School in Middlesbrough excludes 41% of pupils

[CruCru]

I’ve just read this thing in the Guardian about a school that has the highest number of exclusions in the UK. Have you seen

I agree that going to the press achieves nothing and is just as lazy as going the OTT rules route

Considering this story is based in some Guardian research into exclusion rates I suspect the parents didn't approach the press, the press will have approached the parents.

uniform requirements is an excellent way to exclude 'badly behaved' children

Isn’t bad behaviour a good way to exclude badly behaved children? I’m a bit confused.

no what she meant was, I think, that if a new company takes over a school, turns it into a academy,, imposes a new uniform, there will be parents that cannot afford to kit their children out anew mid year. Therefore excluding those children is one way of getting rid of poor families from the school.
Cynical perhaps but you do wonder...
A bit like when the only school trip offered to us cost 2 grand per child. Therefore only the 'nice'' children can go.

Are you suggesting that this academy is permanently excluding kids because they can’t afford a uniform?

Sorry wasn't clear enough, Fourfried has it right, strict uniform requirements allow Outwood to exclude children from less desirable backgrounds.

Fourfriedhas it right, strict uniform requirements allow Outwood to exclude children from less desirable backgrounds.
In an area where well the whole catchment area is deprived? In a town where they've taken over 2 schools in deprived areas that have been woefully failing for decades? The school at the top of that article is oversubscribed.

We can think what we like about whether we like Outwood's approach but when you've had schools with 2/3 of the cohort failing getting 5 GCSEs A*-C in total
(this isn't the 5A*-C including maths and English) for years, I'd say they're giving kids a better chance than they'd otherwise have got.

I’m not sure about the not being able to afford uniform argument. Suspect most of the parents who remove children from these schools do it because the schools are too strict. Sometimes it’s a joint agreement with the school that their child might be better off in a different school.

RafaIsTheKingOfClay
One school near me was taken over by a chain and the chain provided new uniform for students and then had a fund they would use to assist parents.

You're right about some parents moving because they don't like simple rules. I've known parents remove students from schools because schools outrageously expect their child to follow simple rules and be polite and courteous to staff and fellow students.
More often than not the child is moved to a school in the area that is known for poor behaviour and poor outcomes. Why? Because the parent isn't really bothered about outcomes/can't see the link between behaviour and outcomes and would rather be at a school where the school won't pester them as much over their child's behaviour.

What is the big deal with wearing coats inside? I've never understood that even when I was a teacher.

Outwood turn schools into robot factories, they want robot teachers and robot children.

They have ridiculous rules on uniform, like no taking blazers off in the summer. (why the obsession with blazers anyway?)

There isn't much proof they improve the education of pupils, they improve exam results and are skilled at ticking Ofsted boxes. I wouldn't send my kids to an Outwood school.

That exclusion rate shows something is wrong.

@noblegiraffe who teaches these children how to behave when challenged? What research does show is that zero tolerance type treatment of this kind with no back up of discussing the reason etc leads to exclusions and often criminal records. Be abuse they go on to shout, create and abuse police officers instead.

Strict systems like this don't work long term. It's why America has such a crisis in justice system (not that ours is perfect)

I don’t know the school or chain, but it says in the article in the OP that it is not zero tolerance.

IntentsAndPorpoises
I wouldn't want to work in an Outwood school. It's not a model that suits me as a teacher.

They do achieve better outcomes for students.

Some of their Middlesbrough predecessor schools were struggling to get 30% of their Year 11s 5 GCSEs and that had been going on for decades.
I had a look following the article.
If children in an area have a 30% chance of getting 5 GCSEs and someone improves the schools so more than half are getting a reasonable set of qualifications then I can set aside my personal feelings about their approach and say 'fair play'. They are starting to tackle long standing educational disadvantage.

This isn't about uniform.
This is a way of 'offloading' children who are higher need so that results for the school improve. Great for this trust of schools, not so great for other local (maintained) schools that then pick up the same children.

Students on low incomes get their uniform cheaper. Children are not excluded for poverty reasons.
A majority of the children who go to this school are low income.

I know someone who works in an Outwood. Their school was ferel before it was taken over. Students running all over and no control. No one was getting a decent education.
It’s not perfect but it’s about giving these children a fair chance that otherwise they wouldn’t get.
I suspect a lot of posters have no idea of how bad behaviour can be in some schools.

I wouldn’t send my child to one but it’s not aimed at my child. It’s about giving children with little chance to succeed a way to get some exams under their belt.

I think uniform has to be implemented in this country as otherwise students won’t dress appropriately. If you seen the children in my daughters school on non uniform day you would understand why.

m.facebook.com/Outwoodparents/

A friend of mine has DD's at an 'Outwood' school. Two really nice kids, quiet, calm and polite. They are scared at school. They fear 'getting it wrong', they have become so introverted. Communication between school and home has been nearly none existent, no response to parent questions, no follow up to queries and worries.

Catspyjamazzzz
Unless you've worked in a very challenging school I think you don't really know the full picture.

I remember what I thought I was going into when I went to work at a challenging failing school. My expectations barely scraped the surface. It's a whole different set of challenges and a very quick learning curve.

It woukd also be interesting to see the data for the exclusions. I bet there is a higher rate of SEN pupils excluded than for 'all' pupils.

The fb thread does show that The Guardian has instigated contact with parents. Quite rightly. Much easier to turn around a school when the more difficult pupils have been moved on.

My kids go to an Outwood school. It's the catchment school so there's little option - it wouldn't necessarily be my first choice otherwise because I'm not a fan of strict uniform and I don't particularly like the disciplinary scheme.

However - the school had been failing for twenty years. It's now outstanding. The exam results are improving. It's a deprived area with a difficult intake and in that sense they have done well. These kids haven't been excluded for uniform issues - the school provides free uniform in Y7 and has spares for pupils to borrow. They've been excluded for refusing to change/remove make up, and I suspect done so quite vigorously and got caught up in an escalation of the discipline scheme which can get ridiculously circular.

Exclusion is a fixed part of the discipline scheme and this is where I think they are on dodgy ground - my understanding of the guidelines is that it is supposed to be authoised by the headteacher each time and used as a last resort whereas it is being used as escalation and given by teachers. It will be interesting to see if this article changes anything as they already changed the sceme in the summer to add more levels. At the least I am expecting a very defensive letter next week!

FourFriedChickensDryWhiteToast
Honestly the teachers whining about this kind of thing when they could just be doing the jobs they trained for , just sound so anal.

No bias in that comment at all.

It's all very well for middle class guardian journalists whose DC will attend private or grammar schools to whine about DC being excluded, but they're not the ones having the education affected by these DC.

These same journalists are the same people complaining about not enough state school pupils going to university yet when measures are taken to improve these DC's education by removing disruptive children, they're still complaining.

Obviously exclusion shouldn't be a first resort, but if DC refuse to improve their behaviour and cause disruption to that if others, then I'm sorry, but they should be excluded.

Two things,
My kids go to the same comprehensive as my wife and I did. Semi rural with 25% from neighbouring cities roughest estates.
Most of the kids who are rebelling against uniforms and rules like that, have parents who went to the same school and sadly had a terrible time. Either they where badly bullied, often by sadist teachers, our PE teachers where evil or where abandoned as thick and unteachable.
If you hated school and your memories are of unfair teachers, are you going to lye down when your kids get the same treatment.
I wonder if this school as the same issue.
School uniform, we got a strict rules one and other stupid petty rules and shorter breaks and lunches, so LEA run comprehensive could get quick Ofsted brownie points to raise school to Good from RI. These led to that year's year 11 booing the head teacher (new) at end of year photos.
When inspected school went inadequate and has been forced to academies. New academy chain is quietly dropping lots of the daft, petty rules.
I as an adult, hate rules for rules sake.
My youngest got a detention for eating on the school field, banned 1 week previous, never been banned before. Yes he did the crime and we told him off and he did the detention. But we as parents pointed out in emails to head of year, was a detention really the best way of dealing with it because it seemed a petty and harsh punishment. Ds never knew of this conversion, thinks we totally back school.Even head of year said it was disheartening to give detentions out to normally well behaved kids, and some of those did give rude replies too.
By the way DS1 went through 5 years at same with no behaviour points and Ds2 has had 1 detention in 4 years.

" Either they where badly bullied, often by sadist teachers, our PE teachers where evil or where abandoned as thick and unteachable."

I have mentioned something like that on threads like this before, where the useless parents of the useless kids approach the school with a 'bad attitude'. Frankly it is hardly surprising when you consider what happened in their own school days, as you say. There was violence, there was public humiliation, there was racism...

A detention isn't that harsh is it? It's just sitting in a room isn't it?

Forgot to say ofsted say the school students are happy, well behaved in general, with little bullying in the school.
When asked about their concerns about the school, said pupils main one was that their teachers "seemed unhappy and very stressed, and no longer wanted to be at work, due to the horrible pressure they where working under to improve the school"
So the kids are worried about their teachers, because head treated them badly too.
Head resigned on last day of year.
Says it all doesnt it

Pointythings

My Dutch friend ( family transferred here for work) said her heart sank when she saw uniform was required in our primary school and also said it took her exactly one week to love it - cheap ( gingham dresses from the supermarket) no faffing about what to wear in the morning, no fashion demands and no one upman ship from children who could afford the more expensive fashion brands.

She really missed it, as did her children, when they returned to the Netherlands.

My youngest got a detention for eating on the school field, banned 1 week previous, never been banned before. Yes he did the crime and we told him off and he did the detention. But we as parents pointed out in emails to head of year, was a detention really the best way of dealing with it because it seemed a petty and harsh punishment.
Even head of year said it was disheartening to give detentions out to normally well behaved kids, and some of those did give rude replies too.
There is a rule.
Child breaks rule.
Appropriate sanction from behaviour policy is applied.

For any behaviour policy to work in a school there has to be consistency.

You can't have a behaviour policy that says 'follow instructions' only to say Sarah gets a sanction for whispering in a test but Charlotte doesn't, that Timmy gets a sanction for eating on the field but your child doesn't.

It is disheartening when I have to give a sanction to an otherwise wonderful child. But we can all make mistakes and me applying a sanction isn't a reflection on how I view the child.

As a member of staff I could take or leave a couple of rules/requirements at my school, but the second I stop following it I'm making life harder for colleagues maintaining standards because suddenly it isn't a standard.
I think what people maybe need to see is that following the rules and school behaviour policy doesn't make an individual member of staff some horrible draconian person who is cold and hates children. It is entirely possible to be consistent and caring.

(I'm speaking generally here by the way, not getting into 'rules people don't like that schools have')

P.s. I love that you called school for a chat about it but kept that between you and the
school. 👍