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

That's it for me. Logging out!

@boldly so are you another who believes that the choice is between draconian and lax, with nothing in between? And do you think it's fine for children to be harmed, as long as yours isn't?

they offered half days and one day off you can’t have everything your own way. Large schools with limited resources. So in his case it they were flexible just not in the way he wanted.

I am not Lisa but I know who she is. I am not doubting that some children have had a bad time. Do I think it is systemic no. Children who are unhappy and scared do not learn and their results show that children do incredibly well there.

An account from an ex-teacher appeared today: https://www.educationuncovered.co.uk/analysis/firstperson/173171/a-system-that-weaponizes-education-into-an-instrument-of-silent-subjugation.thtml < it’s a paywall site but it let me see one piece for free. He’s definitely not just describing strictness.

@boldly I am not doubting that some children have had a bad time. Do I think it is systemic no. Children who are unhappy and scared do not learn and their results show that children do incredibly well there.

Nonsense.
The world was and is full of schools which get good academic results while completely terrorising their students, abusing them (sometimes only emotionally, sometime also physically) and messing them up for life.

Surely you know how the investigation (investigation, not one person complaining in the Guardian) on Holland Park School uncovered a climate of exploitation and fear? www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-61325597 Despite the school getting good academic results and having been rated Outstanding by Ofsted? If you're looking for proof of how useless Ofsted is, there it is.

Surely you know how Earl Spencer opened up about the unhealed scars from the abuse at his boarding school? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-68607134 And, guess what, of course it was a prestigious boarding school with good academic results.

Surely you know that in the past schools with corporal punishment could still get good academic results?

Are you going to admit you're wrong and apologise?

Are you going to admit that with this bootlicker attitude you behave like the textbook enabler who denies past abuse and makes future abuse possible?
The only acceptable amount of abuse is zero.

I am deeply triggered by this, as would anyone who has witnessed the impact that a bullying toxic environment can have on an adult. Are you one of those who must see with her own eyes how these environments can wreck a loved one, leaving them unable to sleep eat function? Is that the only way you'd ever understand?

I am not going to say more about what I think of you and bootlickers like you because I don't want to get banned, but it's easy to infer.

I think it is outrageous and unhelpful that you continually refer to those with an opposing view using such a pejorative term. That is always the sign of a lost argument.

@TreeSquirrel Bullshit

I substantiate my arguments. You and the bootlickers do not.

@boldly claimed that good academic results are incompatible with children who are unhappy and scared. I have proved her wrong with factual, well-documented examples.

Can you prove that my examples are wrong? No, of course you cannot. So you take offence at my choice of language.

If a rape victim used aggressive, colourful language against the institution which allowed her rape, would you take offence at the rape or at the aggressive language?

Remind me again how providing factual, well-documented examples is the sign of a lost argument??

Also, @TreeSquirrel , why do you dodge inconvenient questions?
You still haven't answered me about the lack of accountability in academies.
Do you find it normal that the complaint process is the school marking its own homework, and that not even the DfE can get a school to change its decision?
Do you not wonder why we don't accept this level of unaccountability in other public services, but we do for education?

What is outrageous and unhelpful is that you bootlickers keep peddling your lie, then dodge inconvenient questions when faced with well-documented facts which destroy your arguments. And in so doing you keep acting as enablers for terrible emotional abuse suffered by children. Shame on you!

Whilst I would not use OP's terminology, your utter inability to accept that other viewpoints beside your own may be equally valid, and your utter unwillingness to look beyond your ridiculous chaos/draconian dichotomy without allowing for the spectrum of possibilities in between, make it very frustrating to have any sort of discussion with you. If anyone on this thread has lost the argument, it's you - because you are unwilling to accept that your precious Mossbourne may be getting things wrong for a substantial subset of its students. Your incredible defensiveness is very irritating.

I agree with pointythings. Furthermore, I don't even think it needs to be an argument. Surely we're all in agreement on some things:

a) some kids do better in a strict school environment

b) it's possible for a school to be strict without being abusive

c) it's possible for Mossbourne to tweak its system so as to be strict without being abusive.

The parents asking for an inquiry must believe c) or they would have called for the academies to be shut down, which they haven't.

NB I've left out d) which is almost too obvious to type: no child should be taught in an abusive environment.

@tigger29 Thanks for sharing this link. I've sat and cried reading this account, reliving what my DC went through at Mossbourne.

This is pretty standard for Mossbourne:

‘Yet this school hasn’t broken your spirit?’ I offered.
‘They can try. They’ll never get me!’ he replied, defiant but helpless.

The ex-pupils call themselves survivors, and it's not a joke. I have personally never met anyone who has called themselves a "survivor" of a school except Mossbourne ex pupils (of course that doesn't mean they don't exist, but I'm illustrating the point that it's not something that is commonly said).

This adult's account corroborates the many accounts I'm aware of. Sadly many of the ethical teachers, the ones who were proportionate, would leave after a year or two. There are some that I thank deeply for shielding my DC from disproportionate punishment when they could.

I wish I could subject the deniers to the experiences my DC went through, then ask them how they felt.

@Proportionate thank you for sticking with this thread and sharing your story. Yours is a voice of reason and you are in fact extremely eponymous - as opposed to @TreeSquirrel , who could learn some lessons in empathy and clear thinking from you.

Back briefly.
Ok, but you seem to have the same profile as Lisa. 🤔
Your thinking is exactly Mossbourne's: you can't have everything your own way, you can't pick and choose. But sick or disabled children will need custom made adaptations to enable them to function. Chronic fatigue in puberty is tough and can vary from day to day. I heard this over and over again: Psychiatrists/child psychologists/consultants and parents having to battle with the school to obtain some flexibility. Parents on the verge of breakdowns because of the school's lack of understanding. These kids have special needs, hence they need special support. I don't know if you have a disability, but if you did, surely you would want support to function in school/ in a work place,/as you move in the world. I would want for you. The adaptation needs to work for the person concerned, not for the organisation making it.
I think this investigation is not only about Mossbourne, but about how disabled people end up being discriminated against/not allowed to take part in society's activities.
Really dumb too, Lisa, to say that anxious/sad kids don' t get good grades.

I am not saying adaptations shouldn’t happen at all but in a large setting of a school with limited resources there needs to be compromise. What confuses me is why adaptations have been made for so many children and not for others

That's what the investigation needs to uncover. Is it a random teacher's incompetence, bad management or a general policy to only agree to a few? Maybe signalling to the community that special needs are not welcome?

Have they had the same Sendco leader for a long time?

I am not sure, when my son was there there were about 5/6 send co ordinators I only know as I used to have to buy them chocolate as he loved them.

I am not even sure a Sendco would be involved in a case of chronic fatigue or anxiety or random illness. Don't they step in when there is an autism diagnosis, or a student with Ehcp? Clearly, something has gone wrong anyway.

Some children with chronic fatigue and/or anxiety can meet the legal definition of having SEN. And therefore the SENCO should be involved. The SENCO isn’t just about supporting DC with ASD &/or EHCP.

It is practically impossible for DC to get everything ‘their own way’ in a school with thousands of students. Of course adjustments should be made where possible, but no school in the country can allow parents to dictate what their DC can and can’t do.

But nobody is asking for that. Once again you are setting up a strawman just so that you can knock it down. People are asking for firm, fair, sensible rules that take into account the needs of students with special needs, illnesses and disabilities. That really shouldn't be too much to ask.

My DS' school managed to make adaptations for his needs (chronic pain and fatigue) within a couple of weeks of asking. This is not a small school. And because he got support, he got the good grades he was capable of.

A school writing pupils off because they can't be bothered is a bad school - even if the majority of its students are getting great academic results. Ethics matter. Morals matter. If the complaining parents and teachers are correct, Mossbourne is failing on these criteria.

This isn't correct. I'm a SENDCo and I have responsibility for long term illness, EBSNA, TAFs and all kinds of family support that sits within the SEND remit. You'd be surprised at how much is sent my way.

Thats good to know. Thankyou.

Which is what I have been saying Mossbourne does for so many children. Can you hand on heart say that every child at your dc school that needed extra support got it?

Is there a safeguarding investigation at your school brought about by 250plus parents,ex teachers, Camhs doctors, gps who are concerned young people are being emotionally harmed?

Of course I'm not saying that. We wll know what SEN budgets have been like for the past 14 years. But that isn't what this thread is about - this thread is about a school which wilfully persists with irrational and draconian behaviour policies which are unnecessary (as evidenced by the existence of high achieving schools which do not have such policies), which has no accountability to anyone and which does not listen to parents who have concerns.

Whereas my DS' school did listen to my concerns and acted on them.