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Secondary education

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Thomas Bennet Community College Review any thoughts

5 replies

Diamondsandpearls100 · 30/04/2025 22:58

We live in the catchment area of Crawley for Thomas Bennett Secondary School. Does anybody have any up to date information about the school first or second hand please? Thank you.

OP posts:
pinkbonbons · 01/05/2025 08:16

No idea if this is helpful or not but some of my friends went 10 years ago and it was a really rough school.

Diamondsandpearls100 · 02/05/2025 20:32

Hi there, thanks for replying. I mean the Ofsted report says good and Im sure its changed since then. Just dont know anyone who has been there in recent times.

OP posts:
TBCCparent · 03/05/2025 09:18

Hi op, do you have a DC who has been given a place from September? Or are you thinking of moving to avoid (which is quite a common thing).

I don’t have experience of any other school in the area so difficult to know how TBCC compares, but what I would say, is that there is a high level of staff turnover, a high level of supply teachers, a lot of disruption in lessons.
If you have a child that is able and willing to learn, then they will likely do ok but they will need to be very self motivated. They likely won’t be pushed by the school, as they’ll be too busy trying to control the rest of the class. If you have a child who is easily distracted and needs support, they’ll get by.
If you have a SEN child, or a child with additional needs, it can be very hit or miss.

There are some great teachers at the school, but there are a lot of inexperienced teachers who discover that teaching isn’t for them. I get that our children want to be treated as young adults, but teaching staff should keep their thoughts on their peers to themselves.

There has been a change of leadership recently, with the previous head returning, which has apparently seen some former staff return. There are some in the leadership team that really strive to try and make a difference.

Diamondsandpearls100 · 03/05/2025 18:43

@TBCCparent thanks for that. I was trying to find someone who has had some recent experience with the school. We are hoping to do an in-year application on the 20th May. DS is currently in Y9. The constant travelling back and fourth to current school for him is very stressful. To cut a long story short I wanted him to go to a school in Crawley whereas he wanted to stay in school in the area we used to live in. Now even he is finding it stressful as sometimes it can take him 1.5 to 2 hours to come back on his own. (Always problems with the buses.) We will be looking at it again as this would be the last year we can try to move as he only has 2 years till his GCSE's. He has said he wants to move as he really hates current school. When you look at it teachers do move often but it is a bit hard to know with this school as we dont know anyone who currently attends.
DD is in Y13 at Hazelwick and she got on quite well there.

OP posts:
TBCCparent · 03/05/2025 19:12

Hazelwick would be a better school to try and get him into, although the focus is very much on being academic so if he’s not so much that way inclined, may struggle.

TBCC doesn’t do triple science (in case he’s looking to go into medicine or science) and I’ve heard they’ve dropped computer science for the new GCSE year, as they don’t have staff to teach it. The current year 11s spent the first GCSE year without a teacher!

I don’t have anything to compare it to, but do wish I’d moved my DCs.

But, for the most part, the staff are quick to sort issues and most seem to be fair. There is a fair bit of bad behaviour, truancy as likely with most schools. I think things may improve now with the old head now back. There are plenty of after school activities and lunch clubs too.

If DS is motivated and not easily distracted he’ll probably be ok. You could ask on one of the local facebook groups but I suspect you wouldn’t get much positivity!

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