Colchester High School and Nursery

Our son joined CHS at the beginning of Year 6 and it has been the best move we have made for him! He has been given wonderful opportunities to deepen his strengths and nurtured in areas of development. The teachers have been quite magnificent and have given him a safe, happy place to thrive. Such lovely pupils too. Thank you CHS.

My daughter recently started at the High School in Reception and I can already see a difference in her- she’s so much more confident in herself and her academic progress has been remarkable.The staff have been very welcoming and the communication with parents is first class. The children are being given a really well rounded education and my daughter always comes home with lots of positive stories about her friends and the things she has learnt.I highly recommend this school!

We visited Colchester High School recently to provide our educational shows and workshops about friendship and respecting others. The school team were incredibly friendly and could not have been more welcoming. The students were thoughtful, respectful, and behaved in a very mature manner throughout the workshops and show. We were very impressed by both the students and teachers, and thoroughly enjoyed our visit. Thank you for having us and for being so welcoming.

Disgusting waste of money!! Do not send your kids here the staff are rude and the education is rubbish! They employ teachers who are to young and have no experience and the turn over of staff is so bad that you never know each year if you will return to the same teacher !! Parking is also a problem !! Moaning and rude residents near the school mean that it makes it impossible to collect your child / children as parking attendants are always roaming and I had been issued at least 10 tickets and I had a permit to park from the council for drop time but all activities as booked outside of your permit hours leaving you to pay for parking as well as fees. Go to a school that teaches your child / children the correct way to not waste your money as its a town school with no land for sports leaving the children cramped into small class rooms and this is not reflected in the fees!

I am happy to say that at last my child no longer needs to spend another day at this dreadful school having through his own endeavours achieved a decent set of GCSE results.If I could have posted zero stars I would have.Well qualified and enthusiastic teachers used to compensate for the total lack of facilities but each year has seen that diminish.The extraordinary turnover of the schools senior management team has resulted in a dire collection of individuals who would be considered totally unsuitable in any other school let alone one in the fee paying private sector.Although entry requirements are non existent the majority of the children attending are delightful and many have external tuition to supplement the poor quality teaching. Standards of pastoral care are shocking and when an angry staff member smears glue across a child's face for not cleaning a table properly you know that the place has issues!Many other parents have expressed their disappointment with the running of the school in recent years but it's always difficult to move your child away from their friends and it should be a good school- but it isn't.My advice is chose somewhere else from the start.

Our only experience of independent education, having been very happy with state in the past. We wanted a secondary school that would celebrate and value the individual in our child. The surroundings were of little interest, we are not aspirational or social climbers who need a fancy setting. Also we were not prepared to submit our 11 year old to a life of commuting to Ipswich. We were looking for dedicated staff and a place for our son to breathe, grow and shine. We found it and feel it was one of our best decisions in parenting. I would not have sent a daughter there, St Mary's would have provided the same for them, but we feel our son's talents and abilities have been noted ,encouraged and realised . As he prepares to leave after 5 years,he is a credit to us and the school.

Colchester High School recognises and celebrates the brilliance of each individual child. Staff really care about the children and academically they help pupils to grow in confidence while challenging them to be the best they can. The site is a typical town centre venue so doesn’t have the spacious surroundings, grounds or parking of some private schools, but look past this and you will find a hidden gem of a school.My kids love it!

As a former pupil of this school I can only say I had a horrible experience, at first it was ok but then later on changes in the management made it worse and several teachers left.Some of the teachers had their favourites and I wasn’t fairly treated at all, I even once got in trouble for when someone provoked me and I did nothing wrong.Several things at the school weren’t dealt with properly at all, I remember of one incident there where a pupil managed to hack a staff members computer account and access sensitive student information.Once I left the school everything got better, I decided to go to a local comprehensive school and it was probably the best decision I ever made, much better choice of subjects and it did a lot better for me socially too, I even hit higher GCSE results than what CHS predicted, the truth is this school has very poor standards and I would not recommend to anyone.

My son in currently attending and my daughter starts in September. Kate, the admissions co-ordinator is faultless in her job as are the other staff I have met so far. My son is very happy there and his confidence has really improved which means more than any reviews or opinions. I would recommend this school to anyone.

Our daughter recently started at CHS in the Upper School. We have found the school very welcoming from the start and we (our whole family) are very impressed with our experience so far. Teachers seem very professional, competent and friendly. Our daughter says The teachers are great. Their teaching style is fun