Bishop Walsh Catholic School

Especially if you have bad mental health this school is horrific. So many unnecessary rules, it’s not even to provide the best education it’s simply just to try and control you. You feel constantly scrutinised and watched 24/7. Teachers are very strict and entitled, unnecessarily rude and snappy towards students. They are more than happy to put relentless pressure on their students to the point where it is detrimental to their wellbeing and self image if it means they get to uphold their reputation for getting good Ofsted reports. Since moving schools, my grades dramatically improved (8s and 9s) because i can actually focus on my education. Honestly there is no better way to describe it than a prison.

Awful school. Awful experience. They are not inclusive.

absolute waste of 5 years, went on one school trip the entire time and it was to piss poor drayton manor. the only language subject there is now I believe is spanish as the school has lost all funding. not sure where the money they were given by the council went lol!!! probably on the cctv cameras they have plastered in every corner (even in the loos).

the "food" is the most horrendous thing I have ever seen let alone tasted. the gravy genuinely gives people food poisoning and a piece of cardboard has more nutritional value than their excuse for a pizza. dont even get me started on the christmas dinner. the teaching is so bad that i had to have resources from the school my mom works at in order to chance at passing my gcses. around 75% of the teachers cared more about making the school look good than the wellbeing of the students, the remaining 25% were living legends but their legacy has been tarnished by the majority i fear.

the outdoor break time was just a large, depressing car park. the classrooms smelled of socks, were musty and the majority of teachers can't control a classroom. the "temporary classrooms" at the back of the aforementioned car park can't be all that temporary as they were there for the whole 5 years I was, the state of them as well, the roof on one of them caved in and they were giving pupils and teachers "minor respiratory illnesses" according to brum mail. during lockdown, many schools were making students go on google meets or zoom to complete lessons for the day. what were walsh doing? putting pointless assignments on google classroom and just hoping you did them.

they rewarded misbehaving students for doing the bare minimum instead of rewarding normal students for being actual pleasant human beings, granted there weren't many of them. pastoral care is a JOKE!!!!!!!! you have to book an appointment to go and speak to one of them??? this is not my local gp I'll have you know. if you dared to go and see one of them NOT between the hours of 8:30 to 8:50 and 11:30 to 11:45 and you DIDNT have an appointment you will be met with a no even if you are bawling.

the a level options are extremely poor, no foreign languages, music, media, sociology, anything important really. the school is oversubscribed which leads to canteen lines longer than the river nile. they are so worried about strangers infiltrating the school so the gates are just closed all the time and I couldn't get out after school unless a car set off the automatic gates (basically never), own clothes days were banned in case someone came into the school posing as a student.

if you dared to come in a second after 8:50, god forbid 8:51, you are met with a 20 minute detention after school, even if it was out of your control ie. your bus was late or there were delays in the road like a crash or slippery snow. speaking of snow, on the rare occasion it did snow throwing snowballs was a banned activity for some reason.

they would periodically do 'uniform checks' which involved teachers (some male) getting down and checking girls skirts to make sure they are the correct length and aren't rolled up. not sure why they're so bothered tbf. i got repeated detentions for having my skirt rolled up in year 9 despite the fact i wore trousers. you weren't allowed to leave the lesson to go to the toilet on your own, if you were bursting you would need a member of SLT to accompany you to the toilet, most stupid rule i've possibly ever heard.

I'd avoid tbh xx

My worst nightmare, referring sending my children. It used to be a great school but after chang in management it went downhill

Since the change in management the school has gone downhill, I regret sending my children to Bishop Walsh.

Horrible. Never send your kid here unless you want them to come out totally drained mentally and physically.

Amazing school with staff who truly care about their job and the students .Fabulous leadership and we love the discipline and strict boundaries .It makes such a difference And it’s massively noticed when you see students from other schools.My child is a different child as they didn’t have anywhere the same confidence at primary school as they do now and got the brilliant staff at bishop walsh to thank for that.Every day so grateful for the amazing staff that work here and they deserve an award .Hope they get recognition one day.

We've been impressed by the school's Catholic values, the excellent facilities and the supportive staff. Our daughter enjoys the Enrichment and Careers program and we appreciate the school's focus on holistic education. Highly recommended!

We've had a mixed experience with Bishop Walsh, the facilities are great and the staff are generally supportive, but we've noticed some inconsistencies in the way things are managed. Our child enjoys the Duke of Edinburgh Award program, but we've had some issues with communication from the school. We'll see how things go in the next year.

Teachers don’t care about anything other than religion and grades at the expense of childrens mental health. You have religion forced down your throats. One of my essay convulsions wasn’t even marked because I said that I didn’t agree with catholics in RE. Lack of sex ed, distasteful assemblies on sexual assault in which they said “don’t put yourself in a situation where you can be raped” and too strict on things that do not matter.

shit school dont bother going

Great lessons and lesson opportunities, you learn in greater depth and it is also one of the best educated schools in birmingham. Only downside for me is that some of the staff (especially office staff) can come across as moody. Apart from that I rate it 3/5.

We had a great experience with Bishop Walsh, the school's pastoral support was excellent and helped our child overcome some challenges. The staff were always approachable and the school's community was warm and welcoming. We're grateful for the opportunities our child was given.

Enjoyable
Love the extra curricular
Sport 5/5
Fun lessons

It’s an amazing school, I 100% recommend it as the teachers are very helpful and if you are ever stuck you can go and ask them for help. We have learning cycles 3 times a year (they are tests but they aren’t to bad) which we get told about a good few weeks in advanced. The teachers are great and there is definitely a range of activities.

I went from y7 in y11 now was hard at the start but the school becomes a big happy part of your life and there's gonna be slot of people upset to leave this year !

Bishop Walsh!
Teachers are great and very knowledgeable in their subjects they support and, motivate students to do their best which is one thing I admire about the teachers of Bishop Walsh.
Indoor environment-I feel very safe at my school I believe if anything bad was to happen e.g a fire it would be handled sensibly, quickly and with care. Lessons are very well thought out we have a very hands on experience where it’s fun but, also educational I especially enjoy when we play the game called Kahoot which is a quiz game.Its a fun competition in the classroom where we have to answer the questions quickly and, it gets us all thinking.
At Bishop Walsh we have many activities to participate in such as Sport,drama and many others there are also many opportunities to go on school trips which are incredible learning experiences.
Bullying everyone has a different experience at school with friendship their is bullying at every school this isn’t the schools fault it’s the students themselves schools don’t necessarily know what to do when it comes to bullying because they don’t know if it’s going to make that student more vulnerable or anxious I believe Bishop Walsh could handle it a bit better but it’s a very Difficult situation for every individual.
Sport the sport opportunity’s at Bishop Walsh are absolutely incredible if you love sport I recommend you consider coming to Bishop Walsh.
School information very good although I think it would be better if we had more newsletters but over all we have announcements every morning in forms and we have a homework diary which we write important dates and also homework.
Bishop Walsh is a good school make the most of your education!