Coleridge Community College

Wouldn't recommend sending any child here. The school's quality has diminished over the past years (looking from these past reviews), and I'm just being straight about it. Seems like united learning has utilised their authority as an academy to the fullest, and it is saddening to see this decline take action so rapidly. It is also to be noted that the reflection room isn't punitive whatsoever and six periods doing filler lessons is too unjustified - there will be an attainment gap if you stick around doing absolutely nothing in my opinion. Effectively rendering the school futile and inferior to that of which, say, St. Bedes is at with their grades and overall reception. This nags me so; my brother, Abid, contrived to getting a reflection for not having his shirt tucked in, plus having forgotten/ lost his 'first impressions card' totalling all in all towards a reflection, certainly erroneous and imprudent spending a full school day in a room for something so inane. I recommend not this school.

As someone who has been a student here for 4 years, i can definitely say this is one of the worst schools in the country. The teachers will try and get you in detention / reflection for the smallest reasons and use the reflection room as a place to get rid of difficult students, even though there are other students who act the same and will not be punished. Some teachers clearly favour specific students and will openly make rude comments towards others. Students with special needs are not given enough help. The teachers will do next to nothing when it comes to racism or bullying. They claim to take our issues seriously but they choose to ignore them in order to protect the reputation of the school. The way lessons and homework are planned out, most students will forget everything we learnt and therefore proving these 'methods' useless. When telling teachers about this they just shrug their shoulders and move on.
If coleridge leave the United Learning trust, the school may finally be good again.

Please please do not send your children here. For the sake of their mental health and well being. The school used to be good but when united learning became part of the institution, it went extremely downhill.
It is extremely clear to many of the students here that this school cares more about rules than the mental health of its students.
I have sat in classrooms where people have had literal anxiety and panic attacks and the teachers have done nothing. I have experienced my peers and myself feel as if our happiness and well being has been completely taken away from us due to the school's horrific amount of pressure they put on us.

I have struggled with severe mental health issues since the beginning of January 2021 and the school have only made it worse, invalidated it and broken trust with me. Not only have I had this experience but many others have as well. They create this persona, giving the impression that they care, when in reality, they do not. All they care about is how the school looks.

Students were happier, getting better grades and behaving much better before united learning and the new leadership team. Now, me and other peers have had to revise and re learn stuff profusely at home because of the terrible organisation and teaching. (This is not directly the teacher's issues but the leadership teams).

We are not learning. We are only learning to be quiet and obey the borderline dictatorship mannerisms of this school.
It is not fair on us. Not fair on our future which is being ruined by this school.

They strip us of our personality and sense of expression with ridiculous uniform rules that benefit no one but the school's pathetic ego.

Year 11s are struggling to find time to actually revise due to the ridiculous 2 hour a night homework schedule which often finds itself to be 3 hours. Even younger years are struggling - It has become a norm to see new year 7 and 8s being so scared of the dumb punishments for perhaps, losing a pen, that they are crying and constantly anxious.
So please, if you care about your children - DO NOT send them here.
I could write so much more but I do not have the time so there you go.

I went to the school myself, I can safely say sending your kids to a concentration camp in China would make your kids happier. Teachers don't care anymore, they would rather send students to reflection where they spend that day and the next day in a room isolated with no lunch or break time, and not allowed to go back to class, teachers do not bring your work to you while you're in there, you're just left to stare at a blank wall for 8 hours.

As a student starting their GSCEs and Year 10 this year, I've seen this school at its highs and lows for 3 years. It's at the point to where the school will rather care about the publics reputation and discipline then students wellbeing and education. This school depends on its rules and to be seen as a near perfect school. We are required to almost always be in silence, if not we have to sit in an isolated room for 7 50mins periods, which means we lose vital knowledge towards final exams.

So many students and teachers have left due to the stress of the current environment of the place to the point of that there's hardly any supply teachers left which means that we as students are lacking in certain topics of education, especially for us who are in gsce years, which adds a level of stress to both sides as the students have to rush certain topics to stay on track via a video or a simple questionnaire, and then it leads to certain students getting behind because some people do not learn through that.
I do want to say however that the problem does not lie on the teachers. The problem mainly lies on the leadership team, United Learning and the lack of communication between them.

I joined in Mid 2018, I was excited to come here as I was promised that it would be better than my previous school. For the past 3 years, I've had little to no support for my illnesses from most of staff members, I've been made out to be dramatic, that I'm a liar, that I was doing it for attention and I'm overexaggerating it to the point where I've had to make numerous complaints about the treatment I've had from certain staff, and yet I've never seen any change from them. I've gotten to the point where I dont even want to come to this place because of this environment that they caused and the way that me and my other peers have been talked down to.

I've seen new students crying over the rules and the pressure the school gives. I, along with other students have been called a disappointment to the school over the wrong pairs of shoes without considering why we were and being forced to wear shoes that cause me discomfort and pain.

I don't feel proud to be in Coleridge anymore, I feel embarrassed to be around this environment. They never listen to any complaints, students or parents and can be very defensive about these rules. My wellbeing has been so bad with the constant changes to expectations and constantly being pressurized by staff, as I'm sure many of my other classmates have felt.

I sincerely advise you to not bring your kids here for your children's wellbeing and education. I have my honest sympathy to new students of this school who will have to deal with the furthermore stricter changes to the rules.

This school is extremely disappointing, they don't put pupils education as a priority and would rather send pupils to a old empty classroom for a full school day for not having correct equipment eg missing rubber or a green pen or for not having their shirt tucked in ect. This means pupils go to school and don't get anything productive out of their school day, they don't receive any education they are just sat twiddling their thumbs.

The school as a whole is so focused on discipline of petty thing's insted of things that really matter, the pupils are so worried constantly about every little thing the pressure effects their overall learning. They are unable to focus on what really matters because they get such harsh punishment for example if they have struggled with a question in homework and couldn't answer just one question or if they didn't bother doing the whole homework assignment the punishment is the same. Which just makes pupils feel unable to ask for help or support with work they are struggling with. Or if a pupil has his essential equipment but his glue stick has broken or he has his forgotten to bring his whole equipment set in the punishment is the same and the punishment is always straight to reflection! Which just isn't the answer to constantly send pupils away from learning.

In the summer no matter how high the temperature rises pupils are still expected to wear their jumpers and have to ask permission before they are allowed to take them off and you guessed it if they don't take their jumpers in or wear them its a one way ticket directly to reflection.

It's just a shame that the school doesn't put as much time and energy into education and supporting the children as they do in the discipline like military camp they are currently running. So many of the teaching staff have already left in the last 2 years with more following and sadly it's the children that are left suffering.

Terrible school and god awful staff. When kids get bullied absolutely nothing gets done. When the kid who gets bullied choses to do something about it as the adults of the school do not care, they are the ones who gets detention etc. The school is ruining the future life of their students and absolutely crushing their potential by being so strict about the wrong things. Sort it out.

Editing this review to be less of a joke;
This review is based on my experiences between 2010-2015.

In my first few years going here, it seemed like a decent enough school, and throughout my time, the practical lessons were interesting and fun. However, the last couple of years, things started to feel like they were getting worse, with the school building more buildings (such as a second gym, which while it looks a lot better than the old gym, it took away playground space and there were more important things to focus on it seemed like), when they could have spent that money on fixing the laptops among other things.

The school does have support for students that struggle which is a good thing, and there are plenty of clubs to choose from.

There is a massive field that is used to do PE on, and also where the school hosts its sports days. They have a wide range of sports that they teach, from football, rugby, and rounders and more, though my favourite was always when we would do dodgeball or table tennis.

Some of the students, however, can be very bad, though that’s to be expected from secondary schools.