Woodlands School at Hutton Manor

My daughter and my two step children all attended Woodlands. They started half days aged just 3 years, initially at Warley and then, for our convenience, we moved them across to Hutton Manor when it first opened. I am deeply saddened by the less favourable review on this site. Of course children have bad days at school and some are troubled more than others but on reflection, now, the proof is in the pudding; all three of our children left to get degrees and good jobs. However, Woodlands gave them far more than good grades and prospects; they gave them confidence to follow their inner dreams, determination to achieve, respect for themselves as well as manners and respectful and caring attitudes towards others and their environment. They are all professional and articulate. It is not until you are able to fully appreciate the end results that you can sit back and honestly say “Woodlands you were worth every penny, thank you!” Far more than just a good education. If i’m lucky enough to have a grand child or two I wouldn’t hesitate to do it all again.

Me and my wife have sent our son to this school since kindergarten, I have always been one to voice if i see room for improvement as I am the one who pays 6.5k per term to send him there. Small things like his face smothered in snot when he has a cold and not being bothered to help a 2 year old wipe his face down, coming out all wet on one occasion where a cover was not used during water play. Having a chess club for the money we are playing and so on.

Coming in reception now my son has been attacked numerous times by this one child. On the first occasion scratched face, second occasion bite on finger and now for the final and last time this kid has got so out of hand and the school fails to safeguard my child he has had a chunk of he hand bitten off.

Everytime my son pushes this kid it’s always been about the same reason being the lunch line, they have orders which they are meant to be in and this one kid keeps trying to push to the front hence why my son pushes him out the way. The teacher has expressed this to me and said she knows that Deen pushes people out of frustration of being aggravated which is understandable from a 4 year old hence why we have teachers to correctly teach them how to manage them emotions.

Kids will be kids I understand this but when a kid attacks your child numerous times and finally bites his hand off where is the safeguarding at this point especially being a class of 10 students absolutely ridiculous.

So as being a parent which is distraught about tho situation, with high emotions have contacted the school and I would say have had a go at them with all the rights to. They have told me to come in and sit with the head and deputy head.

So now I have gone in and the 2 heads are there and also another lady which o have found out now to be the directors daughter and safeguarding officer. She was extremely rude to me and not sympathetic at all towards my situation, when I said I will sue them for this if no action is taken her response was well we all have lawyers and if you don’t like it why don’t you just leave . So as the meeting was going on she kept laughing at me and my response to her was i don’t want to talk as your coming across very passive aggressive and unprofessional and you can carry on laughing as much as you want.

Moving forward I gave them a chance and said look we all make mistakes as humans, businesses and we can learn something and move forward as I’ve realised by now there will be no disciplinary action taken as in a certain extent I can understand as it is a 4 year old. Also i mentioned this I asked them the question on whose fault was it? It is obviously not the 4 year olds fault he is a child, it is the schools fault for not safeguarding properly and lack of discipline at home. And not to forget this action of biting a kids hand of has been building up so doesn’t surprise me of the child’s actions. So we left it as that and shook hands of course I refused to shake hands of the person who was belittling me the directors daughter.

Moving forward now I receive a email on Sunday night reading, in the lines of I am apparently aggressive and a threat to teachers and children and I am not allowed to drop my son off and pick him up, the teachers are very aware I live around a 40min drive away and have been the responsible adult for school runs since kindergarten and my wife cannot do the runs. Seems to me like they were looking for an excuse to get rid of me and my son mainly.

So I have asked for a meeting about this as this is not possible for us as a family. The head has set up a meeting for us with director now and me and my wife have gone in on Monday 29th January 2024. The head the directors daughter and the director himself were present at this time. I have gone in there after calming down over the weekend about this situation and first thing have apologised if I came across strong they were also aware of some family issues we have had on the same week which I don’t want go into but was very traumatising for us as a family.

So I have said my bit now apologised and now the director speaks. He says I am a threat to the parents, staff and Children and everyone is afraid of me, he called me mad and crazy and accused me of taking drugs on the day of the meeting. He also used the point that apparently I am the only person that drives like a lunatic on the car park which is absolutely false along with all the other accusations he was not sympathetic once to my self and did not even apologise about the point of why this is happening. It feels like to me as soon as I spoke about lawyers they started making all this stuff about me. So now he has stuck to what he has emailed initially and wants me to carry on paying them fees but I not allowed to have the beauty of picking and dropping my son off.

I am truly disappointed and shocked at this discrimination against me and would rather stand for what’s right than be a on the wrong side just to fit in. They have been wanting to get rid of me for ages and have also brang this up in the meeting where they said I was always aggressive apparently, what because I voiced things about things that them as the people I’m trusting to look after my so. Should be doing like helping a 2 year old put on his buttons and wipe his face for him and help him tie his shoe laces I value my money and will always want value for what I am paying for. In this regard it seems like they can do whatever to your child and you have to accept it. I have spoken to parents about being afraid of me and they said don’t be silly your a lovely person. I hope this will reach parents that are considering there child going there don’t let the high prices make you think this is something, they cannot look after 10min properly and safe guard them what does that tell you.