Saint Benedict Catholic Voluntary Academy

"In depth review of Saint Benedict School 24th May 2022. How was my experience? Poor experience! Year 7 was okay but year 9 was disgusting. Non stop bullying and the school do NOT deal with it very well. Surprised it's got a "Good" Ofsted rating because if I spoke to Ofsted, it would have been very negative!. To begin with, Mr Gritton when I was there was a very good headteacher and was always pushing staff to try their hardest. Staff responded well for the most part. In this school, teacher favouritism was very common and bullying was hardly ever dealt with across all year groups. My experience of the school buses was appalling. Constant fighting on those buses and foul language as well. Some teachers are good, like Mrs J Richtoff though others aren't. One teacher who I shan't say the name was extremely rude and was never willing to push their students to the maximum potential. I was one of those students. (at the time working at a grade 1 in maths). I quickly moved to a better school and was actually challenged as I requested and thus I achieved a very strong mathematics grade by the end of year 11. When you go to a school, you (as the student) want to attend a nurturing environment. Now, no matter what school you go to, there will always be kids who just don't like it. It's normal. However, one of the reviews pointing out teacher favouritism is true and was a regular occurrence during my time at the school. Teachers are genuinely disrespectful and mark exam papers incorrectly. (I Know from experience), then they accuse you of cheating despite the fact no such thing occured. Disgraceful school and doesn't even deserve 2 stars. The only reason why I give 2 stars is because the food is shockingly good and as mentioned above, year 7-8 was okay. What can this school do to improve? - Improve the quality of education by ensuring staff are always setting work to each pupils ability and to ensure staff believe In their pupils. - Improve the way that bullying is handled - Stop teacher favouritism - Improve mental health policy - Make sure that teachers don't dismiss bullying claims; I remember to this day the day I was strangled in a year 9 science class with a crocodile wire and the teacher watched and did nothing. This was in a laboratory by the way though either way, this should never happen. - give learners high target grades. No lower than a 4 (C). This way, students have something to work to and will thus believe in their ability even more and will try harder. The student will believe they can achieve. Which is the key factor to providing a very successful education. This is something my new school got right. Gave everyone high target grades. This is all, thanks for reading and hope you improve your school for the better."

"dont bother going here, save ur kids from a traumatic 5 years they lock the toilets during the school day and make us beg to unlock them, and they still dont, even put up a silly little sign on the door saying to not ask for the key because they wont give it, how pathetic . senior staff need to step off their high horse and take a look at themselves acting all big w their head up high like theyre something, when theyre no better than any of the rest of us . especially miss oxtoby, chill out babe you get paid minimum wage, students wearing jewellry or having their hood up not that deep, dont stress urself. teachers are a bunch of pricks, most of them have serious mental issues that need resolving. idk if they have something going on at home causing them to act like complete bellends or whatever but sort urselves out. state of the school is minging its literally falling to bits, theres an ant infestation in south block hall, where students go to eat, no wonder ppl get the runs after the food we r fed. maybe if they spent money on fhe quality of the building rather than the paintings they put up all over south block , it wouldnt be so filthy lol"

"Ofsted and the Enviromental health need to pay this school a visit. I would give it no stars but there's not that option. DO NOT send your kid to this school they don't care about the children or their education."

"This school is appalling. If I had to describe this school (prison) in one word I would say it is deplorable. However, let’s start with the positives: Firstly, Maths , English and Science (so basically the core subjects) are great .Great education and the majority of students are aspirational during these lessons. The food is amazing and that’s about it . AND WE CAN’T FORGET ABOUT MR GRITTON WHO IS AN AMAZING HEADTEACHER AND GIVES EVERY STUDENT A CHANCE. HE’S WILLING TO LISTEN , SEES THE GOODNESS IN EVERYBODY AND MR GRITTON KNOWS THAT EVERY SINGLE PERSON HAS THE CHANCE AND ABILITY TO SUCCEED AT SAINT BENEDICTS!!! However, when Mrs blank began working here on September the 10th 2018 everything has become atrocious. Ever since Mrs blank has had a higher role in Saint Benedict the exclusions have got increasingly higher. She is not willing to listen to students, she looks at them once and immediately gives them a bad sterotype. Furthermore, all of the schools funding promised to be for new toilets have gone to more radios more CCTV, and undercover on call teachers. Mrs blank is getting out of control she is constantly threatening students she’s making up her rules, and constantly says “If you don’t like what I’m doing, you can look for other schools.” Which is highly unacceptable, therefore she’s a problem. In addition, she’s only been here for a couple of months, so she doesn’t know pupils backstories and deliberately finds a stupid reason to exclude or isolate them when she thinks a student can threaten her role in the school. Other teachers like to be very stereotypical #WENEEDMRGRITTONBACKASOURHEAD BEFORE THIS SCHOOL BECOMES INADEQUATE AGAIN!!!!"

"Very good school, my daughter is very happy there, strict uniform rules, strong standards and everyone tries to treat each other well.Good Catholic ethic but inclusive. The house system makes sure that all the younger children coming to school know the older children from their form.Teachers are helpful and caring on the whole, the older children look after the younger ones and discipline is strong."