Landywood Primary School - Walsall

Theodosoulla Gavriel

I have been a parent at Landywood for 12 years. There have been many changes to the school over the years but I have always found Landywood to be a friendly, community driven, safe environment for my children. Both my children have been, and are very happy at the school. They both came to the school as very shy, quiet and reserved children but through the brilliant teaching they have received over the years and the extra curricular opportunities presented to them they have both become confident, engaging individuals. My daughter is entering her final year at Landywood and will be very sad to leave.

There have been many positive changes to the school in recent years, namely achieving a Good Ofsted report under the new headship. The school advocates tolerance, respect and inclusion to all parents, teachers and pupils.

Dawn Prodger

I have a daughter at Landywood who is now entering her final year. My daughter feels safe and happy at Landywood. After many changes over the last few years I believe Landywood just keeps on improving. I would highly recommend Landywood as a school to other parents. I have found any concerns I have had we're listened to and feedback from parents is regularly asked for. The staff are friendly and give up their time to run amazing after school clubs to give the children even more opportunities on their journey through school. My daughter has enjoyed going on school trips giving her new and exciting experiences. I am very proud of my daughter's achievements at Landywood due to the brilliant teaching. The office staff do an amazing job. We receive newsletters texts. There is an app keeping us informed and lots of workshops and meetings during and after school for parents to get involved.

Michelle Bartlett

I have two children a Landywood one just going Into year 6 and one into year two. We have seen many changes at Landywood over the Last few years but the current headship is taking the school from strength to strength. My children have been nothing but happy at the school and my eldest will be very sad to leave next year. I am a working parent but don't feel excluded and communication is on the whole very good.

Nicki Hamilton

Landywood school has gone through dramatic changes in the last five years, with many changes in leadership and teaching practice. As a parent sometimes this change has been fast paced but the overall impact for the school, staff and children has been amazing- especially now as Ofsted measured us as Good, with praise for all the work undertaken.

The children take an active role in looking after their school and each other and the regular celebratory events that take place (sports weeks, summer BBQ, parents workshops and evenings etc) allow families to feel a part of the school.

Regular newsletters, communication home (by text and letter) mean as a parent you remain informed of events and the office/reception staff are always happy to help when needed.

My children are happy here. The teaching is not only led by academic guidelines and focus, but also done with care, personally and pastorally, to make sure my children feel cared for and valued too, something which is way more important to us as a family.

Julie Adams

Before writing this review I would like to qualify myself by saying I have worked in Early Years Management for 4 years and have am fortunate enough to have experienced great settings and practice in delivery of the EYFS. Unfortunately Landywood fell well below par on both these counts. My daughter spent one year in the reception class and, by the end, both my partner and I were quite desperate to remove her. Although I appreciate this wont be the experience of all parents, I feel compelled to share ours because it was so awful and has left me feeling extremely stressed even after having transferred her to another school. The culture at the school is very cliquey and you are either in or out and, as a working parent, you are generally out. On a basic level I was never told the names of the teachers, teaching my child, and there seemed to be a lot of them, nor the name of her class, nor her house. It took almost the duration of the year to get even these basic details. I would describe the tone the school took in communications to parents as condescending and patronizing. The culture (which is my main gripe as I will go on to explain) was one of 'do as we say, not as we do'. I felt the staff bullied the children and I will give examples of what I mean by this. On one occasion my daughter told me of an incident when all the children in the class were put on the sunshine (the classroom behavior management system) and one child was put on the rain-cloud. I asked her why and she told me that this 4 year old boy had been crying for his mum and so been punished for this. On another occasion my daughter had left her water bottle in another classroom and 3 teachers stood around her chastising her quite unnecessarily harshly for her 'crime'. There seems to be a general enjoyment of taunting the children and ganging up on them and I experienced this directly myself when I tried to complain and 4 teacher gathered around me to denigrate me. It does not foster a culture of 'working in partnership with parents', nor does it create an atmosphere where a parent can report concerns. There is no redress in a place that closes ranks so effectively. I constantly felt uncomfortable going into the classroom to collect my daughter at the end of the day because of the unpleasant and antagonistic vibe coming off the teachers. In addition, although personalities are undoubtedly an issue, I felt the problem of treating parents as inferiors was a very top-down problem. When the school held a family barbecue to celebrate the royal wedding children were invited to pay £3 to obtain a token entitling them a hot-dog, ice cream and fizzy drink. My daughter (aged 5) had never had a can of fizzy drink and I wasn't that happy about it but that wasn't the thing that gave me issue. At the bottom of the same newsletter was a note saying that parents were not to bring in fizzy drinks for their children as this was unhealthy. The double standard seemed completely lost on them and when I emailed my thoughts on the matter I was ignored. It is very difficult to point to specific examples when you feel that a problem is 'cultural' as it is often subtle and more about how you feel, but this was a very real example of how the school operates an unofficial 'we know better than parents' policy. It's impossible to cover everything in this review but I've tried to give an indication of why we were so unhappy. Overall I feel parents and children are at best denigrated and at worst bullied by staff. I feel incredibly sad about it because, superficially the school is lovely. It sits in lovely grounds and appears to be an inviting place for primary school children to thrive. Unfortunately, when you lift the hood there is something rather rotten underneath and I feel for the children who still have to go there. I couldn't recommended it less.

Michelle Jenkinson

School

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