Selby High School Specialist School for the Arts and Science

This school is horrific.
It’s not child centred it runs like a business, is regimented and no empathy for SEND. They talk the talk but then don’t even follow there own SEND plans they put SEND children in severe safeguarding situations and then blame the child that actually has a disability for there own incompetence.
Highly recommend you don’t send your SEN child here. The punishments and sanctions are absolutely pathetic, forget a pen- detention hug a friend detention eat in a corridor- detention, not enough time for children to burn off energy in breaks and lunches, by time they have lunch it’s time to be back in lesson. They state they are preparing for the real world? In the adult world you wouldn’t have staff screaming in your face!

Personally I wouldn't recommend coming here. The poorly behaved students are rewarded for being decent human beings every once in a while and the so called behaviour system is pathetic. Sanctions are given out in handfuls whereas reward points (which ultimately mean nothing) are barely given out. The mental health treatment is appalling. Speaking from personal experience, even if a child is suicidal the schools social worker will claim them to not be that bad. The teachers force attendance down your throat and get very worked up over missed days. Teachers can get away with saying slurs and so can students however when reported the school will do nothing. Despite putting a pride flag up in an obvious place the school does little to support LGBTQ+ students and incorrectly informs people about our community in life development lessons. They do little to make sure students have friends in their classes and constantly separate groups of friends. Lessons are constantly disrupted by unruly students causing the well behaved kids to lose out in lessons. The average well behaved but not quite outstanding kids are often overlooked whereas the bad and amazing kids are praised far too much. Teachers allow school visitors to be blatantly sexist and teachers partake in being less punishing to female students. Non-binary people are forced into their previous gendered roles with teachers barely bothering to make a change and the stress put on pupils is horrendous. However I have at least learnt something. Most things you have to figure out by yourself and if you have poor mental health I advise going to your gp over the school. The school does try however they could try harder. The pe department is very developed however other subjects are neglected. The newer built parts of school arent wheelchair accessible.

Absolute shit hole everyone here sucks teachers don't help when you ask then get pissy when you don't do your work and claim you could have asked for help don't even get me started on sin fucking clair thinking he runs the school honesty go back to the army and run a boot camp or something.Oh and Jane the school councilor is as much use as a chocolate fire guard claims everything is confidential then immediately tells your parents.while I'm at it let's talk about using the toilet while in lesson no teacher let's you go not even if you explain your on your period it's always well you should have gone at break like I don't control my stupid uterus I'd I did I wouldn't have periods at all ffs

This is possibly one of the worst school ever they don’t know how to deal with bullying, mental health etc. the are terrible when it come to your attendance getting the police involved when it isn’t needed and with the mental health they tell everything to your parents and over all just make it much more worse then when you first went to get help in the first place they want you to express yourself but you arnt able to do that because then you end up getting detentions for it the school rules are ridiculous you get detentions for asking for a drink 3 times for forgetting your tie 3 times same with your planner you have to have certain colored socks your skirts and trousers have to be a certain material or you get told to change them you can’t have certain shoes you can’t dye your hair unnatural colors and you aren’t allowed to paint your nails cause it’s “distracting” but then teacher are allowed to do this.they expect you to come into school if your mental health is bad even if you are literally throwing up they would still want you there but if a teacher felt like that then they would definitely have a day of so this school is unfair and you aren’t treated how you should be.

Don’t get me wrong teachers at this school do there job really well but the rules at this school are ridiculous for Eg: piercings,hair,clothing,etc I get school uniforms are smart and that and they should keep that but piercings and hair colour isn’t really going to affect your learning or distract you from your learning and if your going to be sending your kid that whants to Express them selfs this this school isn’t really the one for you and now days people like to express themselves and people don’t what to feel like they can’t express themselves !

The way they handle attendance and metal health is shocking I was of for reasons and they got the police involved when it wasn’t needed and over all they just made my mental health worse then I was before they tell everything to your parents so do not go to them for help

Excellent teachers, good quality teaching and great access to facilities.

Ignores the rampant bullying of lesser able, lower class and just ‘different’ to the status quo students in favour of punishing petty offences like failing to wear a damn tie, or tuck a shirt in, or any number of other, childish things. The school regularly punishes victims that defend themselves, or associates of the victims defending the victim, harsher than they punish the bullies themselves. The teachers are incredibly diverse in ability to be decent human beings. Some have great capacity to empathise while others would watch your child burn before them.

I wouldn’t recommend this school to anybody because of their poor handling of bullying/bullies, they are slow to respond/react to problems, any problems people have never get sorted, they don’t take into account of mental health issues and expect you to turn up and get on with it, they never listen until it’s too late i.e from my personal experiences, they take too long to respond with the support that you need, they sometimes force you to do activities that you don’t want to take part it because of confidence, when you’re off school for whatever reasons, they judge to quick and assume you’re skipping school or too lazy to turn up, they never help with why you’re off, the school environment is just uncomfortable and appalling, have no respect for students and are too lazy to help people out who are on benefits/low income and expect you to pay for everything yourself and are never willing to put anything forward and another reason why we wouldn’t recommend it is because they care more about how you look and you’re attendance rather than you’re actual well-being and learning. Overall they are a low graded school in my eyes with nothing but pure disrespect and laziness.

But of a yikes because it’s very stressful and they always tell you you have to have 100% attendance to make themselves look better but it’s not that great and really boring

I went to Selby High for 5 years and the stress they put on attendance was ridiculous to the point I refused to stay off school when I was actually vomiting. The school handles bullying terribly to the point I was bullied openly in my English classroom and had daily panic attacks because of it and nothing was ever done about it. Mental health is also poorly dealt with - the counsellor claimed confidentiality and then told my parents everything, however, she also didn't do anything about me being groomed by an adult that went to the local LGBT group and infact encouraged it. The teaching is decent if you get decent teachers. A majority of the students are awfully behaved and feel unsafe to be around.

During the pandemic, my head of year emailed every single person in my year everyday and answered her emails very quickly if we needed help along with every teacher. They are trying their best to social distance year groups which is working so far. Overall, the school is a really good environment to be in and the students are not chavvy and disruptive as if they disrupt the class teachers use the behaviour system.

The grades and teaching is good at school, however i don’t like the students at the school. they are very chavvy and disruptive in class and i don’t feel safe. not in a dangerous way but more i don’t trust my peers.