gnvqsos Posted February 4, 2013 Share Posted February 4, 2013 I too worked there. There are, as JackClover said, some great members of staff at Springs. To say the pupils could be a challenging bunch is an understatement. To counteract this we were constantly told to make lessons more interesting and engaging. This is the very least a teacher should do and, fortunately, planning a lesson which is interesting is reasonably straightforward. Delivering it to a class where a third – or more – of the pupils present see no reason to learn anything, and will do everything in their power to ensure nobody else can, is not so easy. Unfortunately the most challenging pupils in the school frequently came from families deeply suspicious of teachers, often with little regard for education, who refused to accept their children were causing significant problems. With some pupils the battle was lost before they walked through the school gates each morning. Despite this the behaviour of the pupils was not what did for me in the end – many of the pupils and their parents were lovely; what led me to quit was the behaviour exhibited by some of the adults supposedly leading the school. 28 teachers leaving at the same time tells it's own story, and it certainly came as no surprise to learn that the school was placed in special measures by Ofsted. There was an oft-repeated joke shared between staff that someone should write a book about the school. If any of you were to read such a book I'm not sure you would believe what was written in it. The exhortation that teachers should make lessons interesting is very canny.Should the children continue to disrupt the teacher can be faulted-the teacher in fact is having to work extra hard to compensate for the poor aspirations of many children.The management in such schools are often too remote and are traumatised by prolonged contact with children,and they resort to hiding in offices pushing round bits of paper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Teacher Posted February 5, 2013 Share Posted February 5, 2013 The exhortation that teachers should make lessons interesting is very canny. Should the children continue to disrupt the teacher can be faulted - the teacher in fact is having to work extra hard to compensate for the poor aspirations of many children. The management in such schools are often too remote and are traumatised by prolonged contact with children,and they resort to hiding in offices pushing round bits of paper. That's fairly close to the reality for many teachers I suspect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zombie girl Posted March 18, 2013 Share Posted March 18, 2013 Hi, I live in the catchment area for Springs Academy. I have read and heard many horror stories about this school. Does anyone know the reality? How bad/ good is this school? We are considering moving house just to avoid our child going to this school, is it really that bad? Any advice welcome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ccartwright1 Posted March 18, 2013 Share Posted March 18, 2013 it really is from what i have heard ..... it was my catchment school but luckily got into newfield secondary school which was better ... people that get exclusion from newfield get sent to springs academy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Bloom Posted March 18, 2013 Share Posted March 18, 2013 Surely, it shouldn't be the case that a school is so bad people with kids have to move out of the area. I know people have moved to new areas to get to better schools, but feeling you are forced to is something entirely different. Are these academies really unanswerable to anyone? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAAB_ Posted March 18, 2013 Share Posted March 18, 2013 Hi, I live in the catchment area for Springs Academy. I have read and heard many horror stories about this school. Does anyone know the reality? How bad/ good is this school? We are considering moving house just to avoid our child going to this school, is it really that bad? Any advice welcome. My boy goes there for now. AVOID! The school, not my boy. And heres why. The head is a waste of space, no people skills, no idea about what makes a school run well. As a result of him loads of teachers have left, some of the best ones too. There are a few decent ones left but they are outnumbered by the crap they now employ. When picking my kid up about 6 months ago i saw one teacher with a special needs pupil in a headlock. Thew parent of the lad turns up whilst this is happening and goes ape. The teacher then flatly denies it ever happened, called the parent a liar and then squares up to the parent and the kid with special needs. The dad asked for the principle who said hed look on the cctv footage. The camera showed nothing despite being only 10 feet or so from the incident. Ob other occasions ive seen the teachers outside smoking with the kids, shouting, swearing and spitting. Violence is rife in the school and the school (well academy) do little or nothing to try and fix it instead burying their heads in the sand. Oh, and the last OFSTED inspection they had the school waited until the very last possible minute to notify the parents. This was via a single a4 piece of paper in the reception and a text sent after school on the day bef0ore the inspection. This obviously meant it was difficult if not impossible for most parents to get time off to see the inspectors. When parents rang in the day of the visit to speak to the inspectors they were told by the school that they weren't allowed as the inspectors were there only to see the teachers and pupils. A quick call to OFSTED soon sorted that out though but even after speaking to OFSTED the school STILL tried to make it difficult for parents to see them. The results were poor.!!! AVOID!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john r l Posted March 18, 2013 Share Posted March 18, 2013 I agree with SAAB especially the OFSTED bit,the school tried to put on a front for the inspection but what I can`t believe is that a few of my sons teachers which i spoke to at a recent parents evening have little confidence in teaching the challenging pupils blaming it on the"ethos" of the area,yes the area is not one of the most affluent in sheffield but not everyone should be tarred with the same brush,most of the families of the pupils in this area haven`t really got a choice as to whether they move house or move schools,we have to make the best of what we have. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lockjaw Posted March 18, 2013 Share Posted March 18, 2013 My boy goes there for now. AVOID! The school, not my boy. And heres why. The head is a waste of space, no people skills, no idea about what makes a school run well. As a result of him loads of teachers have left, some of the best ones too. There are a few decent ones left but they are outnumbered by the crap they now employ. When picking my kid up about 6 months ago i saw one teacher with a special needs pupil in a headlock. Thew parent of the lad turns up whilst this is happening and goes ape. The teacher then flatly denies it ever happened, called the parent a liar and then squares up to the parent and the kid with special needs. The dad asked for the principle who said hed look on the cctv footage. The camera showed nothing despite being only 10 feet or so from the incident. Ob other occasions ive seen the teachers outside smoking with the kids, shouting, swearing and spitting. Violence is rife in the school and the school (well academy) do little or nothing to try and fix it instead burying their heads in the sand. Oh, and the last OFSTED inspection they had the school waited until the very last possible minute to notify the parents. This was via a single a4 piece of paper in the reception and a text sent after school on the day bef0ore the inspection. This obviously meant it was difficult if not impossible for most parents to get time off to see the inspectors. When parents rang in the day of the visit to speak to the inspectors they were told by the school that they weren't allowed as the inspectors were there only to see the teachers and pupils. A quick call to OFSTED soon sorted that out though but even after speaking to OFSTED the school STILL tried to make it difficult for parents to see them. The results were poor.!!! AVOID!!! I think the penultimate sentence is the truth... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zombie girl Posted March 18, 2013 Share Posted March 18, 2013 Thanks for the replies, it does sound awful:( my husband and I are very upset that we feel forced into moving because of this. We are homeowners with reasonable jobs and it is such an upheaval to have to do this just because of the catchment school. I wasn't expecting to get into one of the so called " best" schools in sheffield living in S2 however this is terrible. I don't think that any child should have to go to a failing school or live in fear of going to school no matter what their family background is, whether affluent or not. We are left with a choice of staying put and going though the application/appeal process in a couple of years or moving now. It really shouldn't be like this, what an unfair system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cgksheff Posted March 18, 2013 Share Posted March 18, 2013 Hi, I live in the catchment area for Springs Academy. I have read and heard many horror stories about this school. Does anyone know the reality? How bad/ good is this school? We are considering moving house just to avoid our child going to this school, is it really that bad? Any advice welcome. Have you thought of contacting the school and having a visit to see for yourselves and seeing if your concerns can be answered? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.