The Joseph Whitaker School

Unfortunately this school is not recommended, care more about school uniform policy which is ridiculous in this day and age than the education of the children dont let you child accidently ladder there tights or forget to take there pandora bracelet life wont be worth living for they will miss a full day of education for that . Conduct of higher level management inappropriate, lie through there teeth. Dont expect to be able to do a full weeks work without multiple calls about minor things you would think life or death. Dont care about bullying or kids they need a extra help.

Go elsewhere if you can

My experience here through GCSEs and now my A levels has been pretty much utterly horrible. I have a vast variety of stories to tell but for the most part I'll focus on like 2.

Throughout year 10 I was going through the darkest points in my mental health and as such, school did barely anything, they'd shove me to the back of classrooms for not engaging in lessons I cleary didn't understand and requested help in, and would treat me like a failure and like I was misbehaving. No matter how many tests I did poorly in, they'd punish me and just express dissapointment, no offer of help and no care at all. My technology teacher was the only good teacher I've ever encountered in my school and I'm so pleased to have her again for my A levels.

My other story is my experience with student support centre (the area for students with special educational needs). With this area, your either a favorite or an outsider. I would be made to feel extremely uncomfortable in there when I would go for help with my dyslexia or to get books for my lessons because they didn't see me everyday and looked and behaved like a 'normal' student. My younger brother (currently year 11) went in there for his first day of year 7 to meet the staff due to his aspergers syndrome and wanting to know where help was if he needed it, to be met with a shouting teacher and to be told he was not wcome and wasn't deserving of their time and help.
And for the favorites you might ask, they get away with everything, they could kill, maim, be child predators in a way and they'd get out of everything. One of the students who has fortunately left used to send pictures of *** ***** ****** *** ****** (in yr 11) to all the students his age or below, and would pretend to be a doctor in the hopes of seeing***** ********, upon showing screenshots of his pictures and screenshots of him calling and showing it, alongside his letters, the staff would refuse to do anything and say 'he doesn't understand' not telling his parents or trying to teach him why it's wrong or why he shouldn't do it.

So yea needless to say my experience here was not great, I wouldn't recommend sending your kids here. Put it this way, I'm borderline 18 and can't wait to go to uni next year, to hopefully finally have a positive idea of education and to spend an academic year not planning ways to commit suicide.

Thanks for listening to me Ted talk 😅

Really did not enjoy my experience here. Absolutely no support for mental health. I found myself and many others I know of having panic attacks, anxiety attacks, and crying in the school toilets.
Treats students like animals rather than human beings.
Only positives is that there are inclusive toilets and some of the teachers are decent.

Overall my experience at this school was great. I achieved very highly in my GCSEs, but unfortunately I felt let down
Mental health support was not something they were good at, particularly if someone was having a rough day due to depression or anxiety. Many kids labelled as “naughty”- even though they were having a rough day
I also didn’t feel challenged by some teachers. My background may have been a reason, as I come from a very low income family and so the stigma is that I won’t do well. Challenged in English, but nothing else. Favouritism in performing arts
Anyways, overall the school was good and I achieved well in my gcses