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

I saw that article earlier today. Goes to show that it's not a bug, it's a feature.

By the article’s own admission, these schools were failing before being taken over by Mossbourne.

I didn’t see any reporting of how being in an environment of poor and dangerous behaviour, bullying and disruption harmed DC but all of a sudden now Mossbourne has taken over, parents are coming out of the woodwork…

Equally, there has been no national reporting in relation to the inadequate school another poster mentioned above. I’d imagine planned fights, students walking out of lessons and vulnerable DC suffering serious harm would cause distress to DC. However, this isn’t part of the anti-Mossbourne agenda, so receives no coverage.

Ah, a new member of the zero sum brigade joins us. Welcome.

A school where children are left all day in urine soaked clothes, or shouted at then ignored if they can’t keep up with the class work is still failing, no matter who is in charge.

What "anti-Mossbourne agenda"? Did you read any of the posts from Hackney people with first hand experience of the issues regarding Mossbourne, in this thread? I suggest you could start with reading my comments to catch up on the situation.

I am against abuse of power and disproportionate punishment, and so is education law. Please do not jump into this thread and start polarising, because we are trying to seek improvement for the sake of our community.

That seems very unfair, when I googled the former academy chain (Ortu) I found plenty of press where parents were complaining about them.

Any school that has a history of very poor behaviour and culture will need to be significantly changed. Stricter rules and systems will be needed, and these will need to be enforced if the school is to have any chance of being turned around.

Some DC and parents will not like these changes after being used to chaos for so long and some will actively try to prevent the school from improving as they preferred running around corridors and attacking each other.

Ultimately, these schools have previously been failing to give their students an acceptable standard of education and Mossbourne has got to change that. That process may include some students who don’t want to follow the higher standards going out the door.

That's still zero sum thinking. Nobody on this thread is opposed to strict but reasonable behaviour management. We are opposed to petty, abusive and draconian behaviour policies.

The secondary school my DC went to was an utter disaster when they were little. I would not have sent them there. They brought in a new Head, joined a MAT run by actual teachers and by the time my eldest was secondary age, it had been turned around. Without resorting to extreme Mossbourne style tactics. There is a sensible middle ground. I don't understand why Mossbourne apologists refuse to accept that.

Where do pupils go when they go “out of the door?” Not to another Mossbourne school. To a council funded PRU probably. It’s dangerous for society to alienate young people in this way. They should be able to access schools to meet their needs and then reintegrate. Just showing dc the door is poor from any viewpoint.

Of course exclusions should be a last resort, but there comes a point where the safety and right to learn of the other 29 students in a class need to be prioritised.

Very often these schools that have been failing for a long time have terrible behaviour, which makes it impossible to create a safe environment where high quality learning can happen.

Moving out a few ringleaders who repeatedly refuse to behave can work wonders for the life chances of the hundreds of other students in these schools.

This smacks of rhetoric to me. I don't think you can be aware of the detail of the concerns that have been raised, with the aim of pushing for improvement.

We are not polarising the debate or using rhetoric, so why are you? What is your motive?

Also for the record, Mossbourne did not "take over a failing school". They gained the site of an already closed down all boys school. And even if they had "taken over a failing school" this does not allow them to use disproportionate punishment that is tantamount to abuse of power.

I repeat, yet again, I am not talking about school uniform rules. I am talking about using inappropriate and disproportionate punishment (no adult would want to walk a mile in my DC's shoes).

I look forward to the finding of the investigation, and hopefully some of the parents who rushed to Mossbourne's defence without knowing the detail may have the good grace to acknowledge they did so in ignorance.

@SeaSwim5 I am afraid you are deluded if you think it’s just a few ring leaders. In 50 schools in the uk, it’s been 25% of pupils since 2022. In Hackney it’s running at 8.5% of dc being suspended each year. Permanent exclusions are lower of course but the dc still need to be educated and almost certainly have sen. Sen is under diagnosed in academies.

But it’s not that situation OR children sitting in soiled clothes because you don’t let them go to the toilet! There’s a whole spectrum of behaviour policies it’s not draconian or anything goes!

The anti-Mossbourne posters on this thread have not been able to point to any school which has been turned from warzone to outstanding (as Mossbourne have done) without implementing strict behaviour policies.

Firstly, OFSTED outstanding isn't the be all and end all. My local secondary went from war zone with drugs to solidly good without extreme policies.

Secondly, you're still doing the zero sum thinking. There is a middle ground.

Ofsted is not the be all and end all, but when an outstanding rating is backed up by excellent exam results (that provide life-changing opportunities for disadvantaged DC) and parents falling over themselves to get in, that is a sure sign of a brilliant school.

There is nothing brilliant about a school that relies on fear and verbal abuse to achieve it's results. The very fact that they don't use the kind of strict but reasonable policies that are available shows them to be a failure. Parents would not be speaking out in their hundreds if it were otherwise. Why do you refuse to accept that there is a middle ground?

I have a funny feeling we may have seen SeaSwim5 here before ....

That's exactly what I thought! Astroturfing the thread with rhetoric, and ignoring sensible debate and interaction.

Also it is reminiscent of the rhetoric of Mossbourne governors I encountered in the past. I repeat, Mossbourne DID NOT take over a failing school. It inherited the site of a closed down All Boys School (that was problematic but Mossbourne DID NOT turn this closed down school around).

And although this all boys' school closed down, the equivalent all girls' school, Clapton Girls' Academy remained open, as did many other schools in the area that aren't peddling this "saviour" narrative as though they swooped in like benefactors into a Victorian slum to rescue the "poor boys of Hackney" (a Governor has said worse to my face but I won't stoke the flames by posting what they said here). This false narrative is incredibly vexing.

To add to my post above, as I can't edit it, Mossbourne Community Academy started with a completely new mixed (boys and girls) cohort, with there only being one year - year 7 - in the school in the first year, then two - year 7 and 8 - and so on. They didn't inherit a former cohort. I don't know where this false narrative that Mossbourne turned around a failing school comes from but it's a myth. And as we've rightly pointed out, even if it had inherited a problematic, failing school, this does not excuse disproportionate punishment. I am so close to going public with what was done to my DC, but I'm holding out for the enquiry.

By “astroturfing”, what you mean is you don’t want anyone with a different view who is not ideologically opposed to Mossbourne.

We have already seen 250 parents write a letter praising how the school has turned around the community, so clearly many in the area are very supportive of the school whether you like it or not.

Are you going to attempt to address the Mossbourne Myths as set out above? Are you going to accept that there is a sensible middle ground in school behaviour management?

Given that they didn't inherit a warzone, this is a complete non-argument.

That is semantics at best. The school previously on the site, with the same demographics and catchment was a war zone.