The Highfield School

I'm a student at Highfield, the education is good apart from I seem to be spending a lot of my lessons with supply teachers in stead of my subject teacher.

The school is over due for modernisation. Currently there are plans to update the school next April, I'll give 4 stars when it is complete

Its a large part of my life and it has defined my character for the better in my view. The teachers are well trained and try their hardest to give a high quality education to every student.

Great school but sometimes give detentions for no reason and House Points mean nothing.
Otherwise a great school.

Positives:
Highfield has some really really talented teachers, who manage to teach their students in inventive ways.

Inclusion is available for children with anxiety.

Negatives:

The school has become so strict it's laughable, and is in desperate need of modernisation as many others have said. The school is so concerned with its image they decide to focus their attention on combatting 'fizzy drinks' 'phones' and 'hoodies' instead of effectively teaching their pupils in modern ways. They don't care about students only numbers they can use for funding, going so far as to give pupils 'intervention detentions' for getting questions wrong. Speaking of funding, the school is going down the toilet, the next lot of year 11s won't be able go to work experience because of budget cuts. The pastoral team is awful. Of all my experiences with them, never once have they effectively handled a situation, and more often than not they just try to steer clear of it all together. Pastoral, and the rest of the staff will take any form of disagreement as rudeness. Whenever I've been ill, when reporting to the front office each of them have practically sneered in disgust, and they refused to send me home unless i gave them evidence of my vomit.

To conclude, Highfield is essentially a summary of everything wrong with the school system. Have fun there.

This school has been rated as 'excellent' in the past. I came to the school in year seven and left feeling as though someone had majorly misspelled the word 'unsatisfactory' when examining the school. When Ofsted comes to the school, the students are told to behave on that particular day. When I say this, I mean we have been told exactly what to do and say when asked certain questions. Everything is scripted. This school's so-called excellence is a facade to hide it's breaking structure.

The staff for one, not even parents enjoy speaking to them. My parent has been blamed for not sending an email stating my unavoidable lateness - I had moved to a different town but didn't want to break up my education by constantly switching schools - yet my mother had proof of sending the email, and it was the staff's own fault for not reading said email. My only absences were also unavoidable as they were all for a doctor diagnosed health problem which I had many hospital appointments and episodes of ill-health with, yet without that doctors note - oh well, I could have been dying and they wouldn't care less.

All throughout my second year there, I had an incompetent science supply teacher. My whole class had fallen greatly behind. This was a problem that my next science teacher had to work very hard to resolve. One maths teacher, a close friend of mine had the poor luck to be stuck with. She should not be allowed anywhere near students. She'd be better teaching adults who don't talk back and don't act like children because teaching children who act like children is certainly what she is not meant to do. She was the teacher sent from hell and once made her class work in the dark because she had a headache. She was dismissive to her own rule of respecting property and ripped my friends book from her hands and threw it in a cupboard - which she received, damaged, later on.

They clearly have no clue about mental health. In my time at the school, all I got was an assembly telling me that my mental health my problem and it is my fault if I was depressed or anxious - to sum it up. I've had panic attacks in class, and with little to no support from teachers, was expected to just go back to normal in a matter of seconds. Things like depression are seen as sadness, you are given a small pep-talk and given absolutely no support throughout your day, or with the obnoxious amount of homework they set.

Homework is another thing all together. Now, as a student, I do appreciate and understand the role of homework, for there is simply not enough time in the day to learn what we need. However - when my close friends are getting hours upon hours of homework per day to do - it is no wonder that they feel so hopeless and drained, that they suffer from severe anxiety and a lack of sleep just so they can meet their horrendous deadlines. When I talk to my friends and see the amount of work they have to do to barely meet the amount of work I cover in a singular lesson - I really come to question the teaching quality of the school I left, and I know that I made the right choice to do so.

Bullying. Bullying was a huge problem for me and my close friends. I have been told time and time again - tell a teacher, tell a friend, tell a parent. Well, when my teachers tell me to ignore the people making my school life a misery, and my friends are suffering in the same bot as I, and also my parents are blatantly dismissed with a one-time meeting for me with pastoral - I am absolutely livid that nothing has changed. I have been attacked with physical threats of violence. I have been to see staff about it and it went nowhere. No repercussions. Nothing. My best friend still feels isolated and cannot come out of her shell due to fear of bullying.

I had high hopes coming into the school as a tiny year seven, and I left feeling utter disappointment.

Goodbye Highfield!

Quote from a friend: "If there is inclusion for people with anxiety, I was not made aware of it", In other words, she has been there years and not seen a single trace of this 'anxiety inclusion'.

The sixth form here was amazing and I had the best two years of my life attending here. Excellent resources and teachers and plenty of study space. If you're doing A-Levels make sure you do Psychology and Business, both of my teachers for these subjects were phenomenal. Coming from a very serious educational environment previously, this institution makes sure that lessons are fun and interesting.

Since I'm student still in year 8 cannot comment much.

This school is mostly liked by talking about games. So talk about games you like, and say roasts if somebody annoys you and you'll have good contact. "Roadmen" are not populated in this school.

Excellent school, was made to feel very welcome by both staff and pupils, got a very good vibe from this school.