Almost all the governors have resigned from a troubled Brighton school while the staff have raised a collective grievance, according to an email from a teacher.
The school – Homewood College – was rated inadequate by the education watchdog Ofsted and placed into “special measures” with a view to becoming an academy.
But two years on, the Department for Education (DfE) has been unable to find a permanent academy sponsor to take over the school from Brighton and Hove City Council.
Beckmead Trust, a multi-academy trust based in London, was brought in to provide support for Homewood, in Queensdown School Road, Brighton.
But the email sent by a teacher today (Tuesday 19 March) criticised the arrangement at the special school which caters for pupils with social, emotional and mental health (SEMH) needs.
The email said: “Beckmead leadership in school has no capacity to keep staff safe. Beckmead support is not working. Beckmead leadership in this school is causing staff to be ill.
“Staff absence has increased with mental health being cited as a reason. Work related stress is not being addressed.”
A number of people involved with the school said that the “inadequate” rating from Ofsted and the “academy order” that followed – with no willing sponsor – had made a bad situation worse.
And with no change in the school’s Ofsted rating, the council has been looking at other ways to provide for the dozens of children who are no longer in a mainstream school.
At the end of last month, councillors agreed to spend £400,000 on refurbishing St George’s House, in Dyke Road, Brighton, which was used by the council’s “pupil referral unit” until last July and is currently empty.
The former pupil referral unit is expected to take secondary pupils with education, health and care plans (EHCP) linked to SEMH needs who would otherwise have gone to Homewood College.
The council also said that it had no plans to send any more pupils to Homewood College, placing the school on the path to closure.
One Homewood insider said that the governors had been “placed in an impossible position” and that “the most vulnerable children in the city are being let down by this”.
Another said that the children were some of the “hardest to reach” while the Ofsted report said: “Pupils’ behaviour is often chaotic and sometimes violent.”
The watchdog also said that only a small number of pupils went into school daily and that staff did not have the skills they needed to support children with very complex needs. To read more, click here.
The email sent today went to former governors, some senior council officials, the leader of the council and the three MPs for Brighton and Hove.
It said: “A collective grievance has been raised and been ignored. There are two serious whistleblowing concerns regarding safeguarding and health and safety. These have not been investigated.
“These concerns don’t just go away because you choose to ignore them. There is no governing body in place so staff require confirmation of who is now investigating these. We will repeat again, staff in this school are not safe.”
Shortly afterwards, PLMR Ltd, a Westminster public relations firm, emailed a statement on behalf of Homewood College.
It said: “We would like to thank the former governors for their work supporting Homewood over the last few months and years.
“School governors are unpaid volunteers and we are extremely grateful to them for the time and expertise they have given us.
“We are working closely with colleagues at Brighton and Hove local authority and expect to have new governors appointed shortly as part of a new interim executive board.
“We will provide an update on this in due course.”
This school is another failure of the local council, who have not supervised its progress and have left it to fail.
An academy that should have supported have done the opposite and have increased its woes.
Pupils well-being has been left at the bottom of the concerns and the academy and council should burry their heads in shame.
Why waste money on creating another partial site for two year groups as recently declared by the council, when the money could be better spent supporting the school to make good the promises to the pupils and families to offer the great support that the staff can offer through their knowledge and experience.
This failure falls solely on the governing local council.
What plans do the council have for these young vulnerable children other than try and put them in schools that did not want them to start with.
If I was a volunteer like the governors I sure wouldn’t hang around if there was no support and the blame was being passed to me from the council.
Have governors left on own or have they been pushed by council or academy
Have academy made school so bad they can take off the council at a dirt cheap price so council can wash hands thinking that it’s not their problem anymore, or is the council looking to sell site to build more student flats on to pay off some of the debt of the failing local authority.
Question to ask is who has failed the most?
I’m sure the staff have worked hard to do the best and with no leadership support.
I’m more sure that the council the academy and the education secretary, who should over see everything have failed the pupils, and families, the staff and the local taxpayers.
Too many pencil pushers and money grabbers making life changing decisions with no thoughts for the vulnerable
The local authority should be utterly ashamed at the position they have put the Governing Body in, and the pupils at Homewood. But no one will be blamed, no one will face consequences. And then they wonder why schools opt to become Academies free of their incompetence and paying for wages not earned.
Don’t paint the Academies as not having problems. At least the LA is just incompetent, academies are much much worse.
PLMR is a media company that help multi-academy trusts (MATS) with ‘crisis management’. They are proud to have helped independent schools keep their charitable status and as such tax fee status. They are the mouthpiece of Tory ideas and proudly state their staff have worked with Michael Gove, Liz Truss, Nick Gibb and David Cameron, a list most right thinking people would be ashamed of.
The list of MATS and organisations they are involved with is a who’s who of Trusts and organisations hated by educators. These trusts all have a very large social media presence and are at the centre of this inept Government’s education ideas. The list includes, the Confederation of Schools Trusts, Greenwood Academies Trust, The Ambition Institute, Thinking Schools, Oak National Academy, Michaela, Independent Schools Council, Beckmead Trust… etc. etc. PLMR even donated money to the Beckmead Trust’s charity campaign for aid for Ukraine.
The fact that trusts are spending tax payers’ money on managing their profiles rather than educating our children is sickening and symptomatic of the state the government have allowed our education system to get in. Now they’re infiltrating our schools via the Regional DFE and Beckmeads Trust, making the situation impossible for Governors so they have to step down.
PLMR now have their client, Sir Martyn Oliver (Outwood Grange), as the Head of OFSTED and had Amanda Spielman (ARK Schools) before him. The whole education system needs a root and branch overhaul to remove these parasites from public life and public money.
PLMR is a Tufton Street cabal, what the hell are they doing being involved in a Brighton Special School with 37 pupils?
Discrace.. Of course govt policy is behind the funding crisis in eduction, public sector et al.