Upton Hall School FCJ

Excellent, past pupil myself and my 2 daughters both attend the school. Both girls have thrived academically, have represented the school many times in both sporting and academic competitions. They enjoy learning, have a lovely friendship group and on the whole have nurturing and enthusiastic teachers who motivate the girls to be the best they can. Both daughters have had really loved their time at Upton as have their friends and if your child is academic wouldn't hestiate in recommending the school. So many past pupils send their daughters here and many teachers are also past pupils which demonstrates how much of a family the school is. Feel very lucky that both girls have had this experience.

terrible at handling neurodivergent kids. instead of actually putting through my autism referral, they left it on a desk for months. they care more about money and exam results than their actual students.

It is a beautiful school. Lovely buildings and the history of the school is always taught in depth. Plenty of extracurriculars to choose from. Uniform is always worn with pride.Absolutely amazing school. Only thing I find troublesome is the push to join extracurriculars.

Not only do we learn our subjects, we learn life lessons and how to be better people. I 100% recommend this school!

Realistically the staff do not properly address serious issues however they are good educators (with the exception of some English and science teachers) and they enabled me to get 8s and 9s in GCSEs. There is a heavy workload and lots of pressure on the students however many adapt and learn to thrive but if you are unable to cope I do not recommend it. The mental health support is present but not up to standard, there is little confidentiality and students with extra requirements or neurodivergency are not well supported. The school has definitely improved in recent years but friendly reminder that during the most stressful time of year 11, in the weeks before GCSEs, the headteacher told them that they shouldn't complain as they didn't have guns to their head in Afghanistan or Ukraine and should get on with it.

However that said there are some teachers that are very friendly and open to supporting, for example, LGBTQ+ students, neurodivegent students and all others, mainly those in the history and maths departments. Despite many male teachers enforcing the strict uniform rules a little too enthusiastically (and one science teacher informing a student he could see her bra through her shirt), the majority of the male teachers are in fact not creepy and are very professional. There is a good atmosphere and standard of teaching. I have left the school now but would recommend it for students willing to work hard and who can cope well with stress.

Note: the cafeteria has on numerous occasions had poor standards including rats, uncooked food and mould so I'd personally recommend only purchasing from the grab and go pre-packaged food to be safe !!

school can’t handle bullying or anyone with any type of neurodivergency, students are placed under immense pressure to perform well. some teachers are incredibly rude through email. skirt length is so important apparently, if it isn’t at your knee you will be asked to roll it down. what makes this worse is that it’s an all girls school and it’s also male teachers checking your skirt is down enough. students suffer severely with mental health issues due to feeling inadequate for the standards of the school and the counsellor does nothing about it.
overall, pretty poor experience, the education was okay though.

Would I recommend this school? Erm, no. Did I enjoy my time there? Also, no. Yes some of the kids get good grades but is the cost of your health really worth getting a 7 in RE. Basically, there is no way that you can care for your mental health and academic studies if you go to Upton. They care little about students that have mental health struggles, if you have a condition on the autism spectrum or if you need extra support in lessons and exams. With regards to uniform, school rules and the way the school is run, you would think it is a school in the 1800s, it really is stuck in the dark ages. The school also refuse to change even when some students feel physically uncomfortable and embarrassed the whole day with wearing a skirt, it doesn’t keep up with modern times and how people have different gender identities. During a school week, year 11 were told that they should be attending at least an hour of extra curricular activities per week but also given three to four pieces of homework a day taking up about three hours and then to do two hours of revision on top of that. There is no time allowed for personal commitments or issues as your whole life is expected to revolve around school. Since leaving the school, present students I know from several year groups have informed me that the workload has since increased with no extra support from the school and even little regard for life outside of school. It is absolutely ridiculous to expect a child to be able to keep up with what this school wants. They are also told to be mature because we are becoming young adults but talk down to us, belittle us and treat us like young children/toddlers. There aren’t many positives about this school at all, apart from some of the staff being friendly but unfortunately not in a position to make any change to the school. I would not recommend sending your child here as it is not the place it makes out to be on open evenings. Save yourself, your daughters and your friends while you can and DO NOT SEND THEM HERE!!

The school only cares about league tables , if you’re not academically clever / high achieving they don’t care about you because you’re not gonna make the school stand out from other schools grade wise when it comes to opening days and looking for new students, they don’t care about bullying and don’t do anything to sort / stop it. They also don’t know how to cope with learning disabilities especially adhd / autism, they label these children as naughty and try there best to hide them from ofsted inspections. If you value your child don’t send them here. Yes other schools have bullying problems but they try to sort them out not turn a blind eye to it . Everything is about religion and yes I respect the fact it is a religious school but it’s 2021 they need to respect the fact that not everyone is as religious as they are, they preach about these fcj values and how all students should use/ practice them but hardly any of the teachers use them especially SLT , they’ve threatened to kick year 12s out of they don’t pass mocks , yet again this is proof all they care about is grades and not the well-being of there students, for the younger years they’re more concerned about appearance rather than the struggles that go hand and hand with puberty and growing up, no sympathy for the students who have divorced parents and are more likely to forget books and homework due to going back and forth from there parents home.this is only the tip of the iceberg the only good thing about this school is the food and the free sanitary products for less fortunate kids

Really bad with mental health and they make everything about religion and God. All teachers comment on skirt length even male teachers. They banned girls going to the toilet other than break or lunch and have put cameras in the toilets. If you forget a book or have incorrect uniform then you are given an after school detention. The teachers don't care about the students at all.