Pupils Caught In Sutherland School Crackdown

The tail of the Sutherland Business and Enterprise College shows no sign of calming down.

After being classed as “Inadequate” by OFSTED, the school then went on to exclude pupils from the school, the reason, “For Smoking”.

Until the OFSTED Inspection took place, the school had always tolerated smoking and staff had, on occasions smoked on the premises in the bike sheds whilst along side or in full view of pupils.

Whilst schools have to promote a healthy life style amongst its pupils, it is not correct to suddenly change rules in a knee jerk reaction to an inspection and exclude pupils without informing them or parents that anyone caught smoking will be excluded.

As a direct result of the schools clamp down, the Head Teacher admitted to the Shropshire Star 16/12/09 that over 33 pupils had been excluded from school, in a Freedom Of Information request received on the 8^th January 2010, the figures are significantly higher,

From 1/10/2009 – 30/11/2009 which is the 4 weeks after the OFSTED Inspection, the school excluded 108 pupils – these exclusions break down into the following groups

Disruptive        4

other                58

Physical Adult  4

Physical Pupil   11

Sexual              3

Verbal Adult      25

Verbal Adult      3

Total                  108  

Whilst we have to accept that in some cases, there is no alternative but exclude a pupil, the school also has to accept there will and is occasions when a child has been excluded because of inappropriate action by staff with some who are employing strong arm tactics or being over zealous with their actions.

One of these exclusions under other was a child with SEN, who had been allowed to leave a lesson by her teacher to use a toilet  and given a note, because the toilets are locked, the child had to go to the main office, because the child did not have a “toilet pass”, the child was excluded, despite being given written permission from her teacher. The member of staff left the school a few days later.

Pupils are no arranging a petition because coursework has been lost and remains unmarked. This coursework has been completed over the course of the year, but because the pupils  only received lessons from stand in teachers the work was never marked and the class that children with SEN were left often to their own devices receiving sub standard education as mentioned in the OFSTED report.

An official complaint will be made to the local Authority about standards in the school, constant loss of coursework, ineffective communication with parents and the fact that the school excludes students in a manner that is in contravention to its own policies.

TROUBLE HITS THE SUTHERLAND BUSINESS AND ENTERPRISE COLLEGE  -------- AGAIN !!!

The Sutherland Business and Enterprise College in Trench Telford was recently found to be providing an INADEQUATE standard of education for over 500 pupils in a recent OFSTED Inspection. The school was also issued with a notice to improve and OFSTED have confirmed that the school is classed as a CONCERN.

The Chair of Governors Councillor Keith Austin also decided to only issue parents with page 13 of a 14 page report which is a breach of their legal requirements.   

Students at the college are now starting a petition at the school because they are concerned at the standard of education being offered to them with a great concern being on the subject of English.

Approximately 12 months ago an English teacher left the school on compassionate grounds, but unfortunately, at least 30 pupils were then not adequately taught in this subject.

Over the last 12 months, students saw at least 10 different teachers drift in and out of the classroom and not one teacher carried on teaching where the other left off.

Over the course of this 12 months, students work went unmarked, coursework was not checked and a number of students coursework has now been lost at the school by one of the many teachers that drifted in and out of the classroom.

Students today said,

“The last year has been extremely unsettling for us. We never had a regular teacher, we were often left to our own devices and had to regularly go to the offices to find out if we had a teacher to teach us”

“Our final examinations in English start next week, now we have the additional burden of having to complete a years worth of coursework and get it marked before our examinations start”

“I am one of the fortunate few who have backed up all my coursework on a memory stick, but other students are not that lucky”

“We do not need this kind of pressure this close to our examinations. Some teachers have no problem in suspending children for minor issues, but teachers are allowed to get away with providing a poor level of education and get away with it”

A parent of pupils at the school said today,

“I have grave concerns about what is happening at this school, my concerns have  been expressed to the Head Teacher and the Deputy Head in writing but they refuse to sort out parents concerns adequately”

“I have a meeting with the Head Teacher next week, if my concerns are not addressed adequately, I will have no alternative but to go to the Local Authority and the issues raised could then be forwarded to the Government Ombudsman”

“I have spoken with pupils who are very concerned and would urge every parent who has a child at this school to raise concerns with the Head Teacher immediately.”

“It is not appropriate that children are not being taught to the required standards and it is not acceptable that children’s coursework is lost or at best unmarked this close to their final examinations”

“The school is playing Russian roulette with our children’s education, some of whom have special educational needs and someone must be held to account”

“I note that the Council and Chair of governors remained very quiet when the results of the OFSTED Inspection were released in the Shropshire Star, this is not acceptable and education in the borough has had no effective leadership since the departure of Christine Davies”

The school and the local Authority have a duty of care to our future generations, this is certainly not being implemented at the moment and the current year 11’s at this school are likely to produce the worst set of results this school has seen for sometime, yet the school is not bothered.