Staff at a London academy instilled a “climate of fear” among pupils, with a drive for academic success likely to have harmed vulnerable children including those with special needs, according to a damning independent investigation.
The report by Sir Alan Wood, one of the country’s foremost experts in children’s services, found that staff at Mossbourne Victoria Park Academy (MVPA) routinely used measures “designed to humiliate pupils”, frequently shouting at them and isolating them in corridors as part of “a harsh and damaging disciplinary culture”.
Wood highlighted concerns about MVPA’s “inflexible approach, disproportionate sanctions, and the high volume of mental health referrals”, and noted some practitioners considered the school’s culture to be “exacerbating mental health issues in pupils”.
Parents who campaigned for an investigation into the school’s culture said they were relieved, and called on the leadership to change course or be replaced.
The Department for Education said Wood’s findings were “serious and deeply concerning”.
A DfE spokesperson said: “Every child deserves to learn in a calm classroom, and school behaviour policies should promote safety, respect, and a positive environment for both staff and pupils, tailored to the needs of their pupils and wider community.
“We will continue to engage with the [academy’s] trust to ensure that it implements the changes needed in response to these findings.”
A spokesperson for the school’s governing trust said the report was being “carefully considered” by its leadership. “The Mossbourne Federation is committed to doing everything in its power to ensure the best outcomes for every child who attends its schools,” it added.
While Wood praised the secondary school for its excellent results, he said those responsible for internal oversight had been “lulled” by good grades and failed to investigate complaints from parents over “punishment no matter what” attitudes among school leaders.
“Academic excellence that traumatises some pupils is not true excellence. Discipline through fear is not preparing young people for life as confident, independent adults,” Wood said in the report, commissioned by Hackney’s independent safeguarding children partnership.
Wood added: “[MVPA’s] leadership has come to believe harsh discipline is not just a means but the defining characteristic of success – the method has become the mission.
“Rather than responding with curiosity, leadership dismisses concerns as vexatious or ideologically motivated. Practices like shouting have become so routine they are no longer recognised as harmful. Governors have not asked: Success for whom? At what cost?”
Wood said his evaluation of the school’s data found that ethnic groups and children with special needs were “disproportionately impacted” by sanctions. Those included “desking”, where pupils are placed at desks in corridors as a punishment for minor infractions. “This is isolating, shaming, and educationally unproductive,” Wood said.
Jim Gamble, Hackney’s independent safeguarding children commissioner, said there were wider lessons for other schools as well as for Ofsted and the DfE.
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“If the safeguarding, welfare and inclusion of all children are not at the heart of what we expect of schools, then the foundation upon which academic excellence is built is incomplete,” Gamble said.
Andy Leary-May, one of the parents who pressed for an investigation, said: “I think those who asked for their concerns to be looked into can now feel vindicated for having done so.
“What’s desperately important now is that somebody takes responsibility. Families need to be reassured that the culture described in the review can actually change, and if the senior leadership team and governors can’t do that then they should be replaced.”
MVPA is part of the Mossbourne Federation multi-academy trust, which grew out of the original Mossbourne Community Academy founded in 2004. The first Mossbourne success under its first headteacher, Sir Michael Wilshaw, saw the academies model copied by subsequent governments.
Wood said he faced persistent challenges from the academy and the federation, which insisted that communications be conducted through its solicitors, and prolonged delays in obtaining data.
Mossbourne Federation also conducted its own review, carried out by Anne Whyte KC. A spokesperson for the federation’s members trust said: “While the [Wood] report acknowledges the strong outcomes the schools achieve for pupils alongside high levels of support from parents and staff, it raises a number of issues which echo those detailed in the Anne Whyte KC review, published last month.”
