Hurst - A warning

[jvon]

If you are thinking of sending your child to Hurst, please save yourself the heartache. We consistently reported, bullying, racism and marijuana. Instead of dealing with disruptive pupils, they focused on making my daughters life a living hell and completely ignored the racism and bullying. This is what I received today, the behaviour seems to have escalated and Mr Mott the head has simply failed to tackle it.

I’m sorry to hear that your DD had a horrible time at Hurst. You are not the first person I’ve heard similar things from. Thanks for sharing the letter.

@jvon Has your daughter remained at Hurst or have you moved her elsewhere? Is this an ongoing issue? I'm looking at Hurst for my DC so interested to hear how this has been dealt with.

I notice he makes no mention of the bullying/racism in that letter so looks like that is still being ignored.

Hi, I moved her to worth Abbey. Shes flourishing and couldn't be happier. According to my daughters friends who still attend Hurst its worse than ever. The issue is the current head. An awful, ignorant little man who prioritises the wrong issues.

Following as my daughter is looking at Hurst for my granddaughter.

@jvon Thank you, good to know.

I'm sorry that your daughter had such a bad time at Hurst. I have to say that our experience has been completely opposite to yours and we're really pleased with the school as are many people I know with children there. My child is really happy, thriving and from what they say, the school has come down hard on any bullying that they are aware of (he's never experienced it). We also received the letter you posted. I am confident that they dealt really well with what was a difficult situation and a significant number of pupils were expelled. Realistically, there is no school in the UK that hasn't had to deal with bullying and drugs (don't believe them if they say it doesn't happen at their school!), and I don't think that Hurst is any worse than anywhere else. It is a big school and with that many kids issues will arise. I would say that my child is a boy, so perhaps bullying among boys is easier to deal with as it tends to be physical and easier to spot. Bullying among girls tends to be move verbal and harder to prove, so this may be an issue - I don't know. I am also aware that there is a year group at Hurst, which is known to be particularly challenging, so I suspect your daughter may have been in that year. I just wanted to write about our experience to give readers another view of a family's experience of the school.

I am pleased your child is thriving at Hurstpierpoint. In contrast, our DS had a fairly miserable time there and transferring him to another school has proved to be our best parenting decision. Our experience was that the school seemed to prioritise growth at the expense of pupil wellbeing. We didn’t feel that the school provided a particularly kind or nurturing environment, and we found that the pastoral care was lacking. For example, when our DS, a boarder, was struggling, the standard response was simply to suggest switching to flexi-boarding. There was no effort to explore the underlying causes or to improve the boarding experience itself.
Hurst may suit children who are very academic or sporty, ideally both, but others could become lost in a large, rigid system. To us, it felt overly strict and focused on the wrong things.
While the Hurst teacher training programme brings in young, enthusiastic staff, we found that many lacked the experience or confidence to support teenagers in a holistic way. Compounding this is Hurst’s reluctance (and the previous head spoke openly about this at an open morning) to bring in senior-level teachers from outside, who might introduce new ideas and fresh perspectives. Leadership roles are always filled internally, which only reinforces the existing culture. Reading this thread, it looks as though things might not have changed.

Reading that sounds like the head is on the ball and taking decisive action. My nephews are past pupils and had very positive experiences.

What’s the latest on the school? Mr Mott seems to be elsewhere and there’s a new female Head on position now, it seems?

Thanks. Everyone I work with at awe who came from that school SLATES it…..
A lot of them are pickers and packers too, so not exactly churning out the brains of Britain either. State schools in UK eh?

What’s awe?

As always on here, I’d say don’t be spooked by one disenchanted parent.

Hurst is a reasonable school. Not really a boarding school anymore, more day with beds some nights a week. Tends to be the children who wouldn’t get into BC and want to stay local. As Seaford’s academics have improved over the last couple of years, they’ve stolen a bit of a march on Hurst, but I still know happy parents there. I’d probably recommend Lancing over it for children with particular talents, but an ok option for parents wanting weekly boarding at an achievable price point.

Any school can have issues periodically.

I’d heard, from current pupils, that they just expelled about 10 year 10 pupils for drugs. While I accept all senior schools will have drugs I’m more concerned at the age of the pupils. I was considering Hurst but this, and the implied widespread ease of availability has rather put me off.

There's quite a lot on this thread that's just wrong.

To start with the school is about 50% boarding - mainly weekly with some flexi.

If your kid isn't academic, sporty, musical, into drama or SOMETHING (all of which are amazing at the school) then you're wasting the money on any fee paying school - best to just grind out the exams at a comp.

I've put three kids through about 9 different schools, two of which spent their best years at Hurst. In terms of bullying, drug use, racism etc. it's as good as it gets. The pastoral care is extraordinary. They had one issue with weed which clustered in one year group and had to make a tough call, I don't envy whoever had to lead on that decision, there was no way for anyone to come out of it well.

Academically it's level pegging with BC and about as selective at yr 9, the difference is it doesn't expel the less able children for minor infractions or bump them down to 7 GCSEs / 2 a-levels to tidy up their stats. If you look at the value add scores at hurst they're incredible.

BC is a truly ghastly place and I've seen countless kids and teachers burn out and leave or get kicked out. The main place they shine is their incredibly slick marketing/bragging.