Uffculme school

[Hopscotch89]

Evening all! I am looking to move towards Tiverton and the catchment area of the house I am interested in is for Uffculme Secondary School.

I have a 9 year old who will be looking to go to the secondary school in a couple of years. Can anyone advise me as to what Uffculme is like now for the secondary school? I have checked SchoolParrot and the reviews were… mixed.

Thank you!

Bump

That was an interesting read! I was a pupil there decades ago, so my experience won't tell you what the school.is like now.

I would say, though, that the bullying was pretty bad in my day, and I always felt it was connected with being in a rural area that tends to lack much social movement and diversity.

A friend who was a social worker - this was about 20 years ago - talked once about how impossible it was to get the school to acknowledge the child he was working with was being bullied because of his race. My friend's comment was 'when kids get bullied because they come from the next valley, what on earth do they think happens to kids with a different colour skin?'

Anyway, those experiences are a long time ago, and maybe the small rural communities that are in catchment are a bit more open minded now.

Thanks @Baital - the SchoolParrot reviews are reflective of what you’ve said. Also, the last Ofsted was 2014 when it was classed as Outstanding, so I’m confused as to why it’s not had another inspection in 10 years? Your comments are food for thought, thank you.

It was really popular until recently but I've heard negative things about it lately regarding bullying. We live about 20 minutes drive away and there was always 1 or 2 children at my dc primary school who moved house temporarily to get their child into uffculme school. I've noticed that hasn't happened in the last couple of years but that could be because our local school has improved quite a lot.

Thanks @elliejjtiny - similarly, the people I know who went there, are now in their 40s, so their experiences are from years and years ago. This bullying issue is the main thing concerning me, as we have had severe bullying issues where my Dc currently is (severe end of the bullying scale, whereby the school called the police on the children attacking my Dc). It would be interesting to know what it is like there now - hopefully things are still good in terms of education / sports opportunities, but the reviewers mentioned that bullying is still rife.