St Patrick's R C V A Primary School

Very safe and professional in everything they do , I would recommend this school to anyone.
Oct 11th, 2022

This school does well educationally, however........ Their motto of "Caring & Sharing" was a joke! Some teachers were cold & harsh in my opinion. Some of them basically didn't seem to like Children. I witnessed children being shouted at loudly & berated for ridiculous reasons. My child was put down with negative comments that destroyed their confidence. Problems were ignored. Children were forced to be independent at age 4. Learning was not fun at St Patrick's in Dipton. Staff created an environment where some children were frightened to make mistakes in fear of getting wrong. This hinders their education. A couple of teachers bullied the children. There is no other way to describe it, or at least that's how my child described it. Primary children were told off in public, often in front of other parents. An example of this would be if a child forgot something while leaving school. Even though parents are there waiting, teachers shout . What did I just tell you ......" etc, so every parent standing hears & sees the child being humiliated, sometimes to the point of tears. I think that is cruel. My child would become very distressed if I asked them to go back for a forgotten item. Parents were informed about incidents & problems in the yard, in front of other parents and children. The school head is weak & allowed this behaviour from some of her staff, while ignoring the concerns of parents. I felt that teachers viewed the parents as the enemy. Also, after speaking to other parents, a few of us noticed children were sometimes marked late "before registration", even though they had lined up in the yard when the bell rings. This happened due to children taking to long in the tiny & filthy changing room/toilets where they put their coats & bags. This is a disgrace, as it's marked on their record as late, even though they are on school premises. How long are they given when the cloakroom area is so tiny? Especially in winter when wellies need to be changed etc. The younger children hung back until there was space, but then of course they were marked late. The floor of the cloakroom was always covered in loads of clothing but the caretaker just shoved it all into bin bags. Missing items were a constant problem with parents having to go in and search though sometimes up to five bin bags of lost property to find things. Why were there as many as five bin bags of lost property, you may ask? Well, I can tell you why, children must be independent of course, from age 4!! If they drop things on the floor and it gets kicked about that is their own fault! Don't expect a teacher to help. Some parents were so unhappy, they have removed their children from this school & many more parents would, if they could find places elsewhere. (With the same educational standards) Some of the teachers should consider jobs in the prison service rather than a primary school. My advice would be to avoid this school.
Apr 30th, 2019

Nov 1st, 2016