Beechen Cliff concerns

[Celeano]

Thinking about Bath secondary schools, i know Beechen Cliff boys had a terrible ofsted a couple years ago which naturally rang alarm bells but it seemed to be based round 2 high profile incidents. So I wasn’t too concerned about academics and general school life. School then forced to join a multi academy trust (lots of local schools in it so no worries about that)
However exam results aren’t particularly stand out any more, they used to be best A level and GCSEs in the area but now seem just ok, came out average in recent league tables. And the most recent interim Ofsted report on website is very worrying, ok it’s boarding inspection only but considering it’s a year on from the full Ofsted I would have expected things to be much better. Sounds like small improvement have been made but still a lack of accountability and staff not being monitored effectively.
I wouldn’t be looking at boarding places so that doesn’t affect me directly but is this indicative of what’s happening in the wider school? I think any school can have a bad event happen to them but surely following that you would expect real improvement a year later.
Facilities, sport etc are great, lots of trips and so on which is appealing but that’s the icing on the cake. It’s the more serious stuff I want to know about

[Celeano]

Anyone?

[Saladaysior]

My ds left a few years back thank god because it’s gone down the pan the last two years. He was a day pupil but I wouldn’t put a kid in boarding there, i too have seen and heard that Ofsted report. No accountability says it all.

[Caelano]

Just updating now that we’ve made the decision on schools and are going for a mixed boys and girls school. Pleased with our decision, particularly as there has recently been another racist incident at Beechen reported in the press. Something to do with boarding - we were looking at a day place anyway but we’re very relieved we went for Ralph Allen instead

[BooksintheBath]

Hi, we went through this a couple of years ago (I had a thread on here about it) and chose RAS in the end and I am SO glad we did. DS is thriving, has an amazing bunch of friends (boys and girls) and was so well supported throughout lockdown – interestingly Beechen did absolutely zero live online learning, not even for friends' sons who were in year 10, but still piled the pressure on them to be keeping up at home which caused a lot of stress. RAS in contrast place a big emphasis on mental health, wellbeing and nurturing individuality and this has borne out well in my son's experience - and he's also challenged and stimulated by the academic side of things. It's truly a brilliant school.

It's very disappointing that there's been another racist incident at Beechen and sadly I think it's indicative of a major culture problem within the school. I've definitely noticed a certain pressure to conform to being a particular type of boy, which is evident in many of my friends' children and primary school friends of my DS who went there.