Elmhurst School for Boys

"We had high hopes for our son's education at Elmhurst. Unfortunately systematic failures in many areas have proven to us that this is an extremely poorly managed, poorly maintained and frankly unsatisfactory school to be paying over £3000 per term for. Firstly, the headteacher is underwhelming. A former P.E teacher and appointed to replace the long standing, and excellent, Mr South when the school was taken over by the Bellevue group. The new head teacher talks endlessly about the 4 c's and states that the school will do this and do that without actually delivering anything at all. He speaks like a politician, and a bad one at that. There is no leadership or vision from what I can see, just empty statistics and droning speeches about what we will achieve "together". Lets be clear, for something to be done "together", the school has to do something first. Here are some particularly irking stories from this school. The reception class teacher left after 1 and a half terms, leaving the pupils in the lurch and disrupting the stability of the most important year of their school life. The replacement was notified to us a few weeks before the teacher was due to leave. What wasn't, and still hasn't been notified to us, was that she was only part time, working 4 days per week. To date, we have not been told that this was the case, we have not been told who will be teaching the children on her day off. It;s been three weeks. We pay £3,200 per term. Not acceptable. It took 3 weeks before the class web-page was updated. It sat there with the old teacher and no communication for three solid weeks, despite notifying the school office three times. The school building and facilities are laughable. The kitchen was shut down for weeks when planned works that were clearly not planned properly, overran. Technology and general classroom resources and facilities are poor in comparison to almost every mainstream school in croydon. There is tatty old astroturf on part of the playground, and uneven concrete elsewhere. The nicest part of the school is the head teacher's office. Wrap around care is equally poor, with underqualified staff shouting at children. It took four separate complaints before any activities were provided to the boys at breakfast club. They were previously just bunged in front of a screen or resorted to chasing and wrestling each other in the school hall. This school is abysmal, it hides behind a previously good reputation and talks a good talk. The walk however is well below par..."

"Fantastic School! Gave my elder son just the foundation he needed...easily one of the best schooling options in Croydon."

"I went to this school and it’s safe to say that the learning environment is exquisite and the staff are delightful whilst being extremely clever! I would recommend this school strongly."

"A brilliant school! I was crying when I left at the end of year 6"