Slated Row School

Like many other parents that have found that the school is insufficient for their children's learning needs, they wasted our son's life for 3 years and he went backwards in his studies. The council were reluctant to step and help him move initially. The school is geared for children that have severe learning disabilities and have no hope for doing GCSE's. We were told that our child would get the opportunity to do GCSE's but that ended being a lie as they redacted their statement once we joined. Their focus is on getting revenue from the council, the more students they have the more revenue it generates and the bigger salaries for the teachers. The 3 years he was there he learnt nothing, literally nothing, he'd spend his days being asked to play with playdough, watch cbeebies and do some very basic learning. He'd come home depressed and embarrassed that he's going to that school. After some back and forth with the council and voicing our concerns, only then were we able to move him to a better school where he now finds much more challenging and learning a lot and also getting the opportunity to be able to sit for GCSE's. The Kents Hill campus also does not provide any opportunity to do GCSE's, even though the Wolverton campus says otherwise, we know this through other students there who are also trying to move. So if your child is capable of learning but has learning difficulties, do not send to this school, they will waste his/her life away and keep making false promises.

The school present a very good front and that is their number one priority as they are completely focussed on maintaining their Ofsted rating. They have beautifully written policies and procedures but the practical lived experiences of staff and pupils is poor. The staff even look unhappy and sullen behind the manic smiles. I've even witnessed 2 members of staff being publicly berated and humiliated by a senior member of the leadership team. They didn't provide any meaningful education to my son and it's difficult to know what he actually learned beyond colouring in and cutting out different shapes. They failed to tailor his learning and were very patronisong and aggressive when we raised concerns. They take a one size fit all approach as it's cheaper that way. They have a huge leadership team with layers upon layers of Deputy headteachers who have their own duty teachers and then more departmental headteachers. It is easy to see that paying good salaries to each other was more important than providing adequate support to the son. They have an old style teaching approach and I'm not sure how much tjey ever invested in providing teachers with the latest methods of supporting children with special needs. We found them inflexible in their approach and unwilling to accept feedback. I'm afraid as my son learnt very little, we decided to transfer him elsewhere. We made a huge mistake bieving the PR spin and regret not listening to our instincts when we first went their. The school wasted 3 years of our boy's life. The school make a mockery of Osted ratings as it is so poor and should really be under special measures.