The Appleton School

Please do not even think about sending your child to this school. Absolutely no structure. My child is having to have over 5 hours of private tutoring a week to help get her through her exams because there are no teachers. More interested in promoting the type of shoes children your child wears than actually teaching them.

Not even worth one star

Ex student that left this summer, firstly a lot of the teachers in the school often believe that they are better than the students and will just be rude for no reason, giving random and unfair detentions etc, teachers also set unnecessary work and give little amount of independence to us, yet they will call us “young adults”. We wasn’t allowed a study leave which I thought was vital to helping me with GCSEs, so I just didn’t bother coming in because I felt in those lessons we literally done nothing. There are some great departments within the school while some are not great and will force your child to do work that they are not ready for yet, this is especially apparent in the maths department. They do not teach any of the fundamentals of maths and just go straight to the higher and difficult areas which did confuse and worry me especially before my GCSEs, this may be because of CAPE which is a complete waste of time which sat students of different abilities in a classroom and everyone had to do the same work. Teachers at the school is probably the main problem, I was a well behaved student at the school and completed my work, however I was called “Lazy” and “Useless” by some teachers which really isn’t a good way to help children to succeed.

The school has also tried to implement so many new rules that we students must follow, this wouldn’t be a problem but at one point it seems like new rules were added every week just due to poor staff handling. There is also very little positive things and we were only noticed if we done something bad. I think the school needs more positive things and allow the students more freedom.

I wouldn’t recommend taking your child to this school

A job was advertised for Appleton school I was texted to come for an interview turned up and when I went into the room for the interview the area manager was talking to a girl in a foreign language that I could not understand I was told to sit down and he carried on talking in this foreign language I sat there like an idiot then he asked me if I wanted the job then I was shown the door so my whole experience was racist he did not want English white locals as I went for an interview he did not talk to me ask me any questions about my previous experience did not explain what the job entails he just walked me to the door and showed me out and that was it but while I was there was talking to the other girl in-depth in his own language so to me he did not want white locals.

Quite frankly, since the new headteacher took over in 2021 the school has gone downhill in behaviour and teachers. The school has several behavioural issues and teachers only drag on about it in assemblies which solves nothing. How conflict is handled is only good if the teachers like you enough to take your complaints seriously.
Certain teachers are inadequate and only a handful of teachers listen to students and their problems. Many teachers, especially in the maths department, do not respond to the needs of students and force students to complete higher level work without being taught the material adequately. This is done solely to attempt to increase the reputation of the teachers.
Students are treated quite unfairly due to behaviour of staff and which stretch to unfair usage of the behaviour policy. Staff have also enforced unfair policies such as ‘no seeing the nurse during lessons’ unless you have been sick, about to faint or are seriously ill. A number of staff have also cussed at students and a dinner lady once forced a student to take his phone out of his pocket on suspicion that he was playing a loud and annoying noise which only she could hear. Other staff members in the so-called behaviour department have also requested to search through students phones under suspicions that cannot be proven.
Teachers also revert to shouting at students in assemblies as a whole year group to discuss issues regarding behaviour and punctuality. Phrases including swear words have been used and a particular ‘safeguarding’ teacher once said that he did not think he deserved to be at the school.
Police have been called to the school several times regarding a large range of issues, including verbal and physical fighting.
The school gives decent grades but overall mental well-being is bad, staff abuse power frequently and equality between students and adults is almost non existent with the exception of a few good teachers. Over five years there, my school experience significantly worsened and I feel let down by those with so called responsibility. Students are frequently shouted at for community misbehaviour when teacher instances are mainly ignored except in extreme circumstances.

Overall good school , met so many good teachers and friends there - i overall enjoyed my experience there