Cognita Schools Reviews 12

The head management really Bad , can not responsible for what we already told your staff York prep school already and look like staff been override by lower positions, regarding custodian ACTING BOSS, and always said SCHOOL PAID already to the place they renting in the Block Associated West 68st , so who care what we want do to block associated west 68st building.
This Custodian OUT off rules, ARROGANT, should be FIRE IMMEDIATELY.

I am writing to express my profound disappointment with Cognita following their decision to close my son’s school during the critical period of his GCSE examinations. This decision, made with minimal notice and inadequate support, has placed an unacceptable burden on students and families at a time when stability and focus are paramount.

Cognita consistently promotes student wellbeing and educational excellence as central tenets of its mission. Regrettably, our experience does not reflect these values. The manner in which this closure has been handled — without viable alternatives or a meaningful transition plan — suggests that the welfare of students has not been a priority.

The lack of foresight, communication, and consideration shown is deeply concerning. My son, like many others, has been left in an extremely vulnerable academic position at one of the most pivotal moments of his education.

It is profoundly disappointing to witness such a disconnect between an organisation’s stated ethos and its actions when it matters most.

A company that builds their empire on selling bright futures for kids but doesn’t hesitate to destroy them for profit.

Our daughter attended CHS for 3 years.

Easter 2024 she became deeply unhappy at the school due to friendship issues, which, despite some effort by the pastoral team, were not solved. Finally, we took the stressful and difficult decision to move our daughter to another local school.
We gave the school around 17 weeks’ notice before the start of the next term, that our daughter would be leaving. Contractually we had to give the school an exact school term’s notice which is around 13 weeks. We were told at the time that we may have to pay for the next term according to the contract as we had not given them an exact term’s notice but that discretion could be shown in such circumstances.
We have been informed by parents that the place that our daughter vacated was filled for the next term. We felt that because we had given them significantly more notice to fill the place in this instance than our contractual obligation, that the school might reasonably decide to show this discretion and not charge us for a place our daughter was not using and that they had filled.

We did not hear anything from anyone at the school until September when the normal term bill was sent without any additional comment. We repeated our request for discretion to be shown to us, and heard nothing again until a threatening letter was sent to us from their Senior Revenue Manager around 4 days before Christmas. This letter ignored our request and asked us to pay up or they would commence legal action against us.
We replied with several reasonable complaints about the school’s conduct and that they had failed to justify why they felt it was reasonable to hold us to the contract for their fee when we had given them more notice than, the contractual 13 week term, to fill the vacated place. To this we received a reply from the Senior Revenue Manager ignoring our questions and again threatening us with legal action.
After taking legal advice ourselves, we wrote a response simply asking them to answer our questions. Their next response ignored our main question about why they felt enforcing this contract on us was fair. The Revenue Manager even tried to suggest, 3 letters in to a dispute about payment, that they had never even received an appeal from us about this payment.
Throughout this whole process the current Head, Ms. Gracie-Langrick, has not once reached out to us, either about the fees, to simply obtain feedback on our daughter’s troubles or to express concern and regret that our daughter had become so unhappy at the school – this despite us emailing her directly. Furthermore during the distressing period our daughter was having at school, the Head even chose to get directly involved without first speaking to the pastoral care team to find out the exact situation – she assumed incorrectly our daughter and her friend were excluding a more academic pupil and admonished them instead of the pupil who was in the wrong.

Our local MP and her team were surprised by the school’s stance. So much so they have tried numerous times over the past few months to contact them to express their concerns about their treatment of us. To date, neither the Head nor the Senior Revenue Controller have responded to any of their attempts to contact them.

Huddersfield Grammar School.

On first glance, a wonderful school and sanctuary for your child. Under the veneer of decency, it is a completely different story.

Let's get the basics out of the way, complete ineptitude runs from top to bottom at the school. Need a simple admin task performing?! Something like updating an email address?! This will quickly become a protracted event.

The staff have the glossy look of North Korean civilians as they nod and smile, telling you what you want to hear on autopilot. You ponder if they are unhappy and look at Cognita's Glassdoor reviews from staff online. You later discover they are very unhappy.

So you stop seeing the value, a few years down the line your child is unhappy and you're chucking money at these people you grow to hate. So you decide to leave, send a nice email in explaining, several months in advance because it's the British thing to do. The child leaves, and they attempt to sue you.

Why you ponder, what did I do?!

Silly me, the email explaining my child was leaving, sent from the bill payer, sent from the father that enrolled her, wasn't countersigned by my ex-partner.

Do Cognita acknowledge the 'mistake'? No, they double down like some desperate junkie that stepped out infront of your car and knows their rights. They need that money and won't let the right thing get in the way.

"The whole child"

This was my Cognita experience.

After launching an investigation into both Cognita owned and Cognita leased schools, I can say that it is an awfully inadequately managed and lead company and should be immediately restructured. Unfortunately, I have had to escalate my review because upon trying some pasta at an unnamed Cognita institution, I found it was raw and uncooked. I have sent a complaint to the Government Hygiene Foods Agency and they will investigate all 20+ schools across the company in the coming months. I will continue to offer independent reviews - through DATA COLLATORS UK - to help people to be well educated on how Cognita's business is unsustainable and needs to reform in order to improve.

We had financial and medical issues during the first covid lockdown which resulted in our daughter not being able to take up place in Downsend where we forfeited the deposit.
I approached school & head teacher at the time to see if we could find a resolution whom made no attempt to contact me .
They have relentlessly pursued us for fees over the last two years for the first term FILON with no understanding of our circumstances where we have both now instructed solicitors!
I am absolutely appalled even though they have clause in the contract allowing for us this.
It may be a good school but Cognita are ruthless in their behaviour!

Cognita is such a bad company. Like seriously, they have crossed a point in which they can spy EVEN MY HOME COMPUTER. This is ridiculous.

High staff turnover and poor teacher pay (yes this has been said by teachers to students!!). Ruthless pursuit of contracts, deposits and notice periods. Education takes a back seat behind rhetoric and lip service.

I was informed by cognita in an email that I would receive a refund for my course minus an administration fee within 30 days, 2 months later nothing had been done. After I chased them I was informed that the director who had authorised the refund had been sacked and the CEO had now refused to pay any refunds after the initial 2 week cooling off period!!!

Cognita and especially Clifton Lodge is literally the shadiest of shady outfits, teaching staff are inept and leadership is non-existent. Policies are discriminatory and decisive. Clifton Lodge is a prime example of a bad school leadership at this school will lie to cover up their errors all with a smile so they can line their coffers.

We recently approached HUDDERSFIELD GRAMMAR SCHOOL about a place for our 13 year old. The initial enquiry was handled very well, and we paid a deposit of £2000. We became slightly concerned when our telephone calls requesting information were not returned, and when our documents were mislaid. But the main issue was that our daughter made a strong argument for staying at her state school, getting quite upset. Of course, we were also aware of the massive investment required, and the fact that we might end up sending our two pre-schoolers into private education too. Anyway, we cancelled the place. We didn't want to get the person dealing with us in trouble, so just told the school we had changed our mind. Anyway, upon requesting the majority of this deposit back, we were told we owed not only the £2000 but also another £3300. I then emailed the business owner - Cognita, asking them if they were really quite sure if this was their position. I then emailed them again. This was ignored. I then called Cognita. They NEVER answer the phone. I left a message on their answer phone. Then two weeks later, another. I then received a letter stating their new position which was to keep the whole £2000. My point is, these people are behaving like an aggressive sales company. To be fair, a friend in the private schools business tells me this is common practice. I think it's disgusting. And I'd warn others to realise that your child's education should not be entrusted to a ruthless business. Their behaviour, being not human, but simply contractual, is alarming. Please check if your school of choice is run by Cognita.