Bartley Green School

"BGS provided me with a range of opportunities to help me grow and develop, such as partaking in music evenings, open events, fundraisers, Pride Group etc. The teachers were more than supportive and genuinely wanted me to succeed and were there to pick me up when I fell. I always held very good relationships with each of my teachers and will miss them all terribly."

"Now currently studying at the University of Birmingham, I can honestly say BGS was a huge part in my success. Not only did the teachers help set me up with the crucial skills I needed in order to gain my position in such a good university, it opened my eyes to what I was capable of. I still use the skills to construct my academic essays now. Not only was the academic side crucial but having the opportunity in extra curricular was phenomenal. I had the chance to join book club and a variety of sports sessions such as netball and badminton (which at university I still continue to do). In addition, I am the eldest of four and all of us have had our journeys through this school. My brother has just started university himself and my sister is in the process of applying now. Even now the youngest is still going through his journey and he is thriving."

"Right, where do I begin. This school is absolutely and utterly terrible, one reason as to this is the bullying, this school acts like they're bully free or take care of bullying very well when quite frankly... they don't. I recently just left Bartley Green School and over the past 5 years of being there, bullying is just out of control. I've seen many different people in many years get bullied, go to teachers to sort it out and when they do that, they still get bullied or get bullied even more and maybe by a few others too. In the past year I seen two fist fights... TWO FIST FIGHTS IN ONE YEAR, this shows that this school is NOT bully free and cannot take care of bullying at all. A second reason as to not go to this school is the grades and teaching... now, you may think that I'm lying when I say this because they have a high pass rate but the people that pass are the people that a cocky, naturally smart people or unbelievably lucky people where most of them don't even listen in class and really shouldn't have passed. The people that don't pass are the people that are willing to put in the effort of working hard in lessons, but they don't pass due to the fact that the teaching is appalling, for year 10 and 11 I been doing the subjects that you have to do and three other subjects of my choice, which were as followed: Music, History and Art, and most of these subjects I failed mainly because of their teaching. I failed Music and got an F in it, only because the teacher taught us absolute garbage, none of the teaching was ever needed or even helpful at the least in the exam and I just tried to answer the questions and hoped to God that I would pass. My next subject that I failed in is English, and I'm probably most indignant about purely because of the teachers, my teacher taught us how to do each question and in a mock exam I failed, so me and others that failed also had to come in during the half-term to get taught by Cambridge teachers and I'm going to be very honest with you... the teaching didn't help at the slightest, even though I was taught by professionals from Cambridge. When it came to the proper GCSE English examination, I did EXACTLY what both my teacher and Cambridge teachers taught me and I came out with a D... Obviously they must have missed some stuff that they could've taught me, but for some reason just didn't. I also did IT and the school did stuff down right wrong, apparently we we're meant to spent half the year doing coursework and other half exam practice, but what the school did was make us do coursework with one teacher for almost the whole of year 11 and only gave us 1 month of exam prep and when we did the exam prep, they gave us a totally different teacher and not trying to be rude but the teacher didn't know much, if anything at all about IT and what topics will be in the exam. I can go on forever with other subjects. I surely think these two reasons are enough for you to be smart and not bring your child here. When I had to give this a rating out of 5 stars, I could only give it a minimum of 1 star and really, this school shouldn't even deserve 1 whole star. Now, I'm not your boss or anything and tell you what to do, but I'm just going to recommend you... PLEASE DO NOT BRING YOUR CHILD TO THIS SCHOOL, If you want your kid to have a successful school life, look for some other school, but just don't bring them here, I'm saying all of this because I care about children's education and I hope you do too and go with my recommendation."

"Having almost spent my 3rd year in this school, I can honestly say how amazing it is and how fortunate I was to get into this fantastic school. When I first started, I got teased for how smart I was but with the help of staff and learning mentors, I have never been so confident and now I can hang out with my best friends instead of feeling uncomfortable wherever I went. I recommend this school to primary school pupils because you might come in timid, shy and lonely but think of the opportunities people get. Pupils who had a KS2 level have left with C or higher."

"I have just finished year 11 at Bartley Green School (class of 2013). It is easily said that this school gave me boundless experiences that have set me up to achieve many things in the future - I was a very shy person but with all of the interactive leadership roles I was given, I gained the confidence boost I needed. Whenever I needed extra support from the teaching staff to help me understand something in more depth, they were more then willing to take time out of their lunch or after school to give me one-to-one tutition. What made me love the school so much was the fact that I could have a laugh with any of the staff, they were truly welcoming and that created a safe and happy environment. Its always nerve racking starting a new school but at Bartley Green, they encourage you to mix with everyone; since they know that this can be hard they generate situations where you have to work with other pupils to complete tasks. Bullying is not tolerated and the school encourages students to be open about any difficulties they may be having so that support and advice can be given where necessary. I never witnessed any bullying inside school in the 5 years that I was there. In your final years at BGS they encourage you to take on the responsibility of monitoring your own work load. This prepares you for independent learning, I believe this was an essential part of my time there and I will use this lesson when I make the journey to college and University. I strongly recommend Bartley Green school because the pupils are consistantly achieving good results. For students that have the initiative to work hard, the support is there and for the ones that need the extra push, the teachers help them to achieve the good GCSE's grades that they'll need for the future."