Mossbourne Academies: investigations into alleged emotional harm and abuse. Why are needlessly strict academies unaccountable?

[ParentOfOne]

The Guardian has published a story https://www.theguardian.com/education/2024/dec/07/london-academies-emotional-harm-mossbourne-schools-observer-investigation

about allegation of emotional harm and other forms of mistreatment at "one of the country's leading academy trusts", which runs the following schools in Hackney, North London: https://www.mossbourne.org/our-schools/

It is a follow up to a similar story, on the same topic, published a couple of weeks ago: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2024/nov/23/teachers-at-mossbourne-academy-in-hackney-screamed-at-and-humiliated-pupils-say-angry-parents

The previous story was based on testimonials from 30 parents, but now 70 parents, more than 30 former students and eight former teachers have come forward

"A dossier of allegations, shared with the Observer and sent to the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, included Mossbourne teachers being trained in “healthy fear” and “screaming” sometimes “centimetres apart” from children’s faces, several reports of children fainting in line-ups while being shouted at, and children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send) being punished unfairly and “pushed out” to other schools. Many former students said they had suffered mental health issues due to being afraid in school which had lasted long after they left."

Here there were some discussions about how notoriously strict these schools were https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/secondary/5019841-mossbourne-community-academy-any-experiences but no one mentioned this kind of emotional abuse.

My opinion remains that:

• I hate how so many schools have become academies. That's a backdoor privatisation, with teachers being paid less, while the CEOs of these academy trusts earn more than many University vice-chancellors
• I hate that academies are de facto unaccountable to anyone
• It is false that academies do a better job. Some work well, some don't, but lack of transparency and accountability remain big issues. E.g. see academic research by the LSE https://www.lse.ac.uk/social-policy/Assets/Documents/PDF/Research-reports/Academies-Vision-Report.pdf .
• Academies are simply good at showing Ofsted what they want. If this kind of s* happens in a school rated Outstanding, it means ratings are useless
• I am all for strict discipline, and I will absolutely stand by the school if they punish my child for misbehaving. But I absolutely dread needlessly draconian rules, put together by sexually repressed headteachers who didn't get enough love from their mums, and who get off on exercising this kind of authority to crush their students' spirit. I had made some examples here: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/secondary/5168466-how-common-are-detentions-at-secondary?page=9&reply=138524258 where I also talked about a secondary school in London banning bicycles and giving detentions to students caught cycling to school

@TreeSquirrel I’d be interested to see if the ex-student quoted as saying the top grades the school got him weren’t worth it would be prepared to give up his top university place and future opportunities those grades got him

Why on earth do you lot keep framing this as if it were an either / or with no middle ground? Is it bad faith and dishonesty, or is it functional illiteracy and lack of critical thinking that genuinely prevent you from seeing there is, in fact, a middle ground?

Many people have had successful careers after exposure to toxic environments (sometimes family, sometimes school, sometimes work, often a combination) that completely messed up their mental health.

Your question is like saying: hey, why does he complain that he got bullied at boarding school and still has nightmare about it, if he's now a successful lawyer with a big house in Chelsea? Shame on you

As I have linked upthread, there are plenty of schools with terrible behaviour for parents who want that. The rest of us don’t want to go back to the low-aspiration, low-outcome situation that used to exist in areas like Hackney.

In my view anyone who is against the ‘Mossbourne approach’ should explain why they want to take future opportunities away from disadvantaged DC.

Again with the false dichotomy of implying there is no middle ground. You are wrong. There very much is.

@ilikecatsandponies There are evidently huge problems in screening police officers who want to abuse power. Wayne Couzens is just one recent example.

I never said nor implied the process is perfect. But at least police forces have a process in place, because they recognise that exercising authority over other people can attract a bunch of sick individuals who have no place in the force.

The police have recognised the problem, have a process in place, but the process needs improving.

Schools have not recognised the problem and they have no process in place. See the difference?

There was actually a serious point to be made here (and you specifically asked me to discuss this) but you've called what I was asking 'ridiculous' and I've immediately been jumped on by other posters suggesting I support child abuse so it really just underlines the fact that this thread isn't the thread to try to have any sort of serious discussion about these schools. Like I said, these are real schools with real kids in them, the question is hypothetical but the schools aren't.

Maybe another thread another time.

@noblegiraffe Yours was a textbook example of the false dilemma / false dichotomy logical fallacy https://www.logicallyfallacious.com/logicalfallacies/False-Dilemma

It's a bit like asking: do you want your child to have a successful career but a messed up mental health, or be happy as a clam but living on benefits his entire life? Why on earth should those be the only two options???

I wasn't talking to you, @ParentOfOne , there's literally no point.

Even just trying to dip a toe into discussion here results in batshittery and unpleasantness. Too hyped.

@noblegiraffe Forum rules allow me to call out bullshit for what it is, even if not initially addressed at me

Refusing to answer and address the points calling out bullshit, by playing victim because everything is so unpleasant is an old trick. But worry not, there is no need to answer, anyone reading these pages can draw their own conclusions.

I think ParentofOne's posts are great.

Also wanted to quote this from pointythings: 'The belief that disadvantaged kids need to be treated like dirt in order to achieve academically is repugnant.' Repugnant and classist. It smacks rather of Victorian/colonial attitudes that 'the natives/lower orders need a firm hand'.

I could not agree more. Let’s have the investigation.

🤷‍♀️ I'm a long-standing poster and @pointythings would be well aware that I am not shy of giving opinions on things. All you're doing is further underlining my statement from the start of the thread that this is not the place to try to have any sort of serious discussion. Because of posters like you.

Absolutely agree.

Posters saying that disadvantaged kids will lose out without the "Mossbourne model" seem not to have considered that those same disadvantaged kids are just as likely to be psychologically harmed by intimidation & lack of pastoral care as any other kids - perhaps more so.

@noblegiraffe Being a long-standing poster has less than zero relevance. Your arguments do not become more or less true based on how long you have been on Mumsnet.

More than one person has explicitly called out the logical fallacy of your false dichotomy.

Many people, including me, keep asking why so many people think there is no middle ground, and where is the evidence on why strict but fair isn't enough, why we need to go to strict and batshit crazy, and what the effects on mental health are. The result? A deafening silence.

For the last time: the only chance some people might understand the impact of toxic bullying environments is if they or their loved ones are reduced to an emotional wreck, unable to eat sleep function. I have been there. It ain't pretty. I wouldn't wish it to my worst enemy.

More than one person has explicitly called out the logical fallacy of your false dichotomy.

It was the beginning of a far longer discussion but there's no good faith engagement on here.

The children in this school are absolutely not treated like dirt. They are given opportunity to thrive abd achieve

@boldly not treated like dirt? Tell me, have you decided that 150 people coming forward have all made stuff up, every single one of them?

Or do you consider it is not 'treating kids like dirt' to shout in their face, to have seminar on
instilling healthy fear, to force them to kneel? Please, do explain. We're all ears.

@zaxxon those same disadvantaged kids are just as likely to be psychologically harmed by intimidation & lack of pastoral care as any other kids - perhaps more so.

Exactly. If my only two choices were a failing school (no academic results) or a school which achieves academic results at the cost of kids' mental health, I could move somewhere else.
If my child were struggling mentally I could afford therapy in private practice (good luck getting it with the NHS).

A single parent living in a council flat and working long hours for minimum wage would not have the same options. Their child's mental health would realistically suffer more.

Don't be ridiculous. It's utterly patronising to suggest that disadvantaged kids need to be treated like mini army recruits in order to do well at school.
Schools like Mossbourne suit some kids but certainly not all. We have strict academy near us which I wouldn't dream of sending my DCs to. My kids thrive in an environment that is firm but fair and where the teachers treat the kids with respect and whom expect the students to respect them in return.
Unfortunately we have a new head who's been stamping their authority by ramping up the pointless uniform rules. This resulted in kids being put into seclusion for wearing clothes that they'd worn with no consequence in the previous year. One boy was put in seclusion for wearing PE shorts in the wrong shade of blue. Turns out they'd been purchased in the uniform shop. This kind of pettiness rules for rules sake doesn't make behaviour better. It just makes kids realise that rules can be utterly pointless.

Interestingly it has now been revealed that the anti-Mossbourne campaign is being run by this ideologically-driven group. https://educatinghackney.co.uk/

What I can’t understand is why they are so determined to stop everyone else having access to a demonstrably successful school. Fair enough if the approach isn’t for them (they are perfectly free to send their DC elsewhere), but that doesn’t mean they get to dictate others’ choices.

Your 'ideologically driven group' is other people's 'group of people genuinely concerned with unethical and bad practice in schools'. It's a matter of opinion. Having looked at that website, it comes across as reasonable and measured - but then I'm not wedded to the Mossbourne ideology (and it very much is an ideology).

Have to say I find that pretty extraordinary. As well as having awful teaching, the two schools I mentioned with terrible Progress 8 scores also have lots of bullying, teachers and students being assaulted, planed fights and “students feel they have to misbehave to fit in.”

At one, “some of the most vulnerable pupils have suffered violence or harm by other pupils” and “staff have received injuries from pupils”. At the other, “pupils do not feel safe because of the very poor behaviour” and have “had enough of being jostled and hurt in corridors and verbally abused.”

I’m not sure what level of support at home would help any DC overcome that. Schools with very poor behaviour not only produce awful academic outcomes but are also unsafe and distressing places for students to be every day.

Would you be happy for your DC to attend these inadequate schools? The situation was very similar in Hackney prior to Mossbourne opening.

Yes, we know there will be another thread and another time where you make bad-faith arguments, deliberately sidetrack the discussion by harping on irrelevancies and false-choices, and then indulge an embarrassing victim/martyr complex when called out for it.

Or you could stop. Stop embarrassing yourself and your profession. Even people who agree with what you say will be turned off by how you say it.