North Bridge House - Senior Canonbury

North Bridge House CANONBURY, the only North Bridge school I attended during my sixth form years. NBHC is a beautiful school, with what could have been very bespoke and personal teaching groups. What the school promises would be every student and parents' dream come true - however, the school itself unfortunately does the opposite of what it preaches, and I can say this as a student who was very involved in all aspects of the school life.

When looking on their website you would think that NBHC is a successful school in all areas - I did to. '100% A*-B in English and Art'. Nobody got an A* in English and they fail to mention proportionally how many were in the class - three. Three people. Three people is 100%. You should ask how many were in the other classes. Surely you would expect these types of results from a private school anyway? They also fail to mention the countless number of people that didn't get their predicted grades. The amount of people in the year above that got U's E's and D's. How many didn't get their 1st or even 2nd choice at university. The lack of books in the library. The lack of resources and structured extra-curricular activities. The missing A-level books. The missing teachers.They fail to mention that almost half of year 12 last year left because the teaching and pastoral care was awful. But as long as the exterior and image of the school is good it doesn't seem to matter to them. The success of the school is an illusion and a facade. Any successful results stemmed from the few good teachers who were there (I will definitely not discredit them) but have now left and the sole students who taught themselves because the the teaching was non-existent (did I mention 75% of an AS class failed their exams). I am in two minds about this because whilst I am glad some students came out with good grades I almost wish they got bad grades so it would reflect badly on the school - then they would have to reflect on their abundance of issues.

NBHC does not 'understand each pupil's individual needs and aspirations' - they dismiss them. I've been to state schools far more 'committed to each students future' - they told the entire year to drop a subject and told many people that they were not 'cut out for university'. I truly wish that 'the welfare of every student' was at 'the heart of (their) ethos' - but it simply isn't. NBHC doesn't care about the welfare of its students. Teachers were degrading, patronising, contemptuous and the cause of many an anxious and upset student.

The worst thing about NBHC was not even the lack of pastoral care, the abusive, passive-aggressive members of staff or even the poor grades. It was the fact that I watched myself and my peers become shadows of the people they clearly were upon first arriving at the school. As a naturally quite a confident, all-rounded, intelligent individual it was a harrowing experience to see myself become the opposite. We lost our identities. After years, I am only just beginning to be me again.

I'll leave you with a quote from one of the teachers responding to these aforementioned problems about the school and what we could do to mitigate them. '60% of the things you ask for won't happen'. Apparently it's that simple.
Do you really want you or your children to go to a school that acknowledges its problems yet FAILS to work on any of them? I encourage you to look elsewhere because until this school shuts down or majorly re-evaluates and changes it doesn't deserve to even be open. It could have ruined my life. I know it ruined others..