St Thomas More School Glendale Avenue, London N22 5HN

"(2/2, cont. from Lilac Moon review) ...prevents students from having time to de-stress - Even when they DON'T have any homework to do, the burnout leaves students exhausted, too tired to engage in the things they're interested in. You start to see your child /friends become a shell of their former selves; no longer having the energy to do the things they once loved. -Students get forced to pick GCSEs and A Level subjects they might not even want to do from restrictive blocks, only what the school thinks is "best" for them and the teachers' schedules. -Staff retention is poor with many teachers leaving each year, most dissatisfied with their teaching experience here. -The bursary's eligibility criteria is very tight and feels dehumanizing; So many students already feel embarrassed to ask for support (even though they shouldn't) and forcing them to prove they need it makes them feel even worse. -Many depts.+teachers are unsupportive and refuse to believe that their teaching methods may be the reason why their students are underachieving. For example, one of my teachers thought of the brilliant idea to name and shame those who left out questions blank in a test in front of the entire class, which made me feel stupid for asking for help. -Sixth Form Prefect experience is very poor, with students doing jobs that teachers could be doing themselves and being paid less than minimum wage (students that are 18). The election system for Head Boy+Girl is susceptible to bias as teachers can vote for students, even though they shouldn't be able to. -Some teachers have negatively affected the mental health of the students - You will notice that many people in the reviews have reported that teachers were unfair/cruel to them/their children and it's true - I had very unsupportive class teachers, many that overlooked/didn't deal with bullying properly and some even declared that we were all going to fail. -The disparity between the top and lower sets is unfair, with the top sets getting more opportunities like trips and favour from the school because they're "smarter than us". Despite being a well-behaved student, I barely went on any trips throughout my entire school life because I wasn't considered good enough by the school's standard (Straight A's and not in the top sets). -Student presentation is more important than the students' wellbeing - Uniform checks are performed during FIRE DRILLS and teachers force students to change their clothes within a few days, which is unrealistic and unnecessary. There is so much more I could say but my review is already very long. I have rated this school 1 star and that is for the small amount of good that is in this school, but unfortunately it's overshadowed by the amount of negative experiences, unsupportive/cruel teachers, restrictive regimes and overall draining school experience that sucked the life out of me and many other students. I hope this review was insightful or helpful in some way. Please share it with friends or family members that might find it useful to know about this school. Thank you for reading and have a wonderful day."

"Do NOT under any circumstances go to this school! I still remember the traumatic experiences. Do yourselves a favour and just don't go here. Trust me."

"There is absolutely no control of the kids leaving this school. Those teachers standing outside clearly aren't interested in doing their job. My 5 year old daughter was shoved off the path in front of the teachers and they did nothing to assist us."

"St Thomas more is a school which doesn’t help their students excel while in mainstream lessons teachers can blame you for things you haven’t done and if you report it other teachers will assume the teacher in the right without completely understanding the situation I have been picked on and bullied in this school in front of teachers which will refuse to do anything because they favour another student this drove me to attempt scuicide due to the online and in person harrasment when this was brought to the schools attention their advice was for me get off of social media and the students involved received no punishment except an assembly on bullying the school behaviour system is completely ridiculous as I am a child with special needs I sometimes find it difficult getting to school on time I was placed in the lsc (private area in the school outside of mainstream lessons) a place which teachers don’t come and students do not receive a proper education we just copy from a text book or repeat lessons we’ve done in the past this is to “incite students in there to leave the school” which is not right you have to stay there for another hour after school everyday to do hw even though teachers do not receive the hw it is designed as “a punishment for being here” everyday I leave school when it’s dark and alone teachers and students make me feel alienated and alone so everyday I dread coming to school I just stay in one class all day and for break play board games inside.it is repetitive and do not learn anything new if you end up getting back into mainstream lessons teachers will target you and try get you back in there you spend around a month in there if you are a model student"