John Betts Primary School

They have very incompetent staff. One day I called to know if my son was in and they didn't know. After a few calls they decided to tell me that they couldn't find him. When I nicely told them that I needed to know for sure, as this was crucial information for a court case, the lady hanged up the phone on me. I called again and Sue Harris (who is also the complaints coordinator) told me that my son was definitely in, when he actually wasn't, as I later found out. She also refused to let me have the name of the lady who hanged up the phone on me... she said that she had no idea who she might be. They probably sat together in the very same office. I found it totally unacceptable that the complaint coordinator was obstructive when I wanted to make a complaint about the lady sitting next to her. I decided to make an official complaint and they didn't acknowledge receipt of it; I had to write in twice asking for confirmation of receipt. Then they told me that I would have heard from them within ten working days, as per their complain protocol. A response came back 17 days later and it was a ludacris display of made up lies to protect their colleagues. I am disgusted of their behaviour and even more so about their response to my complaint. I wasn't happy about how they educated my children. At the end of year six my son has no idea about the world's capitals, the location of many major countries, continents, he has never heard of Napoleon and several other crucial historic personalities. He has taken Italian lessons for two years and he doesn't know a single Italian word, other than "ciao". What a waste of time! My kids complained throughout their time at John Betts about the food; they always said that it was terrible and they never ate much of it. They always came back home very hungry and off course children are not allowed to bring their own lunch. Another thing that really upset me is that they were so keen on telling parents not to film or take any pictures at the end of year play, but after two years I'm still unable to obtain a copy of the recording. I wrote several times enquiring about it, but I never received a reply. I called a number of times, but the same incompetent and rude lady who answers the phone, could never tell me anything about it. One thing this school is very good at is asking for donations. They send several emails per week asking for money for all sort of things and this was really annoying. If I had to go through it all over again, I would choose a different school.