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Wildern School
Secondary · Academy · Southampton
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My terrible experience at Wildern
This is sad
I hate it here it stinks the food is expensive and dry and bad and everyone hates gays and they’re racist
Year 11
Go deer park
I hate this school and I’m glad I’m leaving thank god lol they don’t care about their students, teachers cuss at students, teachers say the n word?? It’s ridiculous. Whole school is full of naughty kids who don’t get punished properly
absolutely vile school !!!
As a former student at Wildern i can definitely confirm that this is the worse school ever. I was bullied by another student from year 7-11 and nothing was done about it as i was told by edwina fearon that it was just ‘banter’ when it was bullying. My friend got screamed at down the corridor by our head of year whilst there were classes going on. this is disgusting! The safeguarding team were not helpful at all, you could speak to them however they would just send you back to class and not do anything about it. As someone who struggled with anxiety i felt unsupported and not safe at school. I was not heard at all and had to find help outside of the school as nothing was done about it. The students were told by teachers roughly what to say to ofsted just to make the school have a higher achievement. Some teachers were nice however the stricter ones made it difficult to go and attend their classes. After 2 years of leaving this school i can definitely confirm that it feels so much better rather than being trapped in the school like it’s a prison! If you are thinking about sending your children to this school please consider all the faults that this school has and if it’s really suitable for your child. The 5 years when i was at school was hell and no support was given at all. The school itself is unsafe and you can easily just walk in and out with no one actually noticing you are gone. They do nothing to help students as they are more worried about the appearance of the school (uniform) and their ofsted report. Your feelings are invalid at this place and i highly doubt your child will be heard as teachers just care about grades. One time i was searched by student services because apparently they told me i was a risk to other students I was searched by a male teacher at the school which i did not give consent to at all. They also call parents for no reason as they can’t deal with situations themselves. Edwina fearon the head of year was verbally abusive to students and came across as an absolute control freak. She accused students of doing things just to make herself look good. If you are joining wildern in september 2024 you will get the same head of year so really consider opening more choices for your child.
Student In Process Of Transferring Elsewhere
THE TRUTH BEHIND THE SO CALLED: “PRESTIGIOUS PERFORMING ARTS SCHOOL”
As a student at Wildern School for now, I am currently in the process of transferring schools. This school has done nothing but hurt my Mental Health, in ways it is so hard to describe, and bullying is endless while the resolutions are a constant let-down. Teachers, especially Heads of Years, believe their job is to make the school look good, and do not care or pay any mind to the students who get hurt in the process. We recently had an Ofsted inspection and whilst it pins me to say this, because I love the classes and friendships the school has to offer, it’s safe to say they were not pleased. Before this inspection we were instructed to watch a 25 minute long video, in which something along the lines of the following was said: “We have an opportunity to showcase our school, so if they pull you out of lessons, you can tell them all about how bullying is rare and how many clubs there are and how safe you feel.” I personally feel bullying is everywhere, they refuse to support female association in clubs and I do not at all feel safe. I speak for so many people when I talk of the days I have come home in tears because this school has stressed me to the point of anxiety attacks, and bullying has added to how alone and scared I have felt. For me, my experience at Wildern so far has been nothing short of appalling.
Do not risk it
It sucks the life out of the children.. teachers lie and taunt the kids, reprimanded for nothing, support is limited too many children , if I could choose again I would never send my children here.
Deez/nuts
Sands hndertal
The school is bad becus mr hinks looked at my serch hist or eee and say sands undertsle deltsrune and sed "BAD TIME SIMULATOR" rely loud in moral stud ies
DO NOT SEND YOUR KIDS FOR THIS GOD FORSAKEN SCHOOL!!!!
please for the love of god dont send you kids to this completely sh1t school, racism, homophobia, bullying and mental health problems they claim to have covered but from personal experience they do absolutely nothing about
awful
bad school, do not go here it is awful. Claim to care about our health but mainly serve unhealthy food. i used to be vegetarian and could never find good food without meat. if you're in year 6 and are coming here ask ur parents to exchange schools. Honestly awful, do not do anything useful with bullying. My mate was bullied once and they got her to write a book of everything they said. SLT should be nicer and more likeable so people actually want to talk to them. School counsellor also awful, kept interrupting and in general just not understanding. the teachers know everything (bullying, people talking badly abt others in their lessons, racism, homophobia in lessons ect.) and don't tell anyone. don't pay attention to their students (they just keep talking through the lesson without noticing if ur zoned out or if someone's being horrible to you in lesson) the teachers see the school as a job not a literal life changing experience for their students. a teacher constantly has scars on their wrists (self-harm) and wears short sleeved dressers that go up to the point in their arm where you can see it. They are also just a really bad teacher, spends 30 mins doing the 5 question starter, never shuts up and actually teaches and has a tapestry that is commonly associated with witchcraft in their room which i have no issue with but I'm sure religious people could feel uncomfortable about it. overall the school is awful please do not make ur kid come here. some aprts are ok though, some teachers are genuinely alright and most lessons are just what you'd expect from a school like Wildern, but overall I'd reccomend stay away from here at least until they get better which I'm sure they will after a bit of a reality check.
frogot to add this but they use hashtags for their school phrases which i think is just really weird, like they're trying to relate to us but in the crigiest way ever, for example #itsnotok is to say it is not ok to "sa" or "grape" someone but that is such a serious topic and it was turned into a joke by most of the school because of the #. they should definitely stop this cause no one is taking anything they say seriously because they made it funny. I think the teachers should be more professional as well. the #'s are just one part of it. I get education for life or pe lessons being fun and funny and stuff but nothing else really needs to be. it makes people not really care about their education cause the teachers don't care either. and i get u want your lessons to be fun for everyone but we're their to learn not to have a banter with our teachers, it takes away our respect for them.
frogot to add this but they use hashtags for their school phrases which i think is just really weird, like they're trying to relate to us but in the crigiest way ever, for example #itsnotok is to say it is not ok to "sa" or "grape" someone but that is such a serious topic and it was turned into a joke by most of the school because of the #. they should definitely stop this cause no one is taking anything they say seriously because they made it funny. I think the teachers should be more professional as well. the #'s are just one part of it. I get education for life or pe lessons being fun and funny and stuff but nothing else really needs to be. it makes people not really care about their education cause the teachers don't care either. and i get u want your lessons to be fun for everyone but we're their to learn not to have a banter with our teachers, it takes away our respect for them.
Year
Rlly bad
This school is bloody awfull they’re really bad with neurodiverse children and they are sexist and racist and homophobic
Disgraceful neglect to student’s!!
This school is absolutely vile !! I was being peer pressured and exploited and I was the one to blame ! I turned to them for help when I was going through mental and physical abuse at home and they did NOTHING ! They called me a “compulsive liar” and I still faced years of abuse at home after they kicked me out as I made plenty of cries for help and they were “fed up of dealing with me”. Only 4 years down the line have I been able to talk about the amount of trauma I’ve been through and this school shut me away!!! THEY DO NOT CARE ABOUT THEIR STUDENTS!!! Forbid if you send your child here they ARE NOT SAFE !
Don’t send your kids here
Horrific school treat students horribly don’t care about students mental health at all bullying is a huge problem and that’s from personal experience and they are terrible at dealing with problems or incidents they seem to care more about uniform then student wellbeing 100% do not recommend this school
do not send your children here
as a former student of wildern school, i can safely say it was the worst 5 years of my life. half the teachers are amazing, my all time favourite was Mrs Chandler in student services and this one english teacher, other than that the teachers were unbelievably strict and down right rude!!! being told to buy a printer so i can print off homework at home by my 10 & 11 science teacher, being told to buy better shoes by my head of year when my parents had next to nothing for money!!! it was disgusting. i suffered from bullying from year 7 through to year 11 and what was done about it? nothing!! i suffered from online bullying and told it was my fault because i put my self out on social media and should expect to be bullied online!!! i was always told that the student would be spoken to in order to stop the bullying but it just continued and got worse. in year 11 i was sexually harassed by 2 boys in my science class, they said the boys would be spoken to. and they were, but they expected ME, the victim, to move seats or classes because of what they had done to me.
mostly new (untrained) teachers at wildern could not control the class, it was like a room of wild animals!!! i had cleaning products sprayed on me, books thrown at me, chairs too and because the teacher was new he couldn’t control the class for the life of him. i felt bad for him. i knew someone that accused a teacher for sleeping with her to get a good grade, guess what wildern did? yep!!! nothing!! spoke to the girl and her parents and still kept her in this poor man’s class!!!!
i could go on with the amount of stories i have of this hell hole, but please if you know what is good for your child (and their mental health!!) do not send them to wildern. it’s possibly the worst school you could send them too. even my parents regret sending me there and sent my sister to another school due to my experience!!
mostly new (untrained) teachers at wildern could not control the class, it was like a room of wild animals!!! i had cleaning products sprayed on me, books thrown at me, chairs too and because the teacher was new he couldn’t control the class for the life of him. i felt bad for him. i knew someone that accused a teacher for sleeping with her to get a good grade, guess what wildern did? yep!!! nothing!! spoke to the girl and her parents and still kept her in this poor man’s class!!!!
i could go on with the amount of stories i have of this hell hole, but please if you know what is good for your child (and their mental health!!) do not send them to wildern. it’s possibly the worst school you could send them too. even my parents regret sending me there and sent my sister to another school due to my experience!!
It’s alright
Some of the teachers are absolutely incredible, however they do nothing to help people with mild learning difficulties
Its an okay school.
I cannot judge the school as i have only been here a few months. The school so far is amazing and the food is great but....
~ The queues for food are very long and it takes almost all of your break to get to the till. When you finally get there, everything is gone and only drinks are available
~ Bullying seems well-dealt with but I've heard from friends that their siblings were genuinely injured whilst at Wildern.
Like i said, cannot judge. I do think the school can improve but there is always room for improvement.
~ The queues for food are very long and it takes almost all of your break to get to the till. When you finally get there, everything is gone and only drinks are available
~ Bullying seems well-dealt with but I've heard from friends that their siblings were genuinely injured whilst at Wildern.
Like i said, cannot judge. I do think the school can improve but there is always room for improvement.
Bullying at the school
Bullying is so common in this school. I was bullied personally and the school doesn't care whatsoever. They care more about uniform more than the students' mental health and education. In the past week there has been so many fights and the school punishes people who were there more than the people who are involved. This school makes pupils afraid to come in.
wildern school
don’t do nothing about bullying at the school, always fights or antisocial behaviours. Many students feel unsafe going to this school as don’t know what could happen as teachers sit and watch bullying/fights happen and don’t do anything about it
wow! this is good
amazing school LOVE IT
idk
only like pe
i only like pe thats it and thats only thing good
Wildern academy of performing arts
Ex student
Worst school ever been to they dont sell healthy food they care more about your unifiform than homiphobia or rasism sexual ausalt never matters to them and when ofstead came my teacher got mad st me because I told the truth about wildern student services is fake and self centered they don't help they make you feel bad bout the situation .
Don't go
This school is good in terms of education, but lacks other things. Bullying, racism and homophobia is everywhere, and nothing is done about it. Some students are horrible but barely get punishment.
Get it sorted
I struggled in school because I didn’t understand I would idk but even a teacher explaining wouldn’t help but in that school they make you feel so rubbish about yourself that you don’t want to be in that school. They don’t care about the less academic pupils and they don’t understand the students that struggle. Teachers at wildern feel so entitled to something their not for example taking phones! So what if I have my phone out to check the time because I can guarantee that every student in that school has seen a teacher on their phone! The school is full of Hypocrites that we all call teachers or roll modals all I can say is that with that school it’s one rule for one and not the other. There is: favouritism in students and also the teachers are never in the wrong with is rubbish because we all know something bad slips out there mouth. My heart goes out to any student that feels like rubbish in that school!
Don’t let the reputation of this school fool you: It’s not real!
This school is terrible. All they care about is maintaining their false reputation with OFSTED. In my year alone there has been countless sexual assaults in which the perpetrators are not punished, but instead protected.
There is a MAC programme (more able children) in which they meet every Friday and give special lessons to help these students achieve top grades. The people are selected in year 7. It doesn’t make sense as to why these lessons aren’t available to all students. The only reason this group is a thing is to make sure that the children who are guaranteed the highest grades secure them. There is no programme to help underachieving students! Wildern is atrocious at dealing with poor behaviour, drugs and vapes are dealt onsite, bullying is prevalent. Yet all Wildern cares about is getting good reviews and enforcing uniform rules.
OFSTED visited the school a few weeks ago. Previously to this visit, 1 set of toilets were open for all 2100 students to stop ‘truanting’. This obviously did not stop it as people skipped lessons in the only toilets open.. so students were forced to wait upwards of 10 minutes to use the bathroom. Additionally, there were no ‘rights respecting’ posters on the walls- yet miraculously, the day of the OFSTED inspection they were in every classroom and all toilets were open. The school received countless complains about the toilet ban, yet it was only changed when OFSTED came in.
There are hundreds of seagulls everyday around campus, yet students must stand outside. To the school’s defense, they have tried to reduce littering across the school to stop this. In addition, the school is always open to allow people to enter the leisure centre. This means that anyone can enter the school under false pretences: many ex students who have been excluded have re-entered the school by just wearing school uniforms…
Most teachers at Wildern are great, but it takes tens of complaints for a teacher to be looked into. As well as this, teachers do not appropriately handle bullying and usually ignore it.
It seems that every term Wildern increases their food prices, attempting to make it subtle, whilst decreasing portion sizes and availability. There are rarely healthy options, with cookies, flapjacks, brownies, muffins and cakes on the tills to persuade children to buy unhealthy snacks with their food. A small portion of chips (at the time of writing this) is £2.00! A panini (around 8 inches in length) is £2.20.
In conclusion, this school is not as appears. Do not let the reputation bribe you into sending your children here. Of course things like bullying happen in every school sadly, yet Wildern’s rate of bullying is off the scale. Sometimes assemblies are held asking students to deal with these issues themselves as it is overwhelming for the teachers to have to deal with.
There is a MAC programme (more able children) in which they meet every Friday and give special lessons to help these students achieve top grades. The people are selected in year 7. It doesn’t make sense as to why these lessons aren’t available to all students. The only reason this group is a thing is to make sure that the children who are guaranteed the highest grades secure them. There is no programme to help underachieving students! Wildern is atrocious at dealing with poor behaviour, drugs and vapes are dealt onsite, bullying is prevalent. Yet all Wildern cares about is getting good reviews and enforcing uniform rules.
OFSTED visited the school a few weeks ago. Previously to this visit, 1 set of toilets were open for all 2100 students to stop ‘truanting’. This obviously did not stop it as people skipped lessons in the only toilets open.. so students were forced to wait upwards of 10 minutes to use the bathroom. Additionally, there were no ‘rights respecting’ posters on the walls- yet miraculously, the day of the OFSTED inspection they were in every classroom and all toilets were open. The school received countless complains about the toilet ban, yet it was only changed when OFSTED came in.
There are hundreds of seagulls everyday around campus, yet students must stand outside. To the school’s defense, they have tried to reduce littering across the school to stop this. In addition, the school is always open to allow people to enter the leisure centre. This means that anyone can enter the school under false pretences: many ex students who have been excluded have re-entered the school by just wearing school uniforms…
Most teachers at Wildern are great, but it takes tens of complaints for a teacher to be looked into. As well as this, teachers do not appropriately handle bullying and usually ignore it.
It seems that every term Wildern increases their food prices, attempting to make it subtle, whilst decreasing portion sizes and availability. There are rarely healthy options, with cookies, flapjacks, brownies, muffins and cakes on the tills to persuade children to buy unhealthy snacks with their food. A small portion of chips (at the time of writing this) is £2.00! A panini (around 8 inches in length) is £2.20.
In conclusion, this school is not as appears. Do not let the reputation bribe you into sending your children here. Of course things like bullying happen in every school sadly, yet Wildern’s rate of bullying is off the scale. Sometimes assemblies are held asking students to deal with these issues themselves as it is overwhelming for the teachers to have to deal with.
Not the worst but wouldn’t recommend
Gum everywhere, rats and seagulls everywhere, bad at handling mental health and bullying, kids descriminate a lot, racism and homophobia, overpriced food, fights, disruptive kids, litter, fair amount of unfair teachers, vandalism, don’t recommend
year 10 student
i hate it here
they don’t do anything about racism, the teachers are horrible and care more about your skirt length than the people saying racist/homophobic things.
Don't bother
Nah, don't bother. In yr 11 now, have been bullied my whole time there and nothing has been done. Trash everywhere, Kids doing the Nazi salute, throwing slurs around left and right with no consequence. Yr 7s and 8s trading vapes on site. Tens of toilets on site, only one open, queues last half your lesson. Most good teachers also agree that the school sucks. Most teachers are lovely, but any higher (head of years etc) are just nasty (with exceptions). Not used to students not putting up with their.. stuff. If your kid is a minority in any way, don't send them here. They'd be better off in a prison probably. I could go on for hours.
Just a bad school in general
The kids take drugs, a teacher pulled down a girls skirt, we stabbed a police officer there's fights everyday.
Just don't bother. (I am a student)
Just don't bother. (I am a student)
Avoid.
This school has done nothing but cause numerous problems for me and so many other people. It's either "Oh you go to wildern? That's an outstanding school!" or "Oh.... You go to wildern? I'm so sorry-". Almost everything the school says to parents are LIES. As a student I'm always promised so many things which then aren't provided to me. The school counselling system is dreadful, student services hardly do anything and the school is way too overpopulated. They punish the innocent, give negative erefs to students who can't help things like missing homework due to mental health with a valid reason. Yet they don't punish the students who deal drugs and vapes inside the school which is plastered in CCTV which the school spends "hours looking through". Toilets are vandalised with comments on how the school has made the mental health worse, prefects get assaulted on duties which is completely ignored and dealing with sexual assault and bullying is unheard of for Wildern. The slogan "#itsnotok" was setup to combat sexual assault which it has failed at completely. Posters are all around the school regarding it making it such a depressing environment, it's everywhere you look. There's CCTV in the toilets which you can see from the stall and all the school cares about is its reputation and uniform. The school is so open due to its leasure centre people just walk in freely and cause problems in the blocks, it's unsafe. Do not go here.
Awful - would not recommend
Terrible, unprofessional school, embedded bullying by staff towards pupils, staff do not care about mental health of pupils and absurd obsession over uniform!! Alongside having CCTV in the toilets which I find very bizarre.
Disgusted
Disgusted is mild, today driving past watching poor young ladies trying to pull their skirts down, I went to this School a few years ago now and we would have been expelled had we worn such short skirts. With Up Skirting a Hot topic, was shocked and concerned for these girls. For goodness sakes, if one of these girls was sexually attacked would the court say it was her fault for wearing a short skirt.
This school needs to look at the uniform and address it ASAP, Whoever designed this is a pedophile and for governors to agree it they are no better.
You should be ashamed!!!
This school needs to look at the uniform and address it ASAP, Whoever designed this is a pedophile and for governors to agree it they are no better.
You should be ashamed!!!
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As of July, I still hadn't had my Duke of Edinburgh Bronze award, I paid a lot of money to sign onto this, and I did it through school because of a bad experience doing it elsewhere. I was told by my group leader, at the beginning of year 11 that I had done everything I needed to complete my award and I saw that all 4 sections (the volunteering, physical, skills and expedition) had been completed, so I left it and focused on my exams. Then, after I had completed my exams and had left school, they decided that I hadn't actually done enough and un-completed my award without my knowledge. Then, after I realised this, I tried to reach out to my group leader and the teacher in charge of DofE at Wildern via my school email and got no response, despite the fact years 7-10 were still in school so they were still actively checking emails. I then got everything that was asked of me sorted out and sent comments on the DofE app and used the contact my leader function to reach out and still have had not even had a response. I have reached out every day for 5 days now, and I haven't had a response from any of them or had any of the 3 sections of my award completed. This is ridiculous as I have started college, and I am still having to deal with problems Wildern has caused, which seems to be a running trend. as of the 23rd of September, I have now received my DofE award because I reached out directly to DofE and they had to bypass my leaders to approve my award. And I still have had no communication from my group leaders in response to my extensive attempts to reach out to them since leaving school.
There are very few good things I can say about Wildern, but the medical staff were wonderful to me and helped massively to get through school, and my tutor towards the end of school was a massive help to deal with the problems Wildern was causing.