St Philomena's Catholic High School for Girls

This school is a joke. They have TWO headteachers and it’s still a shambles. Whilst the teaching and subjects offered is good, the running of the school is half-baked. Check the governors page on the school website. The main headteacher is getting paid £140k-150k for doing what? My daughter says she’s hardly ever there and when she does show up all she does is yell at staff and children - no wonder teachers are leaving and nobody wants to stay for sixth form. The building is falling apart and the governors have a fund that they ask parents to pay for every year. How is that money even be spent? A girl could have been killed last year when a piece of concrete from the roof almost fell on her.
I dread to think what will happen when St Phil’s becomes an academy. That’s right - the headteacher was very sneaky and apparently did a consultation period over last summer holiday so that nobody could object. Hardly anyone knew about it and the assembly my daughter was given wasn’t very clear on why they are switching to an academy. It’s another layer of greed and corruption at the top.
This used to be a lovely, OUTSTANDING community school. Many of my friends had their daughters attend St Phil’s and cannot believe how downhill it’s become. My daughter cannot wait to leave after her exams this summer. Think very carefully about sending your child here. There is a lot the headteachers choose to cover up and yet claim be good Catholic people.

First of all the staff and HOY (Head of Year) are downright rude and disrespectful they will confiscate your personal items then loose them without paying you back for the hard earned money you spent on it the teachers do not care about their students or their learning, if you ask to use the toilet the teachers would not let you even if your period and will threaten to remove you from class if you continue asking. Secondly, the learning and teaching curriculum is horrible teachers be on their phones during lesson time and give you a piece of work which they have not taught you and expect you to understand then they have the audacity to give you piles of homework on the topic they have not taught you. Lastly, this school does not care about your child's safety and will suspend you for anything for example a student got attacked by another student and she got suspended but however the other student didn't face severe punishment even though she has a reputation of attacking students? they quite literally could not care less and would email your parents about anything.

this school is horrible don’t send your kids here unless u want them to suffer. Teachers dont care about students’ learning, they only care about your appearance (skirts being rolled less than a centimeter up above students’ knees, hair type/ colour, bracelets and necklaces, jumpers being tied, no blazers and different colored scarfs, gloves and hats). They make u pull up your jumper and check your waist to see if your skirt is rolled (male and female teachers.)the teachers seem to be so distracted by the students this is so sexualizing. why am i being told that my appearances is distracting others?? students are insecure and having to wear such a uniform can cause more insecurities so students try to make it look better. Next some of the staff are unbearable. My art teacher for an example- doesn’t help with art at all, constantly giving out warnings and behavior point for things like being unable to draw straight hair. MFL teachers will give you warnings for looking around. its so bad i don’t even have a favorite teacher/ a teacher i can talk to about problems without being scared. Punishments. They are so unfair. I had different coloured winter essentials and i got into loads of trouble. Ive seen people get into trouble for having certain hair styles when other people have such vibrant hair. They dont treat students equally the school system is horrid. They claim to care for mental health but then blame victims for things that have happened to them, they dont care if you as a student is struggling. The head of years and SLT members are so mean. When around parents its a different case.. When SLT or Miss Noone come outside, every single student runs away as fast as fast as they can. Ive never seen a student go and greet any of the SLT, they just go the other way. How can the whole school run away from you? this needs to be fixed. Lastly, the students. the students make the school even worse. Students like to fight for fun, befriend older years so that they can go and pick on people for you, do all types of horrible things on social media, bring drugs to school, smoke and vape in school and will literally just cuss you out for being quiet, standing up for yourself or wearing different clothes than them. Tell me why students are being made fun of for being “emo” because they are wearing black converse or black anything really that isn’t skin tight?? honestly maybe it should become a PRU school seeing the amount of kids on report. Anyways dont sent your Kid here!

Awful school to send a child. Teachers Bullying the children especially if they are not the top of the class they don't care about helping the child grow..they just instal fear. They pick favourites, are biggots and completely judgmental.

This hell hole is so bad they even turned off reviews on Google website. I went to this school year 7-11 and it has probably been one of the worst experiences of my life.
For starters, students cannot behave well in class and yell and bully teachers. I had this behaviour in year 7-9 and some of year 10 and 11, and my parents sent multiple emails about this behaviour as we weren’t getting any work done. Teachers did nothing didn’t even try to exclude the stupid responsible for the disruptions even though she was also a bully towards anyone who wasn’t her friend. There are so many students who behave like literal bullies and don’t do any work in class and teachers don’t do anything. This affected me and my ability to learn.
In year 9 I had no English teacher for 5 months. We were learning the crucible which would be on our end of year exam and we had not read one scene form the play because we would only have substitute teachers. Then when we did get a teacher he was one of the rudest men I have ever met. He even yelled at me intront of the entire class because I apparently looked “depressed” and “bored” and had to learn how to look more interested and appear less lazy. Teacher are honestly so rude and act so entitled towards quieter students such as myself and don’t even question the louder students who throw insults their way every minute. Furthermore, for my last year of year 11 I had no chemistry teacher for 5 months even though my class was all failing chemistry and even though many students complained saying we needed a teachers and we even pointed out that the science department, even though had terrible teachers, had free period during our lesson time and could at least come in and teach us for an hour seeing as it’s gcse year. A bad teacher is better than no teachers because at least you feel like you’re doing something during lesson. It’s impossible to teacher yourself half the chem g se curriculums in the final year. My business teacher also took off 6 months before our exam and we had zero preparation for the exam. My physics teacher was comatose throughout majority of the year and I did nothing in her class because I’m not a qualified teacher mean while she was and yet did nothing but take phone class, sleep, or watch videos on her computer and had the audacity to get angry when we failed one of our mocks. Nice going. And yes we all complained and the headteachers just ignored us and told us we had to make do. Brilliant. My biology teacher locked a student out of class because and watched her trying to get into class. We were all shocked to say the least and even when the girl said that she was locked out of our gcse biology class two week before exams our head of year told her that next time she should be on time. As if a teacher preventing a student from learning is ok. And they also care more about your skirt length, especially right before your English literature exam and the teachers went round pulling girls jumpers up and making them unroll their skirts. The head teacher also screamed loudly at a year 10 girl because apparently she could see her knee caps and left the girl in tears. I was also forced to take business gcse when I was told I could drop it early on in the course if I wanted to. Tow week in and I asked to drop it and they said no. When I was in year 8 I was signed up for early entry music gcse; which I very much struggled with because what normal school forces a 13 year old girl to do her music gcse with only 1 hours lesson time a week. When my parents made a big enough fuss that they let me quit and the next year my music teacher locked me and him in a room and he proceeded to yell at me and call me unprofessional and useless and told me to get over myself. And to top it off there’s a pedo caretaker. He used to chase me and my friend and other girls in the school buildings during December when it was -5 outside and we weren’t aloud to wear coats or scarves or hats. He used to growl at us and walk right behind us until we got out of the school buildings. Not to mention the amount of physical fights that go on during school hours, so many fights were going on at once that the head teacher pulled the fire alarm and cause year 11 students to miss 2 hours of lesson time to stand in the cold while the whole school was lectured for something that was the year 9s fault. Honestly struggled immensely during GCSEs as I received no support and teachers slacked off . Due to my hard work I got these grades - 9988887665555. This was all due to my hard work and not the teachers plus my maths teacher told my class that we were useless and we were going to fail. I was getting 3 all year and got a six in the final exam after taking 15 sick days just to revise as I knew we weren’t going to do anything in class. This school should be ashamed, since the amount of times me and my friends cried together after school as we felt so unsupported and this isn’t I’m even half of what fucked up shit this school has done. I’m going to a different sixth form and I was called out of class and bombared by head of year and being told to stay and so we’re many other girls out of 250 girls in year 11 only 50 are staying that are internal and about 10 externals.

The Head teacher is a liability I don't know how she is still allowed to be a headteacher still the school has gone from outstanding to good under her charge say it all really...

bad safeguarding and all they care bout is skirt length and lanyards and they dont care for a student with issues and hiring bad teachers.

Worst experience of my life. I am currently in my last GCSE year and i've had quite literally no support from staff at all. firstly, my chemistry teacher went on jury duty for 3 months, and while there were about 7 other science teachers who weren't teaching other classes at the same time as my class they didn't teach us, instead my class and other classes had a cover teacher, and as a result majority of my year group has been failing in science, but especially chemistry. Next, my physics teacher, all year i have been teaching myself the entire content since the beginning of the GCSE course, but it was extremely tough in year 11 seeing as my physics teacher quite literally just sat at her desk or on her phone not doing anything. Then there are teachers who lock students out of class being they are late, in one of my classes the teacher did not like the student for whatever reason and locked the door and refused to let her in, taking away learning time for her and also us because we were being disrupted. in another class, my teacher has been absolutely terrible since the beginning, she gossips with girls in my class, talks about personal things like s*x and other topics that are just not appropriate. my teacher is in her mid forties and we are 16 year old girls. furthermore, this teacher quite literally did some girls' coursework for them, and they got the highest grades, meanwhile me and my friend received no support or help at all and scored a few points below them. in yet another class, my teacher has been repeatedly and constantly telling my class that we are all going to fail and that there's no point in doing any work, as a result i, along with others in my class have been struggling a lot this entire year. at the beginning of year 10, about 2 weeks into the year, i requested to switch one of my subjects, and the teacher refused, meanwhile, a girl who had been having issues wither her family and rarely came to school, was allowed to switch her subjects 3 months into the school year. next, another teacher randomly stopped coming to school, since January and up till May this year i have not had a teacher for a subject, we have not been told when she'll be back and as a result my entire class is struggling, meanwhile the other classes have support form their teachers. next up is the students. they vape during exams, and teachers say nothing to them, whereas they'll yell at the quiet girl if her skirt is 1 cm above her ankles. students also bring weed and other drugs to school and vape and smoke in the toilets. there are also rumours and gossip about girls having s*x in toilets, and going sexual things in the canteen, in class, and anywhere you can think of. also there is bullying that is blatantly obvious to teachers, and yet they do nothing, which is just disgusting. the caretaker at school also takes joy in chasing girls out of buildings, away from the heating and outside into the -5 degree celcius weather. even when snowing, teachers stay huddled up inside the staff room, stuffing their faces with warm food and drinks, meanwhile there's a canteen not big enough to hold all the 1500 students, and when we wish to stay inside we are chased out by the caretaker who once growled at me and my friends and came up very close to our personal space. also, because i am currently in year 11, we had meeting with out HOY and we were asked what we were planning to do for sixth form. majority of students have secured placements in other school, colleges and some even have apprenticeships, because the lack of education, security and safety, most wish to not stay here for another 2 years. i told my HOY that i was leaving and i was told that the other school i was applying to were exactly the same and that st phils, was the better school, whereas, my sister went to both st phils and another school i am applying to and she told me that st phils was by far the worst school she had ever been on. students are rude and abnoxious, teachers overlook the absolute b*tches and c*nts at my school and give them a pass for everything, whereas the students who only wish to get their work done suffer because teachers have no control over anything, and quite literally do not care. we were also told by the maths department, to only do the first 10 questions of our maths gcse paper in order to get a 4 and they refused to finish teaching the curriculum to some classes because they weren't smart enough and just wanted them to get a 4. we are also not allowed to have phones on us from 8:15 to 3, if they find a phone on you after invading you personal space and searching you bag with a metal detector, they take your phone away form you, and suspend you for however long they feel like. one girl in my class was upset because the HOY took her phone and when she got it back it was smashed and no longer working. lastly, they literally force you to lift up your jumper and unroll your skirt and watch you do it, apparently we all have really f*cking s*xy kneed that the teacher's can't control themselves last year during the heatwave where it was 40 degrees celcius, we were not allowed to wear tops past our elbows and we had to wear knee length shorts, might aswell just come in the uniform. since my time in year 9, there have been about 30 teacher who have left. wonder why? and now only the shitty teachers are left.

this school has gone downhill, i will not deny when i say that in year 7, it was a good school, however, since year 9 and 10 and now 11 it has been the worst experience of my life. i would not recommend sending your child here, pick another school, literally any other school. unless you want your daughter suffering form anxiety, depression suicidal thoughts or an eating disorder, bullying and extreme exam stress because she'll just be teaching herself anyway. might aswell just home school at this point. i hope you have fun choosing high school for your child. and if you do decide to send her here. good luck.

They have little to no respect for privacy in this school.Not only do they care more about the length of your skirt than the actual education.You are made to pull up your jumper to show that your skirts are unrolled mind you our shirts underneath are completey see through you are able to see your bra.This is with female and male staff this is not okay there are childs at the school, doesnt this seem weird?.St Philomenas say they care about your welfare and mental health but this is a blantant lie.The teachers (mostly head of year) do not take your problems seriously as a previous student I had some difficulties with some girls and this was not taken seriously when sent death threats and being harresed for a year and a half online and offline.The education is worse.The math department is so bad that the whole math deparment left and didn't want to come back.The set system is even worse in the fact that all sen kids get put into the bottom set with no extra support and because of that they are held behind.St Phils stops them from reaching their full potential.Top sets as they call them gets all the teachers who are capable in teaching the students something and I believe this was on purpose. They only care about the studets who willl get the best marks and show off this school.Jewelry is also a massive concern they believe that wearing earings, braclets and necklaces will distract you with the education they barely provide.There has also been very werid and pervy comments from memebers of staff about skirts eg roll down your skirt your legs are making me uncomfortable. This is not appropiate coming from an fully grown man to a girl who is under 16.With regard to lunch and where to sit may be even worse than the education.We got forced to sit outside in -5 weather because teacher couldn't be bothered make sure we were okay. Do you think this is okay for your students?. mutiple times my lesson has been stop and we have been make to take off our blazers open our bags infront of everyone for having a phone I get that phones are bad but i didn't want a fully grown woman to go through my bag then told to empty it out with the metal detector beeps over a zip . my privicy has been violated too many times this is not on.Mufti day is meant to be a day all studets enjoy but the 'rules' stop that.You are not allowed to wear leggins,ripped jeans, anything that shows your shoulders or stomach, shorts that are the cm above your knee, track suits, not allowed to wear skirts the list can go on. In deeper detail your are not allowed to wear theese because it can distracts our teachers and leggins because they 'show off your bum'. be better

I personally enjoy going here but that has a lot less to do with the school and a lot more to do with my personality and friends.

Negatives:
This school has little to no respect for privacy, searching lockers, bags and people at will, and revealing whatever sensitive information they obtain to parents or careers with little regard for the pupils wishes. There are plenty of teachers that couldn’t care less about what you learn and struggle to teach you the bare minimum to pass your exams. They pile endless homework on you on top of pressuring you to join extracurriculars leaving no time for you to have a life outside of school. The target grades they set in Year 7 are often unattainable or irrelevant as time moves on as they are based on your results in SATs you completed years prior. The school cares very little overall about mental health only paying attention to the few students whose learning difficulties are either very apparent or whose parents have called the school and asked for extra attention. I definitely think that they’re trying to improve. The school is really really strict (with skirt length, hairband colour, you name it).
The food’s not great however the waffles *chefs kiss* so good.

Positives:
I’m not sure how they managed but this school has a very good environment among the students. Almost all of us are friendly to each other and there are very few physical fights (when there are it’s normally among friends who’ve fallen out). New pupils often get accepted and “adopted” by a friendship group within a week of them joining. I haven’t witnessed any bullying myself (but I guess I don’t know for sure if any goes on). There are lots of extracurricular opportunities (I’ve done tennis, African drumming, chapel choir, Spanish twilight and Most Able myself) and they normally include days off of timetable prepping for some showcase or another which is lots of fun. There’s a good range of subjects available for GCSEs including Drama, Sociology, Health and Social Care, Business Studies etc. This is subjective I guess but as a Catholic school I think it does a good-ish job of maintaining their catholic morals and it definitely promotes the faith among the students through services and prayers and liturgies. It even has its own chapel and school deacon. Last thing is that the actual site is really pretty with big sprawling fields and huge buildings it’s quite picturesque. :)

They seem quite nice but the uniform I pray for lol. Whenever I get on the bus I'll sit with them if there's no other seats because they seem friendly.