School putting child in isolation because parents haven't paid lunch fees

[Bubbinsmakesthree]

Apologies for the DM link, and in case there's another thread on this (couldn't find one, but it's such a mumsnetty topic I can't believe no-one else has started one).

A school has threatened to put a child in isolation for their entire lunchbreak every day until the parents pay the £75 due for the term's school lunches (which are 1 week overdue).

Daily Mail article:

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3713583/Superhead-claimed-Britain-s-education-broken-puts-pupils-detention-lunch-restricts-food-parents-failed-pay-school-meals.html

Link to a picture of the letter from the school:

twitter.com/RichardA/status/758941460741758982

WTF are the school playing at? In what possible circumstances is this OK?

Also on the blog, the bizarre idea that no child suffers from stress over school - they must just be lazy. Even educationalists of the 1880s (whom this school seems to want to emulate in other ways!) recognised that schoolchildren could suffer from 'overpressure' as they put it.

I really feel sorry for the children who attend this school.

i believe this school is a shining example of indirect discrimination

I'm on the fence a bit here. As a teacher, there are elements of this school that I would support and admire. I actually think the Family Lunch sounds great and I know many pupils who would thrive in this wholly academic environment.

My biggest headache at grass roots level is so-called low level disruption- no pen, calling out, turning around so I'd relish working somewhere which has zero tolerance on this.

But would I send my own child there? I don't think so. What they provide in terms of knowledge, they lack in nurture. I want my child to be with teachers that demonstrably care for them, not just teach them.

A quote from one of the articles above 'This school runs on rails, not roads' really stuck with me. Will it reach the end of the line sooner than it thinks?

i think its already reaching the end. Bazza doth protest too much with his "we sound awful but were really not" littering everything he badly writes. also bizarre that one minute the soldiers i mean children are always impeccable and in the next he says that they have lots of detentions every dinner and after school

hes a sexist twat aswell

Christ, I can't believe such an awful place exists. It's thoroughly depressing reading. The poor kids!

just read another of his blogs and am incensed, hes used their instead of they're

unforgiveable

i think only the most crap of teachers would want to work here

Actually I went to a talk (at a conference) by a maths teacher who works there and I was thoroughly impressed by how thoughtful, intelligent, dedicated and enthusiastic about teaching she was.

I think the school is a very interesting project, and it is unashamedly confident about its ethos (it hosts debates where it defends its approach against well-known educational professionals who take the opposing view).

I love the no-marking policy (I would, I'm a teacher!), and the idea that you can just get on and teach there is pretty appealing. It does remind me a bit of the description of the kids from the book The Demon Headmaster though, a bit unnerving.

i agree small aspects of THEIR approach is refreshing, its a shame they ruin it with trying to be too controversial. mind you theres no such thing as bad publicity i suppose

Reading that blog, it sounds like the most miserable school. Are the children ever allowed to talk to each other?!

Looking at their chair of governors I guess there's no point asking my mp for help with regards my DS secondary who have similar ethos and total parental bullying tactics. He has ASD and they've bullied him out.

Youare on this pricks blog he basically says he doesnt believe in dyslexia, asd, adhd etc.

i hope the media pick up on that, shameful for a school to think that, mind you hes not too bright and for some reason keeps throwing in french into his blogs google translate no doubt as if it makes him look clever, when he cant even produce a simple letter or use their/they're correctly

He teaches French at the school

Isn't this Birbalsingh person the same woman who was feted by the right wing press for 'turning schools around' in recent years?

i gathered that

I have finished reading some of his blog wait for GCSE's to come out if thats their ethos. I don't buy it.

I'd like to know how they manage to get the children to be so biddable and compliant. I'm not saying I'd like to work in a school where children are like that, though there are times when it would be nice'

I just wonder what their techniques are - after all, it's not a natural state for children to be silent and to follow rules without question.

I expect their technique is to call in the parents and tell them they need to take their child off roll or expect a permanent exclusion.

What I can't believe (or maybe I can) is that this sort of free school is accepted by the government and tax payers pay for it.

Blimey thay blog, and he's not just a teacher but evidently superior to a developmental paediatrician too.

"So, who exactly are the ‘less able’? Very often, though not exclusively, they’re the kids who’ve been allowed to drift. They’ve been allowed to give up when a task wasn’t an instant effort-free success. They’re the kids who’ve learnt half-hearted, inconsistent, half-throttle application is tolerated, condoned, even awarded its own ‘medical’ diagnosis in some cases."

Well blow me down, a fully fledged pediatrician all from a teaching degree.I think we need to know what super uni he attended.

As another poster said earlier, "a shining example of indirect discrimination".

I think what is wrong is calling it isolation. Simply saying a basic sandwich and fruit will be all that is provided would be a better way.

Asking the parents into school as well might be another additional approach.

I don't like this at all. Surely the children not be singled. Whatever way you look at it or whatever your views are. It's in no way the children's fault.
I didn't think segregation was allowed.

She should be working with tough criminals in Alcatraz. Not with innocent little children.

If be interested to know how many children with EHCPs the school has with a (potentially illegal) policy of 'no differentiation'.

Well, they have a "director of inclusion" so if they don't cater for children with additional needs her day must be pretty boring