The North School

The North School is an amazing place, i have 2 children there and they are both doing fantastic. They are both high achieving in both academics and sports. I cannot recommend the school enough, they are making huge steps in the right direction.

I have only given 4 stars because no school is perfect!

As a current student of the school if you have a child and your'e in the process of looking for a school do not choose this one unless its your only choice. I would strongly advise anyone who is looking at this school to look at the Ofsted report, it may be three years old but things haven't changed much and there is a lot of room for improvement, from the strict uniform policies to how students (and some teachers) behave.
If you have a child with special needs only send them here as a last resort the unit attached to this school isn't very good, the head of the unit seems to be very under trained to deal with special needs students a few staff members in the unit are decent and some aren't. The way behavior is dealt with doesn't work well either, to punish a student the school have a 'behavior panel' where higher up members of staff discuss the punishment for the student, I was given isolation (internal exclusion) for not having my tie 3 days before summer holidays, the staff in the unit asked if i would wear a spare i said no for many reasons, i was given isolation for not attending lessons, i was told by staff that if i didn't have a tie i couldn't go to lessons which is why i was given the isolation in the first place, the day after this i had to do the isolation i refused due to it felling like i would have a mental breakdown in there, they than gave me exclusion for the day after and a thing they do called twilight which is just a 2 hour detention form 3 o'clock to 5 o'clock, i was unable to do this due to the times they wanted me to be in school, the school knew about this so the excluded me from school the last day of the year before summer holidays. The school isn't the best and it could be a lot better i have to get a taxi to it due to the fact that there a not a lot of special needs schools in Kent. The behavior of pupils inside and outside of school is awful, students will stand just round the corner from the school to smoke, inside school some students will attempt to do this as well but its very hard for them to. The students also pick on the students in the unit and teachers do not do anything, i haven't encountered this much but other pupils i know have. Teachers will lie about what a student has done and if the student is attempting to say anything its like talking to a brick wall the teachers don't listen, on many occasions have i seen a teacher lie about something a student has done. there was also a time in summer last year in 2016 where it was quite hot, and due to classrooms barely having any ac it would feel like an oven in some rooms, because of this some pupils didn't wear a jumper if they were seen without it they were sent home by teachers, because of the amount of pupils sent home no one wore a jumper so the teachers couldn't send them home or they would face a lot of criticism from parents etc. In general the lessons ( greatly depending on the teacher and subject) are alright, there has been a lot of teachers changing and behavior in lessons is appalling if the lesson is a cover teacher or new teacher. Of course the Ofsted report isn't as accurate as possible due to the school being warned by Ofsted that they will be visiting. Behavior of teachers and staff isn't good either, I have encountered many staff members blatantly lying about something a student has done, higher up staff members seem to be up their own backside (they might as well become a politician with how the deal with situations and how they act)and cover teachers are unable to have control over students luckily there are some good teachers here but not many. The school is good with PE but i'm not massively sure about that seeing as i don't do that. Science lesson have small room for improvement, history like i said before depending on the teacher can be fun and a good lesson or a very bad one, English is reasonable but very boring or out of control if the lesson is group work, maths is good, art also depends on which topic and teacher you have, geography isn't the best, all round i would not recommend the school to anyone.

As a current student i happily inform you that this school has greatly improved, i have been here since year 7, when mrs ellis was around, to now year 11 when it has made a change for the better. The teachers are overall pretty great, if youre a good student then they treat you with respect. As a student about to go into this schools sixth form i shall say they have an amazing support system. As ive been here from ellis to now i can see the improvements. Granted there is still room for improvement, but it is wholly a good learning environment.

This school is sexest. Boys have to suffer in extreme heat and can only wear trousers. where as girls are allowed to wear skirts. Also both boys and girls have to wear there blazer whilst walking around the school. The teachers are so mean to students. they are too strict. I would advise you to not sent your children here as there is loads of fights that aren't dealt with properly and they wouldn't care if your child got bullied.

This is the only school in ashford that doesn’t have 6 weeks off and i have checked term dates and this school school have no extra time during other holidays?Its very awkward as my daughter goes back 28th August!And my other girls go back 5th September!

My eldest has just finished A Levels at this school after being here since Year 7. She had so many inspirational teachers and flourished in this learning environment. A big plus was the school farm which had such an impact on her. She's now heading off to University with great A Level grades. My youngest is also here and staff have always been incredibly helpful and intuitive. The staff are genuinely interested in pupil well being and want them to achieve to their full capacity. The Head Teacher is involved in all aspects of the school and takes great pride in all students' achievements be they academic, sporting, musical, theatrical etc... I'd recommend the school wholeheartedly.

Been a teacher at this school for 10 years. In that time the school has improved hugely from being poorly run and an unpleasant place to teach. Now the school is well managed, behavioural expectations are high and the majority of classes and students are well focused on their work. It's a nice atmosphere for teachers to teach in and for students to be in and learn in.

i went to this school from year 7 to year 11 where i left in 2018, it was absolutely dreadful, fights were daily, bullying is a massive issue that's ignored and teachers are only there to get paid, not to teach, the teachers they hire, not all of them though, are awful and do not care about the childs education and dont care about the mental health of a child, which i've experienced first hand when i was told to "cheer up" when expressing feelings of discomfort and distress about being bullied and threatened to be poked..dont send your kid there if you want a good education for them