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

This guy here has had quite enough of your hyperbole and unseemly language, and to demonstrate their greater maturity, they’re going to bring your ex into the conversation.

Apparently his “crime” was to put his bag down incorrectly 🤷‍♀️. Hardly seems worth terrifying a 10yo over.

I hate academisation. The city I live in has 5 out of 7 schools run by the same strict MAT. The MAT is spoken about openly as no doing children with SEND or trying to implement the special educational provision in EHCPs (but they will happily take the cash attached to them whilst doing nothing to help the child learn). Record numbers of children are homeschooled and special schools are full to bursting point. The county council wants schools to be more inclusive but how can they be when most to the schools think there overly strict and complicated policies override the law?

No it isn't. Most schools are not like this. If anything, lots are at the other end of the scale. Kids are suffering harm because schools are not controlling behaviour enough. Schools should be harsh on genuinely bad behaviour which seriously disrupts learning or which threatens the safety and emotional well-being of students, but should not make stupid, draconian rules about other things.

It's not rocket science, at least in theory. But the extent to which schools' sanctions for properly bad behaviour can be upheld and effective is another matter, unfortunately, when parents do not support the school, and permanently-excluded kids are let back in in appeal or go to another school and cause the same problems there.

I think the characterisation of Mossbourne VPas a school for 'poor people' upthread is not right. It's a grossly unequal place, where the inequality is highly visible.

Victoria Park Village is an incredibly affluent area with multi million pound houses and SUVs everywhere, artisan food shops etc. Then there are plenty of kids in flats where their families are struggling to put food on the table. Our kids school has a food bank and I know we're not the only one.

I do think papering over inequality is part of this approach that's emerged in London that's incredibly strict.

If you read the article, there was a specific policy to try to scream at as many of the year 6 children on transition day as possible (on a day where many of them are already nervous about being “in big school”) in order to have them scared over the summer holidays, and arrive in a frightened and malleable state on D1.

Cynical and awful. We moved house specifically to avoid having to send DS to a Harris with known “discipline” like this. Many people don’t have the resources to do that.

@Soontobe60
What is clear is that you’ve got a massive chip on your shoulder! Is your ex a Head of an academy?

My ex? Personal attacks are the last resort of those who cannot reply to the argument.
Not that it's any of your business, but I remain happily married to my spouse of many years.

We have both witnessed directly (on ourselves) and indirectly (on people close to us) the damaging effect that bullying in toxic workplaces can have on a person's mental health. I can only hope you never have to see a person close to you reduced to an emotional wreck, unable to sleep, to eat, and to function.

So yes, you can bet your <insert expletive of choice her> that I have a <insert 2nd expletive> massive chip on my shoulder about bullying and toxic behaviour.

Bullying in a toxic school environment is possibly even worse because the students are less mature and have fewer options to leave (vs adults in a workplace), especially if their parents don't notice or just tell them to suck it up.

In fact, I despise people like you possibly even more than the toxic bullies themselves, because you with your attitude act as enablers of that kind of toxic behaviour. If fewer people acted like you and more people had the guts to stand up and say: "no, this ain't right" it would be a better world.

@AllProperTeaIsTheft
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.

You do you. I stand by what I said. I have explained before, and clarified just above, why I am particularly sensitive to anything to do with bullying and toxic environments, and why I have learnt to see certain behaviours as gigantic red flags.

@Soontobe60
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.

Wrong. Why do you think that? On what basis - other than ideology and preconceptions, of course?

It is perfectly possible to get good academic results at the expense of students' mental health. Many Asian countries are a testament to this very fact.

Previous generations obtained good academic results in schools with corporal punishments!!

@AllProperTeaIsTheft

Kids are suffering harm because schools are not controlling behaviour enough. Schools should be harsh on genuinely bad behaviour which seriously disrupts learning or which threatens the safety and emotional well-being of students, but should not make stupid, draconian rules about other things.

I agree on this (the bolding is mine)

It's not rocket science, at least in theory. But the extent to which schools' sanctions for properly bad behaviour can be upheld and effective is another matter, unfortunately, when parents do not support the school, and permanently-excluded kids are let back in in appeal or go to another school and cause the same problems there.

Do you not agree that there is no need for petty, silly, capricious draconian rules?

Again, it beggars belief that so many people seem to think that there is no alternative between shouting at people or inspecting if they are wearing the right shade of grey or giving them detention if they want to take their blazer off in a heatwave.... and not having any discipline at all. It beggars belief. It is truly shocking. I hope you are not one of these people.

There's a couple of assumptions on this thread that are wrong - the mossbourne schools are not working class, there are extremely mixed. Extremely sadly, two students at mossbourne CA died last year - one from gang related stabbing and one from a skiing accident, these typifies the extreme ends of the society the kids are coming from. There is a weird lottery intake that means the closest council estates are not represented as the majority in the school community and prep school parents often view MCA as an alternative to Latymer to reduce costs of school fees. The other assumption is choice. There are excellent alternatives (academies too but v nurturing ethos) for girls but none for boys. The local option is mca or the school where child Q was assaulted. Unless you can afford private, it's either these schools or failing state schools for boys, so many parents aren't choosing to send their kids to these environments where they know their kid is at risk of serious mental ill health.
I think it's really shocking that this is happening in schools.

I have always tried to stand by the school and take their side because I think that teachers have a difficult enough job as it is. However when schools introduce rules that are obviously ridiculous and unfair, even to the children, it’s really hard to do so and I think makes the children lose respect for the school/teachers and so actually achieves the opposite of what the school is trying to do - i.e. improve behaviour.

I'm not saying schools like this don't exist, or that they only exist in a couple of places in the country. I am saying that the (probably vast) majority of schools are not like this.

I suspect that pupils with challenging behaviour, SEN and mental health issues end up leaving the school.

My teen goes to an academy with appallingly strict rules. She can't cope as she's quiet, well behaved and anxious. The only petty upside is that as she's going to fail most of her exams now (should have been all 7-9 grades) it'll bite the school on their backside and bring their stats down. They wanted me to home school her so she wasn't their problem but I've been on here for too long to be pushed around like that.

@AllProperTeaIsTheft I'm not saying schools like this don't exist, or that they only exist in a couple of places in the country. I am saying that the (probably vast) majority of schools are not like this.

I think it is quite pointless to argue whether schools like these are 1%, 10% or 50% of total schools.

The important points are: so we agree that these nonsensical policies are wrong?
What can we do about that? See, this last bit is the real problem, because the "independent" nature of academies means that they take out taxpayers' money but don't want to be accountable to anyone. I can't think of many other public services which work like that.

That's appalling,I hope your dd will turn things around for herself. Can you share what some of these rules are? Or is it just a culture where teachers rule by fear and erratic behaviour?

It's awful that education has become like this.

I'm curious about schools like this.
I wonder how much of the success is due to the parents, not the regime. Strict, ambitious parents will favour a strict school. They will likely enforce extra study at home.

(My DDs school has a reputation for being the strictest school in the district. Its nothing like that! All the rules do have a reason if you ask... for example no non uniform days as they found attendance was low amongst children on FSM)

Do they have a high rate of school refusal?

I’m curious about this, would have thought a school like this with high levels of order would suit a quiet and well behaved child?

Behaviour points for misunderstanding instructions due to literal interpretation.

Not really. The louder kids still exist and mess around to some extent. She can't cope with the pointless rules and she's so scared to break a rule or forget a bit of kit. She's on the waiting list for an ASD assessment.
It's the whole "sledgehammer to crack nut" thing.