'School punished my child because I missed her parents' evening'

"Families who spoke to the BBC described what they said was an increasingly punitive environment at Mossbourne Port Side Academy and Mossbourne Fobbing Academy in Thurrock, alleging frequent detentions for minor issues, a lack of flexibility for pupils with additional needs and poor communication from staff. About 150 pupils have been withdrawn by their parents since the takeover, the BBC understands. Others have kept them enrolled but said they were struggling to get their concerns addressed."

"The Mossbourne Federation - which took over the previously failing academies of about 2,000 pupils between them in January - said only a small proportion of pupil departures related to formal concerns raised with the academies. It rejected suggestions of safeguarding failings, saying both schools are oversubscribed and improving academically, but added that it "accepts that it does not always get it right". The federation said its highly structured model was based on "research, decades of experience and independent reporting", adding that when expectations were predictable "pupils feel safer, teachers can teach and learning improves"."

"Louise Butcher said she withdrew her son and daughter from Mossbourne Port Side Academy in Stanford-le-Hope last month over what she viewed as a heavy-handed approach to discipline. She said on one occasion she was unable to attend a parents' evening due to a shift at work, after which her daughter was given a detention. "To punish my child, it kind of makes you as a parent then think, 'I can't actually say anything because if I try and stand up for my child, it's my child that suffers.'""

Parents of pupils at two Essex secondary schools report children left anxious, unsupported and in some cases unsafe since the Mossbourne Federation takeover. Families allege frequent detentions for minor issues, limited flexibility for pupils with additional needs and poor communication from staff. Around 150 pupils have been withdrawn by parents since January, while others remain enrolled but struggle to have concerns addressed. The Mossbourne Federation says only a small proportion of departures follow formal concerns, rejects safeguarding-failure claims, describes the schools as oversubscribed and improving academically, and defends its research-based, highly structured model while acknowledging it does not always get things right.

Read at www.bbc.com