Southchurch High School - are new school rules draconian

[HaudYerWheeshtYaWeeBellend]

il start by saying Im not affiliated with the school at all, it’s been popping up over my news feed for a few days.

From the Echo.

“The school, which is part of the Partnership Learning Trust and has 794 pupils, has insisted the rules are part of its “continual journey to improvement”. In December 2023 the school was rated “requires improvement” by Ofsted and in 2022 it received the lowest possible rating of “inadequate”.

“A school spokesperson said: “Southchurch High is on a journey of continual improvement, working tirelessly with pupils and parents to support the school’s progress. We are working closely with colleagues from our trust, Partnership Learning, to introduce some tried and tested ways of further improving the school experience for pupils.”

“One of these is the introduction of ‘silent transitions’, which simply means that pupils are able to move quickly and quietly between lessons, arriving fully ready to learn. This has worked really well at other schools in the trust, where it has proved popular with parents, pupils and staff.”

Some parents are unhappy with the way the school are handling the new rules and have set up a petition

Some Facebook comments below.

Parents with SEN children have reported on Facebook that their children's, 121 have been removed and the trust have claimed there is no money. (Some with and without ECHP’s)

That reasonable adjustments have not been placed for SEN children (however this was followed up by a parent saying that children with SEN will have a passport citing their reasonable adjustments and that those children will carry their passport) - another parent claimed the SENCO teacher was on maternity leave ….
This was then followed up by another parent that a temporary teacher was carrying out the SENCO role and was working their way through children receiving their passports asap.

Children with SEN not having reasonable adjustments made and are being given detentions, some suspended due to their medical conditions breaking rules

One parent commenting on a Facebook post her child has ADHD and Tourette's and was given a detention for shouting out in class due to their tics, child was given detention however the child refused the detention by refusing to attend the punishment, which led to their suspension.

Child given a detention for looking sideward and not facing forward in line.

Child given a detention for their pen bursting in their bag.

Girls not being allowed to go to the toilet even tho they have bleed through their clothing, if a child does need the toilet and teacher gives permission , they are still given a detention for simply needing the toilet.

Parents have started a petition and it’s been reported on some media sites.

For me the school clearly need to make changes however I believe SLT (or governor it seems in this case) has went in with the hammer and it has been poorly executed.

The teachers heads must be battered!

Definitely sounds draconian to me yes. If I think back to my schooldays at a fairly strict school, I feel like much of the fun happened in those transitions between classes, I can’t imagine anything more miserable than these silent transitions. Children are not robots!

“Silent transitions”
Don't talk in class and look forwards at all times.

But hey go to school to ‘socialise’ kids! 😆

As a home educator this makes me laugh as a common thing people say is ‘but how will HE kids socialise if they’re not in school?!’
Funny.

(not funny though for the kids that go to this prison)

I'd remove my kids from that school in a heartbeat. I think some headteachers have started to fetishize "the good old days" and an ultra-strict school culture that never actually existed.

It sounds like they’ve modelled themselves on the ‘Strictest school in the Uk’.

There was a documentary on it a few years ago and some of the rules about silence etc sound similar. Link below Incase you’ve not heard of it! www.strictestheadmistress.com

Ive just a look, the school is rated outstanding however it doesn’t appear to be inclusive.

Isn't that what break times are for? Or do those not exist anymore?

There's nothing wrong with not talking in class and looking forward to where the teacher is. Lessons are for learning not socialising. Talking over a teacher shows a lack of respect and discipline from the child.

It's not draconian it's just it may feel that way because discipline standards have been in a never-ending decline for well over 150 years. This is just a modest correction. A shock to pupils and their parents no doubt, but the measures seem reasonable.

None of those things seem unfair or unreasonable to give a detention for. I don't remember pupils being allowed to go to the toilet in class when I was at school in the 1980s/1990s. Something like a detention for a pen leaking may seem harsh, but the question is did the pen leak because of it not being stored correctly, or because so much was squashed into a bag that it snapped for instance? I can pretty much guarantee the child who got the detention will think about being more careful in future.

None of those things seem unfair or unreasonable to give a detention for.

Really you don’t believe that the sanctions are unfair to a child with verbal tics that they have no control which resulted in the child being suspended or that a young girl whose bleed through her clothing being given a detention for requiring to use the bathroom?

Silent corridors are NOT normal. Neither is being forced to continually look at the speaker a good thing.

Toilet visits should be at teacher discretion. I was allowed (secondary 90-97) and have always allowed within reason in my over 20 year teaching career.

I'd say there are prisons in the UK where prisoners enjoy more respect for their basic human rights than the unfortunate students in this school. In fact, I'd say there are prisons in Myanmar where prisoners enjoy more respect for their basic human rights.

This is not a school. It's an internment camp.

There's clearly an effort afoot to push all.SEN students out by creating an extremely hostile environment in which their needs will not be met.

@Dotjones

So why not just bring back caning? Any objections on your part?

oh it gets worse. Detention for turning you head in the corridor, warning for taking too long to think, detention for holding your pen after the count of 3, detention for answering a question with “I don’t know”, isolation for telling a teacher but “i wasn’t talking” when they give out detentions because they don’t know which one it was, detention for tics, detention for adhd clicking his pen, isolation removes break, lunch choices and doesn’t allow for SEN children to have movement breaks or assigned equipment, they fired 4 lSA’s moved the SEN hub to a smaller isolated part of the school and turned the old room in to isolation, removed interventions due to lack of funding, increased detention space to 4 rooms, have out of date safeguarding and special educational needs policy’s, have written in black and white no adaptions for SEN students, 1 allegation of inappropriate physical restraint, have admitted ofstead is the priority, cancelled the parent forum offering parents a chance to discuss, allowed students to go home with adults with out checking who they were or why they are picking them up, have a staff member as chair of governors breaking complaint policy rules, have had such a high turn over of staff, have 2 members of SENco off on leave and haven’t substituted them, detention for shirt untucked at the end of play and many more.