I went to Ashcroft from year 7 right through to the end of sixth form. This was during the reign of Marcus Barker, who for historical reasons that you can Google is no longer there. He and his deputies ran a tight ship.

I left a few years ago now but the 7 years I was there was generally quite good.

The maths, science, humanities and english departments were the best in terms of quality of teachers. This may have changed by now but in the technology classes such as ICT, the teachers allowed the kids to get away with a lot and were often quite stretched. In sixth form, I had a teacher that taught 4 separate subjects for 2 or 3 different year groups. It showed in his quality of teaching and it ended with me having to drop one of my favourite subjects for A2 because I didn’t feel supported in the subject. Other than this experience, I found the teaching quality in general quite spectacular.

Teachers cared and were willing to give an extra hand to students that showed enthusiasm and a proactive approach to learning.

The facilities were amazing. P.E, engineering, music and the arts always had great resources.

As someone else in this thread has mentioned though, it is historically quite strict and will hand out detentions for very minor infractions and for trivial reasons. Such as a slightly untucked shirt, a tie shorter than 5 buttons, getting caught speaking during a register call or being 30 seconds late into school (no excuses allowed). And they wouldn’t hesitate to give a detention during lunchtime which sometimes meant you may have struggled to find time to eat. This did mean that there was rarely any misbehaving from students for fear of detention.

In the later year groups though, once the teachers know you you’re given more leniency and freedom, especially as a prefect in year 11.

Overall, I would recommend Ashcroft for a child that does well with following rules and can hold themselves accountable. From my perspective as a student at Ashcroft, the strict nature of the school rarely benefited the kids with behavioural difficulties (unless it was special needs, they were great with special needs students).

Hi Franny.
I have a child, she is in year 7 currently; she quite enjoyed Ashcroft.
She said the teachers are very good academically, and the atmosphere and people in Ashcroft are very kind and are willing to help. The teachers may be quite scary at first, but my daughter realised that the teachers are just trying to do their best to make you successful.
Yours sincerely,
Ash 🙂

I agree that management seem cold, but I think they need to be so they’re able to control the potentially badly-behaved students.

My son got a specialist place at Ashcroft a couple of years ago. When we enquired what it meant it didn’t seem to be any different to getting a normal place, no special classes or trips of anything, which we were a bit disappointed in.

I also agree with the previous posters view that the senior leadership team are very cold. Our son also has a chronic medical condition which requires him to have a mobile phone to monitor his condition and they refused to relax the no mobile phone policy despite us offering to get our hospital consultant to explain why this was essential. So needless to say, we opted for elsewhere and my son is very happy there and the school are very accommodating to his needs.

Hi, I wonder if your child got in this academy and if you have any feedback or any more information.

We were also under the impression that they would give more focus to DT/Computer Science/Coding. But at open evening it seemed that they only do the same as other academies?

I am keen to hear views on the technology/science/STEAM in the school? My son say the aptitude test and is on the waiting list (we are out of catchment for the open places so further down) and maybe naively I thought this was because the school specialises in these areas but on the open day learned all students follow the same curriculum. Does you know if the curriculum offers more than other schools in DT and Science? My son is very into coding and was keen on this school because of its name but I am wondering if its actually any different to any other state comprehensive in terms of what they teach and offer?

Thanks

My son went to Ashcroft.  It's a good school but doesn't suit everyone.  It's very strict and they dish out a lot of detentions to get students in line, which can be a little demoralising for students at times, especially new ones.  I work at another school and we always get a few in year transfer requests from Y7s and Y8s who have gone to Ashcroft but can't hack the discipline.  

I found the approach of the school quite cold - from Head's talk to contacting reception - and they can lack the human touch sometimes e.g. giving my son a 15 hour catch up detention for missing two days of school to attend a family funeral out of London.  They get good results though. 

They were excellent at supporting my son through his GCSEs and his Head of Year in the upper years was great.  Go in with your eyes open as if a student isn't making the grade, they won't be kept on for 6th Form which can be a shock for some parents (and students). 

We didn't send our daughter there as it wouldn't have been the right school for her and she didn't like it when we looked around but we are glad our son went there.  He didn't stay on for 6th form out of choice as he wanted a change and to go to a specialist Sixth Form.

It really helps thank you. I've read such horrible stories about other schools that seemed nice so I wanted to make sure that our first impressions and the reputation is good before submitting the application.
 

A friend of mine has two children there and is really happy with Ashcroft academy.

Hi. we are in the process of applying for schools. We quite liked Ashcroft. I would like to have the views of parents who have kids there: how do you feel about the school? Academically, frienships. Do your kids feel safe? How are the teachers? any info will really help. Thank you!