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

It must be a relief knowing that only the people who disagree with you are biased, whereas those who agree can be trusted implicitly.

@Araminta1003 here, again, you identify one significant part of the problem, and yet the repetition of your messages suggests to me that you are unwilling to accept that this is possible. I don't understand what motivates you.

I have the email history to prove MCA persistently avoided their complaints procedure. In my view, over 20 years, members of the SLT have grown to act as though they're "above the law".

After they persistently ignored their complaints procedure, the next step was the ESFA, who can only rule on whether MCA followed their complaints procedure.

My experience was that the ESFA was overstretched, and emailing them would result in a different person handling the response each time, rather than being given one point of contact at the ESFA. On top of dealing with other life challenges, including the traumatic situation my DC was facing, it was exhausting.

@Proportionate I am sorry what your child went through. For sure, it's not ok. I really welcome these investigations, no parent should feel unsupported at a difficult time. It's really upsetting. Mossbourne will be better and stronger after this enquiry whatever its findings.

@Proportionate - I am not at all unwilling to accept failure towards some children and staff. All I am saying is that there must surely be regulatory failure too as why did those bodies not step in to sort out issues if they were so widespread? Either regulatory failure full stop or the regulatory route was not fully followed, for whatever reason. You explain that it is not easy to get a solution or any action, which should not be the case. For example, if there is an Ofsted inspection perhaps there should be a window of a few weeks afterwards when parents can still voice their concerns? The reports are never published very fast. The inspection has to be unannounced, but maybe parents need to be given more time to feedback?

Years ago there was a judicial review into one of the most well known grammar schools, St Olave’s, by parents due to the then head asking pupils to leave between years 12 & 13 (on the back of so called inadequate exam performance which may have eventually led to lesser grades in A levels). The parent group ended up winning and the head resigned on the back of it (or was sacked, I cannot remember). St Olave’s is back in 4 or 5th position nationally amongst all state schools. So they did make changes on the back of it, but that is a selective school so the selective nature itself pretty much guarantees good public exam outcome. The strangest thing in all of this was that that particular head used to be at Fortismere which is quite a well known liberal leaning Muswell Hill comprehensive school. So why the head acted the way he did always remained a mystery to me.

I am not saying it is right that the education system rewards success in grades above much else nor that funding is per pupil, but that is the current system. So reputational damage against that back drop will hurt. The trust should have sorted this out earlier or the regulators should have stepped in. I think it would still be better to reach a collaborative approach. That is all I am saying. People should sit down and learn lessons, for the greater good of the whole school community and in particular, the children in the school. Perhaps you feel that those who have left with a bad experience do need a report to say that what they experienced was not right. Which I can fully understand too.

@Araminta1003 a collaborative approach would be great, but it should be obvious that Mossbourne isn't interested in a collaborative approach and doesn't want to change. They have brought their current situation on themselves and I hope that the investigation brings about positive change.

@Araminta1003 The problem runs deeper.
The whole academy model is based on the very concept of no accountability. The complaints process is just an academy marking its own homework. Not even the Secretary of a State can overturn a school's decision!!

Sure, not every Academy is as bad as Mossbourne, some are in fact quite good, but the fact remains that no accountability always leads to bad stuff happening. Always.

The entire model of no accountability needs to be changed. Would you not agree?

A woman I know told me she didn't complain because she was 'on her knees'. Her story is terrible, the school was negligent. She moved her child to another school instead. She is not even sure she wants her story to be part of the enquiry. She wants to forget the whole thing.

In all honestly, as some who has been involved in education as a campaigner and through my children for well over ten years, it's really difficult to generalise about academies vs maintained schools.

My children went to a Harris primary school. It converted from a local authority school just after my eldest started. Yes, the branding and what not was annoying, but they had good teachers, a lovely community and a shitload of extra-curricular.

My eldest then went to an LA school where the staff turned a blind eye to her being bullied and asked me to move her to another school. That's what's traumatised her and has made the subsequent years very difficult for her.

But as I've said before, strict schools scare some well behaved children. It's not a success if you get the spirited children to behave at the expense of the MH of the quiet ones.

@ParentOfOne - the majority of schools are now academies and that is not going to change. What can be changed is the regulation of them. I think a collaborative approach between all schools locally and nationally needs to be fostered, rather than competition amongst them. Schools should help each other, share resources and experiences and also allow transfers of pupils between schools if things have not worked out. There are some great academies and there are some not so great ones and the same applies to LA schools.
Labour are going to allow LAs to open schools again - this also means they can open special schools for SEND again. The powers to be have decided that independent special schools are too costly long term and also, there is the private equity question (in care too for both children and the elderly).

So I think you need to rephrase and stop sounding so anti-academy because that won’t get you anywhere in this climate. What you can do is ask for more collaboration and better regulation and checks and balances. I think you can get somewhere with that.

Re: accountability. After I had moved my child from the LA school, I submitted a SARS request. The level of incompetence and neglect revealed was jaw-dropping.

I had a meeting with the head, who sent me a full letter of apology. I wrote to the governors about a serious issues that the head had ignored (some information not passed on to me that would have enabled my child to return to school and the fact that she was on unauthorised absence for a month and no-one contacted us). The governors ignored my letter.)

So I wouldn't say that accountability was any better in LA schools, unless there is will from the governors and SLT to implement it tbh.

@Araminta1003 It is shocking that you still cannot bring yourself to criticise a model, the academy concept, where schools are completely state funded, CEOs earn more than an Oxbridge vice chancellor but have discretion not to apply National salary increases to their teachers, and where there is no entity external to and independent of the school itself which can review a complaint and overturn a school's decision. Not even the Secretary of State can!
Can you absolutely not bring yourself to see what is wrong in this approach??

@Trumpetoftheswan2 there are of course some terrible local authority schools. But with those schools the complaint process cna involve someone other than the school itself (typically the local authority). Not do with academies.

Imagine if you could complain about a bank only to the bank and never to a regulator.
Or if you could complain against your GP only to the GP itself and not to the General Medical Council or NHS England.

https://schoolsweek.co.uk/childrens-wellbeing-bill-to-enact-sweeping-academies-reform/

@ParentOfOne - there are changes happening anyway.

And here you go, a measured approach in today’s podcast.

schoolsweek.co.uk/podcast-john-dickens-interviews-sir-kevan-collins/

These are all positive and long, long overdue.

I really don’t think it’s helpful to look at this (or any) issue through such a one-sided lens. There are some very good and very poor LA schools, just as there are good and poor academies.

What is clear is that some academies have transformed life changes in areas where LA schools had been failing for decades. I hope the new government take an evidence-based approach to this rather than starting with an assumption that LA schools must be better as they are state-run.

Pay flexibility is a fantastic thing for academies as it allows them to pay more to attract and retain the best teachers.

Nobody is looking at this through a one-sided lens at all. People on here are wanting Academy schools to be made accountable in the same way that LA maintained schools are. This is a good thing - unless you are opposed to accountability.

Accountability should also be in place regarding matters of pay. When it is my taxes which are being used, I want to know they are being used well. NHS pay scales are a matter of public records, so why should tax payer funded schools be permitted secrecy?

@Baldyandproud Ah thank you for your kindness. I think we could do with more compassion in the world right now.

Yes, hopefully we'll help ensure that Mossbourne provides excellent education AND pastoral care, with reasonable and proportionate punishment.

I think that's a fair aim.

@TreeSquirrel Pay flexibility is a fantastic thing for academies as it allows them to pay more to attract and retain the best teachers.

I have no objection against teachers being paid more.
My issue is that academies use pay flexibility to pay teachers LESS while they remain entirely state funded and have CEOs making more than Oxbridge vice chancellors.

Can you substantiate how many academies pay their teachers MORE?

You truly are a bad faith troll. Will you ever apologise?

PS and why should a carpet salesman (Lord Harris) or the former chairman of a political party (Lord Ashcroft) set up schools???

https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/education/20763325.revealed-wage-bill-academy-bosses-soars-17m-despite-funding-crisis/

Two days ago I posted for the first time ever, partly with an appeal for a more nuanced approach to the debate around Mossbourne. I explained that I had a child in Year 7 and that I was also a teacher, not at Mossbourne. However within hours I was accused of being "a bad faith troll" -I had to look that up- and I paraphrase "someone who doesn't know what I am talking about".

The majority of posts responding to me were polite and avoided personal attacks, so how ironic that while claiming to want a better and more sympathetic approach to how children are treated some result to insult as by way of argument.

Looking at some of the posts they appear to be from people who do not have children at the school. Some criticisms/observations are less about that particular school and more about the state of education in general across the country.

For instance provision of SEN is struggling across all sectors, Academy and Grant maintained, and across all Key Stages. Many outside agencies that supported schools have been hollowed out, Local authorities struggle. This a a time where UK children are the most tested and schools judged on their performance. We don't make the rules the DFE does.

My point being is that you should address your concerns about Mossbourne and not the general state of educational provision.

In addition, those of us that sent our children to Mossbourne are not blinkered authoritarian "Daily Mail" type readers, we had free choice as does any parent that selects that school. You have the right to remove your child, it is not a Gulag.

The regrettable incidents highlighted need to be seen in the context of the thousands of children, parents, carers and teachers that have passed through the gates in the last 2 decades. As I said in my previous post be careful not to through the baby out with the bath water.

@Odyeseus I called you a bad faith troll here https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/secondary/5225872-mossbourne-academies-investigations-into-alleged-emotional-harm-and-abuse-why-are-needlessly-strict-academies-unaccountable?reply=140591230&utm_campaign=reply&utm_medium=share and I absolutely stand by that.

I explained why : you downplayed the issue, pretending that it was a matter of a few teachers raiding their voices a couple of times. It was not. The allegations are of a pervasive culture instilled from the top, with seminars on "healthy fear", where shouting at and terrorising children was part of a very explicit strategy from the top.

That some parents like it at Mossbourne is utterly irrelevant. The investigation needs to determine if the allegations are true, if what happened was illegal, and what the impact on the mental health of the students has been, REGARDLESS of parents' preferences.

Remember that historically many parents welcomed corporal punishments. This doesn't make them right!

Interestingly, the parents who are defending the school are NOT saying that the allegations are false and that if they were true they would oppose these horrors. No. They are implying some combination of "it didn't happen to my kids so who cares" and "I don't care if it happened to my kids because exam results are good"

Looking at it "in the context" of the many students the school has had is like implying it isn't a big deal if a dozen women were abused in a company because that company employs 1,000 women and the other 988 have not complained. Shame on you!

I have seen what toxic environments can do to the mental health of an adult. Have you? That it is being done to children doesn't let me sleep at night.