"> Hockerill overall is an acceptable school. Although it is an international school, it is not that ethnically diverse throughout Year 7-11 and the diversity in the sixth form is mainly composed of Spanish, Italians and German students. In our experience, ethnic minorities can still face inappropriate comments from other students and some teachers may not be aware of what it is to appreciate a culture and what is crossing the line. Some teachers, for example, often mix up the names of the non-caucasian students. The boarding is generally fair at Hockerill and was rated ‘Good’ in the recent Ofsted report (it had been rated ‘Outstanding’ in the past several years). But theft can be a major problem across the boarding houses. There are boarders who have been caught stealing from some stores in town and the school have not given the appropriate punishments to those girls. Money (sometimes up to £30) and items of clothing are often stolen in the boarding house and therefore, boarders often have to replace their items of clothing including their uniform. Food is poor at Hockerill. The food is often not rich in nutrients and the vegetarian/vegan options are very limited. Since my child is an international boarder at Hockerill, she was bound to stay at school during the GCSE exam period alongside around 15 boarders. However, the boarding house seemed to find is difficult staff the boarding house even though parents were still bound to pay a full term’s fees. There were occasions when my child was sent to other boarding houses overnight and was locked out of the boarding house for up to 3 hours due to the boarding house being under-staffed. There are also some absurd duties in the boarding houses, for example, in the junior girls' boarding house, Year 7 girls are expected to collect and take out rubbish just before breakfast as a part of their bin duty. On some occasions, boarders were forced to litter pick around school without any equipment, picking up rubbish with their hands. The quality of teaching at Hockerill can vary depending on the teacher. There are some good teachers but there are also some bad teachers. Although Hockerill achieves decent results in GCSE exams, the majority of the year group receives some sort of tutoring outside of school and some are just hard-working. I also feel there is a lack of connection between the Principal and the students.. Sometimes when students are invited to have a chat with the Principal as a ‘praise’ of their work, the students find themselves explaining what they have done that is worth the praising. However, that Principal has recently resigned from his position. Overall, in my opinion, Hockerill does not deserve the reputation it has on many school rating websites. I hope this review will be helpful as it's a truthful account from a parent of a past student.