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

What a shame. I'd like to discuss this topic but I think this thread isn't the right place.

You want your 11 year old who sets his foot into his future secondary school for the first time to be screamed at, isolated for three hours and told by a teacher he's disgusting while in isolation?

You do you, I suppose.

As you know, many people want their children to go to Mossbourne or Michaela. Kids apparently like those schools and parents like the great progress that their pupils make.

To be honest, that might actually be the most charitable interpretation of the behavior of some of these academy heads.

Mossbourne Victoria Park school splits the crowd locally. It is talked about as Victorian. They offer priority entry to kids from their primary school in the Olympic Park which says a lot about embedding their ethos from 5 years old.

They are very clear about their offer at open days: 'don't think you'll be the parent that changes us and our approach - you won't' sort of thing.

We decided it was not right for our kid (would likely have not got in despite it being our nearest school by distance). But even I was surprised to read the last two reports in the Guardian. It sounds barbaric.

I don't even want to ask my friends who put it down as their first choice. I wonder if it will be oversubscribed this year?

psychological abuse to foster "great progress"? I feel sorry for these kids, and also for the future co-workers, partners, families. Those who come out the other end and enter employment after such 'schooling' will have learnt a nasty array of bulling techniques; some will crumble under this and have lifelong issues as stated in the article and some will become bullies themselves😬

If we want to justify abuse and teaching through fear with good exam results, that’s fine, but then we don’t get to act confused about why so many students become school refusers. These are not environments that most people would tolerate as adults.

Also, if your only goal is good exam results, a great way to achieve that is by discouraging students with SEND from attending your school. These policies do a good job of that.

I really hope you didn’t actually read the article with specific allegations against these schools before writing this.

Although if by great outcomes you mean good exam results along with serious mental health problems and being conditioned to abuse by authority figures — particularly male ones — then I suppose they do a bang up job.

Why would they scream at your DC if they are well behaved?

Ah yes, the old ‘if you had just been perfect he wouldn’t have hit you’ response to abuse.

Come to think of it, abuse doesn’t exist, because no one does anything to anyone without justification. All of these allegations by students, parents, and staff are made up.

Well, actually Birbalsingh at Michaela was assaulted by lefties who were not even local residents and had false allegations made against her and all sorts of hate campaigns organised.

I don't know if these current allegations are made up or true and this is not for me but for the judges to decide, but people do make false allegations all the time. This is the reality we live in.

People hate discipline of course - that's why so many schools are now unbearable hell not fit for purpose of education. This is hugely detrimental to pupils from poor areas who are denied a chance of decent education that strict schools like Michaela provide to anyone who wants to learn, not fantasise about their teachers sexual suppression encouraged by their parents and not engage in constant fights in a horrible chaotic environment.

This aggressive Mossbourne ethos sounds so awful. The kids must be beside themselves with anxiety.

I've just read the article - the investigation has only started, the allegations are not proven yet you speak about them as if they are 100% confirmed.

Even the guy who started the campaign still has another child in the school! If it's so horrible, why or why they are still there?

So far, this is yet another hate campaign in the left wing media against a high performing state school.

I wonder why the Guardian type champagne socialists hate it so much when poor people get decent education... 🤔

They either hate it when poor people get an education, or they hate the systematic abuse of children. Probably the former, since people who disagree with your opinions are evil.

Glad to see you hadn’t yet read the article. It looked as if you were actually defending the alleged conduct itself. Hopefully we get clarity soon about whether the allegations are true.

@NeverDropYourMooncup

First of all we must remember that shouting at children, as per the allegations about Mossbourne, is many orders of magnitude more serious than banning bicycles, even if both have been made possible by academies which are practically unaccountable to anyone, and by a culture which sees needless draconian rules as welcome and even necessary.

My point is not that banning bikes and shouting at children are the same, but that a culture of passive obedience which allows the former, unquestioned, risks allowing the latter, too.

"Parents can and do also decide other things that can be dangerous for children are OK [...] . The fact that they are the biological parents does not make them automatically right and must be the sole arbiter of what is safe at all times."

Sure. Which is why, for example, I welcome schools banning phones. Because you sending your child with a phone has an impact on my children and their learning. But none of this is applicable to cycling to school

" Somebody planning a school, looking at the area, knowing the area, knowing what dickheads drivers are in the mornings, consulting experts on the transport strategy for the school"

For the nth time (after which I'll ignore you because I can only conclude you are debating in bad faith): the school did not consult experts on the transport strategy. The experts who came forward criticised this policy. The school decided on this before it was even born, more than 10 years ago. There is no procedure to reassess this, nor any indication of what would, in their view, make cycling safer. The blanket ban also means that the school does not engage with the council nor with TfL and road and cycle safety. Again: it's a policy driven by ideology, not by evidence.

Also, can you share what law would make this ban even legal?

The Education Act, s90(2), states that the conduct which may be punished by the school includes:
conduct which occurs at a time when the pupil is not on the premises of a school and is not under the lawful control or charge of a member of the staff of a school, but only to the extent that it is reasonable for the school imposing the penalty to regulate the pupil's conduct at such a time

If I won the lottery, I would very gladly throw a few hundred thousand pounds at a litigation. I'd love to see the school convincing a judge that this nonsense is reasonable.

Why is it for the school to decide? Again, many students live locally and can cycle perfectly safely via back roads.

"
There are many things that are terrible about some academies. But saying it's not safe so we will not permit cycling here, whatever the council says, is not one of the terrible things.
"

Again, the common patterns are the lack of accountability and a culture which welcomes nonsensical, draconian rules without questioning them.

If these were local authority schools, one could complain to the council.
They are not, so we can't.
They take our public funds, but who are they accountable to? How can you not see a problem there???

@Ubertomusic So you commented on the article without first reading it? Congratulations!
"I wonder why the Guardian type champagne socialists hate it so much when poor people get decent education..."

"People hate discipline of course - that's why so many schools are now unbearable hell not fit for purpose of education."

Why are so many people incapable of comprehending that the world isn't divided in: i) righteous people who want a good education for children and ii) champagne socialists who hate that?
If I were to turn your question around, I'd ask: "why are so many socially conservative, tiger-like parents are so OK with inflicting emotional harm to their children in the name of good GCSE and A-level results"?? This is an interesting article on the topic: https://thelead.uk/rise-authoritarian-schools

Why are so many people incapable of comprehending that the world isn't divided into: i) schools run with an iron first by repressed heads casing lasting psychological damage to their students (oh but discipline and grades are so good...) and ii) schools with no rules where chaos and anarchy reign??

Why can't people see that there is not a world but a galaxy of alternatives in between? Why???

@NINP "I would send my dc to one of these super-strict schools"

You want your child to endure this kind of emotional abuse, with the risk of creating permanent psychological scars, all in the name of good GCSE results? What can I say, you do you, but parents who make these decisions should be stripped of parental responsibility

@Pythag
As you know, many people want their children to go to Mossbourne or Michaela. Kids apparently like those schools and parents like the great progress that their pupils make.

@User37482
Aren’t Mossbourne and Ashcroft in the top 20 for progress 8 scores this year?

@Pythag , @User37482 : who cares? So what? Does the end justify the means?
Psychological abuse for the sake of good grades? Really?? Shame on you!

Here is another lesser known trust. Parents here really don't have London levels of choice about where they educate their children. I think when the actual teachers speak up and leave in droves, no one can deny a deep cultural problem.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3gqq3zle2go

Oh on the contrary. Some idiot will probably speak up on this very board to deny a cultural problem, and probably post some nonsense about how no wants schools to “discipline” (read abuse) their children.

What is clear is that you’ve got a massive chip on your shoulder! Is your ex a Head of an academy?

So how can a school make so much progress if their students are allegedly being screamed at on a daily basis? The answer is, they can’t. Therefore perhaps the claims of such behaviour from staff to students are somewhat exaggerated.

Teacher here. I mostly agree with your first post, but your comments about sexually repressed HTs makes you sound like a loon, sorry. Imo these people are mostlt just very ambitious and far too black and white about the end justifying the means.

This is the tip of the iceberg. The abuse being uncovered in these schools is happening everywhere

And you know that how?

I wonder why the Guardian type champagne socialists hate it so much when poor people get decent education... 🤔

Oh yes, absolutely! Let's just throw a few more abusive measures into the mix, shall we? After all, the best way to help poor people is clearly through inhumane treatment and harsh discipline because nothing says ‘learning and developing into a functional adult’ like breaking young people down to build them up, right?

While we're at it, why not bring back workhouses and lunatic asylums too? That way, we can give the 'non-conforming' poor a real place to be 'reformed.' A strict moral code for the masses, after all, is best enforced with total disregard for their humanity!

Personally, I believe kindness and fair and firm boundaries work better, no matter someone's background. People do better when they're treated with respect, not cruelty or shame. A little compassion, clear expectations, fair consequences, and effective communication go a long way, whether you're rich or poor. The goal of education should be to help people learn and grow, not to cause long-term harm.

But abusive, authoritarian approaches in education have always appealed to those with controlling personalities