# Darrick Wood School — Orpington, United Kingdom > School profile on SchoolBrowse, based on verified parent reviews. > HTML version: https://schoolbrowse.com/gb/orpington/darrick-wood-school-12103 ## At a glance - **Type:** Secondary - **Parent rating:** 1.7/5 from 20 published reviews - **Founded:** 1970 - **Principal:** Dr M J Airey ## Contact - **Address:** Orpington, United Kingdom - **Phone:** 1764573539 - **Website:** https://www.darrickwood.bromley.sch.uk - **SchoolBrowse profile:** https://schoolbrowse.com/gb/orpington/darrick-wood-school-12103 ## About Darrick Wood School provides the highest quality inclusive education founded on three Core Values of Respect, Responsibility and Honesty and our Vision for Learning which promotes achievement for all. ## Official rankings - **Ofsted (Behaviour and Attitudes):** Good — May 2024 - **Ofsted (Leadership and Management):** Good — May 2024 - **Ofsted (Overall Effectiveness):** Good — May 2024 - **Ofsted (Personal Development):** Good — May 2024 - **Ofsted (Quality of Education):** Good — May 2024 ## Recent parent reviews - **1/5** — Do not come to this school if you want to go for a good uni: The teachers here are really nice and are very supportive with our studies but the problem lies with headteacher. He is absolutely abysmal and only cares about high grades and not about our wellbeing. He expects us to study 24/7 yet will drone on and on about a healthy work life balance in a boring assembly. Least of all he doesn’t even realise the girls toilets in sixth form are broken and ignores bullying yet will advocate for anti-bullying. *(Oct 2025)* - **1/5** — Disgusting school: Darrick wood is a terrible school and condones bullying, and wrongly punishes the vulnerable. They advocate abusive behavior towards girls and as such bullying is never dealt with properly and parents are not informed and they explicitly damage a child's mental health, shattering confidence through their lack of care, ethics, and disguising correspondence and use of degrading language, if you're lucky enough to get any. They favour the super bright and fail to support those mainstream students t… *(May 2024)* - **1/5** — Find another school for your child: Very disappointed this school always had a good reputation but that's going now, its surprising how much damage a new Headteacher can do to bring this once outstanding school down to good and will probably go down again in the next inspection unless there is a new Headteacher soon as the one in place at the moment is unapproachable and rude and does not seem to care about his pupils or parents. *(Jul 2023)* - **1/5** — VERY DISAPPOINTED: We moved to DW catchment area as it was an outstanding school, my oldest child went there and it was outstanding and got great results and lots of support half way into my middle child being there the Headteacher changed, I thought the school would still be outstanding as the new Headteacher was already working but how wrong I was. The new Headteacher brought the school down to good, I was not surprised as he is arrogant, unsupportive and rude So my young child will not be got there *(Jul 2023)* - **1/5** — Uncaring school: In over 20 years working in Education I've never worked in a school that does not care for there pupils, this was a first it starts with the Head Teacher across the school with the exception of a couple of Teacher. *(Jul 2023)* - **1/5** — Uncaring head teacher: As a year 11 leaver, my head of year was one of the best however my time at Darrick Wood wasn't good as having ADHD there was little support only had one nice teacher that understood me and really cared but she was pushed out when I was in year 10 so I had no support in year 11, head teacher don't care about pupils unless your gonna get good exam results wouldn't recommend to anyone *(Jun 2023)* - **1/5** — Awful school: Please don't send your child to this awful school no duty of care from the head teacher down *(Jun 2023)* - **1/5** — DONT SEND YOUR CHILD TO THIS SCHOOL: Please DON'T send your children to this school it was a good school once but not any more, the head teacher needs to go there is NO duty of care he only interested in pupils that will get high grades *(Jun 2023)* - **1/5** — Awful school don't go there: Awful school no duty of care and does not deal with bullying, head is rude and unapproachable. A lot better schools in Bromley *(Jun 2023)* - **5/5** — Great Sixth Form Experience: Our son is really enjoying his time in the sixth form at Darrick Wood. The teachers are knowledgeable and supportive, and the resources are top-notch. We appreciate the emphasis on ownership and challenge - it's helping our son to develop a sense of independence and responsibility. The only thing that would be nice is more extracurricular activities for older students. *(Feb 2023)* ## Other schools in Orpington - [Manor Oak Primary School](https://schoolbrowse.com/gb/orpington/manor-oak-primary-school-15413) — 4.8/5 (4 reviews) - [Gray's Farm Primary Academy](https://schoolbrowse.com/gb/orpington/grays-farm-primary-academy-14754) — 4.8/5 (4 reviews) - [Harris Primary Academy Orpington](https://schoolbrowse.com/gb/orpington/harris-primary-academy-orpington-17866) — 4.7/5 (4 reviews) - [St Philomena's Primary School](https://schoolbrowse.com/gb/orpington/st-philomenas-primary-school-16255) — 4.6/5 (4 reviews) - [Newstead Wood School](https://schoolbrowse.com/gb/orpington/newstead-wood-school-12250) — 4.6/5 (4 reviews) - [Downe Primary School](https://schoolbrowse.com/gb/orpington/downe-primary-school-22647) — 4.3/5 (4 reviews) --- Source: SchoolBrowse (https://schoolbrowse.com) — reviews and ratings are user-submitted by parents. 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