. Arguably, not that bad, but I feel like all students would agree with me when I say choice is something you shouldn’t take away from them. Not to mention the dress codes that are set in place for students that teachers break. I remember students being told off for ‘showing their ankles off’ but a certain teacher preaching about this would have a skirt reaching her mid thigh. Hypocritical i’d say. Also, the paths are very uneven. The roads have lots of potholes and there are so many unnecessary dips and curves on the paths that cause hazards. I ended up going to the hospital because I tripped on a path there and tore a ligament. Some teachers need anger management training because they shout more than teach which ultimately defeats the purpose. The school also has had the same buildings in north block for about 10 years. It has holes and mould in it and shouldn’t have been there in the first place and yet they still teach classes there. If you’re worried about the impacts of black mould and spores, avoid those classrooms. Not to mention how small the corridors are in the other building. If it were a couple years ago I would’ve left a positive review however, management changes have made an impact on the school. To the students attending and future students attending, I wish you the best of luck. Shoutout the 4 teachers who actually helped me pass my GCSE’s. thank you for helping me out of there, you deserve a better work place <3

Really poor. Learned Nothing there. Bullying was NEVER dealt with and suffered physical harm in a physics laboratory with wires (strangled). Those kids were never excluded or in any further case at least sanctioned. Absolutely appalling.