Warning: Harris Academy Sutton

[SENMa]

This school school creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating and offensive environment for ALL pupils and one which is untenable for those with SEN. I have deregistered my child after over a year of hell. During the January of Year 7 after a day which included 6 assessments (should this be allowed?) she realised she had missed a detention given out for forgetting to attend another detention given out for 5 minutes lateness and started to have severe anxiety about going into school. She had been so looking forward to the change from primary to secondary, what a slap in the face. She was not sleeping at night, but still lateness (5 minutes in this case) is punishable by detention even in a child struggling as she was. Despite the school being aware of her struggles they mandated that pupils would not be allowed to use school bags that were not the official Harris Academy bag. This bag is too small for her to fit her PE things but yet they DO NOT SUPPLY LOCKERS. Due to my daughter's difficulties she was not able to successfully remember to take her separate PE bag from class to class. She was then disciplined for not having it when needed causing her severe stress leading to further school refusal and anxiety on PE days. We remedied this by purchasing a non-descript light-weight, larger black ruck sack which fit her PE things. The school then refused to allow this and confirmed that pupils without the official Harris bag would be disciplined. The same went for her non-descript black trainers. Sanctions are also placed on students who wear their coats in the corridors, coats which they are forced to carry from lesson to lesson due to their being no lockers. Perhaps the most degrading sanction Harris Academy imposed was that children are not allowed to use the toilet facilities during classes. At the beginning of year 8 the school implemented double periods of one hour and 40 minutes. Can you imagine 12-year-olds being asked sit without a break for one hour and 40 minutes? The only children that would have been allowed a break were those with timeout cards or girls menstruating. This stigmatises SEN pupils and girls. If you are truly trying to avoid discrimination you must give all pupils the option for a timeout. My daughter simply could not attend school at the time of the month for fear of these long lessons where she would be forced to draw attention to herself in order to get some privacy. I was forced to take her to the doctor to get proof of her period but then her absence still went down as unauthorised and I received a threatening letter as a result. There seems to be an agenda that promotes a culture of fear in our schools for both parents and pupils. Unlike at primary there was no WhatsApp group or way for me to contact other parents to find out if their children were having similar difficulties or to unite against discriminative school policy. It has been the most isolating and soul destroying experience. I cannot recommend Harris Academy, Sutton to any parent. I am glad to have found a space to break my silence about the school at last. This school has no regard for the welfare of their students. They simply wish to tick attendance and academic boxes.

What you’ve described are rules typical of most secondary schools. If detentions aren’t issued for lateness, the kids just learn that they can turn up late to class and it disrupts the learning for other students. Regarding toilet access, if she asks and really needs to go the teacher should say yes. The general rule is to discourage students from using toilets during lessons because some students will truant.

I’m sorry that you feel this school isn’t a good fit for your daughter. But this is what secondary schools are like. You will encounter the same rules in other schools. I don’t really understand what the issue is with the school rucksack either. Your daughter has to learn to remember to carry her PE kit in a separate bag and not forget it somewhere. Again, you should be encouraging her to adapt, instead you are blaming the school for what sounds like a fairly typical adjustment from primary to secondary. She will settle and get used to the rules eventually, but by attacking the school you are making it harder for your daughter to adjust and get used to her new environment.

@FeistyFrankie I'd say the fact that a specific bag that the school insists they use but isn't actually big enough for the required equipment is "an issue". Why don't they design one that is actually the correct size 🙄
@SENMa I personally don't like Harris schools. I know several people (staff and students) who have had issues with them. A large area of SE London they have a monopoly on schools so there is no alternative available.
It's awful.
I hope you daughter is better soon 💐

Is it a school that was on your list of preferences?

Some of the things you describe are organisational ones and are there strategies you can use at home to help her with that? She might avoid detentions if you can be more prescriptive about organisation.

I think, in double periods the pupils do often have a rest break mid way through and the reason for double lessons is frequently a practical one for practical subjects.

Having said that, it sounds as though you are generally unhappy with the school. Are there others you can apply to for an in year transfer?

@Bluevelvetsofa I can't speak for Sutton but in some areas of South London the choice of schools really are a Harris or a Harris 🙁

I'm not knowledgeable about Harris schools specifically but this sounds pretty standard for all secondary schools I've taught at, and aside for the uniform backpack similar to expectations imposed on myself at school over 30 years ago!

You speak about SEND, does your daughter have SEND identified/diagnosed and support in places for that such as an EHCP? Detentions for being late is pretty standard. What strategies would you propose a school implement for student lateness?

Toilets are an issue. An issue caused by student behaviour and it's been an issue all of my lifetime- my own school locked the toilets during lesson time when I was a student! The schools I've worked in have had issues with excrement being smeared all over, flooding due to purposely blocking toilets and sinks, not to mention smoking/bullying/truanting. What would you propose schools do given toilets present such a myriad or health and safety issues. Every school I've worked in has had a 'no toilet access during lessons' rule in some shape or form. In practice they have also had a 'teacher discretion' rule. In my experience, it's the boys that have more cause to claim discrimination with this system as I don't know any of my colleagues who will routinely deny girls toilet access precisely because, working with teenagers we are acutely aware of periods so they are more likely to need to go regularly. Girls might be asked to wait a few minutes e.g. for the task to be explained but they are almost always allowed to go in my experience.

I'm sorry this happened.

Harris don't have a good reputation for SEND.

They are also dominant in Boroughs where getting an EHCP means a minimum of 2 years and going to tribunal more than once. Well, that's true in many places these days, but outer London Boroughs are particularly cash-strapped.

Parents are between a rock and a hard place in those areas.

OP: you may be able to find other parents with useful tips via Facebook groups for whatever your daughter's SEN is (groups may be listed on the LA "local offer" page and/or on the websites of national charities for ASD, ADHD, PDA etc).

"Not fine in school" is a useful website.

There are also EBSA and EHCP support threads on here you can use.

I don’t think anyone should have to accept what you describe. My kids (also at non selective state secondary schools in London) don’t have to live by these mad rules.

It's about the attitude though.

My large comprehensive has similar rules but in practice a year 7 with these issues would receive a lot of support before this kind of thing happened. I mean, I don't even teach y7 but I regularly reunite them with their lost PE bags, point them towards rooms they can't find, play Lego with them etc.

We want y7 to settle in. None of us are in teaching to be mean to scatty 11 year olds!

Many of you seem to just accept the current system where schools are too big to actually provide a caring, child led atmosphere in which to educate children. Secondary Schools are more like prisons or military camps. If it was working we wouldn’t need to highlight problems or debate them. Mental health problems in kids are rife! There is not enough funding to give each child the attention they need but at the same time it is ONLY about funding, packing children into spaces in appropriately facilitated. There could be a toilet attendant? There could be a welcoming place for children to go if they need support with plenty of adults to give it. They should have lockers and a common room. Small class sizes. A feeling of community and agency. So many more things. Pastoral care should be at the top of the list - a stressed out child cannot learn. Punishments do not work and cause psychological problems. All this will have to be addressed by society in the end but it will sadly be too late for my daughter.

I don't disagree but there has been a significant real terms funding cut coinciding with a rise in the number of school age children (the peak cohort is just hitting secondary this year).

Many of the things you mention result from too many kids in too-small buildings (crumbling ones) with too low an adult to child ratio rather than actual malice.

The pandemic has also left a bunch of behavioural, wellbeing and attendance issues.

Have you looked at what other school options you have? Schools can vary a surprising amount.

Actually I do disagree with your second sentence. That's hyperbole.

Apart from the bag thing, which does sound mad, this is all completely normal.

Yes, a 12 year old really can sit for 100 minutes without needing the toilet. Does she chug water constantly? A genuine need will be dealt with; all schools accommodate that.

Yes, even a 12 year old can be on time for a lesson.

Yes, it's entirely possible to have multiple assessments in one day.

Does she actually have SEN? Even children with SEN in my school are expected to be able to take a PE with them. No lockers at my school at all.

There have been newspaper & social media reports in my city about a girl who has had to message her dad to collect her because she was flooding on her period & the school wouldn't allow her to use the toilet which are kept locked from 10 minutes before school starts, 10 minutes from lunch break ending, she had a pass as well. The school have also punished her for messaging her dad, the poor girl had leaked through her clothes & left blood on the chair she had been sat on. This happened on two consecutive days, the dad has gone ballistic & after having no joy with the school has gone public to warn other parents. What age are we living in when someone having a period can't access a toilet when needed? If an employer did this, they would be in all kinds of trouble, or if a parent did this, it would be classed as abuse, but it is normal behaviour in school.

There could be a toilet attendant? There could be a welcoming place for children to go if they need support with plenty of adults to give it.
A toilet attendant? Who'd do that? Be on their own in a toilet with children, with the fun task of monitoring then and cleaning up after them? Surely you'd need pairs of adults to do this?
And also the 'welcoming place' who'd staff that and get to decide who gets to access it?

Agree with this.

I'm a Year 7 form tutor and I can promise you OP we work very hard to settle them. At some point, however, a child does need to start taking responsibility.

My dd got a behaviour point in Year 7 for forgetting something. Did I wail and stamp my feet and go on mumsnet to complain about teachers following the rules their SLT compel them to follow, no.

The situation you describe is common for many secondary schools. In an ideal world there would be loads of extra staff available to provide safe spaces and monitor the toilets 24/7 but in the real world every staff member has many roles, is hugely stretched and the school has no money to employ any more.

Behaviour is a huge issue. Toilets are closed because vaping in them is endemic and they can only open when enough staff are available to police. That's generally at lunchtime when they are not teaching.

If your child has SEN raise the issues with the SENCO. All schools are required to make reasonable adjustments for SEN students although what is reasonable to you may not be what is reasonable to them/ adhering to the code.

This is what Harris schools built their reputation on. The Borstal-discipline approach really works for some kids but if it doesn't work for you it's bloody miserable. Unfortunately in some areas it is difficult to get into a school that isn't a Harris so the whole 'go somewhere else' argument is moot.

Where will the money come from for a toilet attendant and who would want that job? There certainly were places where children could go if they needed support or were struggling. Managing one was part of my remit some years ago. Now though, there’s a staffing crisis and if you can’t find enough people to teach classes, I think it would be difficult to staff and pay for extra nurture groups. I wonder what the reason is for no lockers- my school had them. I don’t think you’d find a common room in most state schools, unless it’s a sixth form one. Many don’t have a staff room.

Many of the things you cite would be great in an ideal world. Independent schools generally have smaller classes than state schools, but there are published admission numbers in state schools, so less flexibility.

If your daughter has an EHCP, you can ask for an early review and request a change of placement. There are some independent schools, I believe that will take pupils with EHCPs. Would your daughter benefit from being home schooled, do you think?

And I would say that some teachers complaining about behaviour are really complaining about the results of years of underinvestment in children's services and education. Making young people the enemy by turning secondary schools into punishment camps is not the answer.

Spinet

The Borstal-discipline”

Really? my brother spent time in borstal many years ago. A place called Send, in Kent I think. Not sure it’s still there. Surrounded by huge fences, search lights, regular pat downs, cold showers, work programmes.

My own children have subsequently been through schools with firm discipline (they were happy there). There was no comparison.

Lack of lockers is generally due to lack of space to put them in plus they can become a focus for poor behaviour and bullying.

Yes I'm fully aware of what borstal was like thanks. And yes I would say that the discipline in some of these schools is obviously not as extreme - I was admittedly hyperbolising - but it is ideologically related to that treatment of young people.

A 'punishment camp' because they're required to attend class on time and with the correct equipment?
That's a bizarre analogy, and absolutely disrespectful of those who have actually been incarnated in a punishment camp.
But if there's parents out there telling teens the above is a punishment camp, no wonder there's so many problems with behaviour in schools.

I'm in two minds. Most of what you are talking about is standard across secondary schools, no lockers, no leeway on lateness, no going to the toilet in lesson time.

Haris are getting results for students who were not getting results before - and changing their life chances.

On the other hand, of course children should feel like the teaching staff are on their side, and this does not always show in these schools

OP - what plans or provision do you have for your dd now that she is de-registered?

There are secondary schools that have an approach based in liking and understanding young people, rather than treating them as feral beasts and criminals to be tamed, an I too deplore the 'zero tolerance' disciplinarian boot camp approach currently much in favour. My Dc went to 2 different S London state schools that do not operate like this.

However, much of what you describe is common to very single secondary school because they do not have the space, staff, resources or budget to run the environment you describe as ideal.

Even in our under resourced schools, teachers work hard, and kids work hard, to attain the educational milestones they need to meet to go on to the next stage. But it is hard in many areas to find a school with an ethos that you feel comfortable with.