\n<\/p>\n
It\u2019s little wonder that parents at Mossbourne Victoria Park academy (MVPA) are calling on the leadership of the school \u201cto change course or be replaced\u201d (London academy staff instilled \u2018climate of fear\u2019 among pupils, 9 December). It was a year ago that the Guardian\u2019s John\u00a0Harris outlined the details of an investigation carried out by the Observer into two Mossbourne academy schools, including MVPA. It had found, as Sir Alan\u00a0Wood has, that for many years horrendous tactics have been used to enforce discipline. Many staff were appalled and left, with the final straw for many being a teachers\u2019 training session entitled \u201chealthy fear\u201d.<\/p>\n
Harris concluded then that there were \u201cbig questions about how academies and so-called free schools are scrutinised and overseen\u201d, and it is certainly difficult to explain how Ofsted inspectors, regardless of the schools\u2019 good examination results, could fail to notice both the appalling ways discipline was being enforced and the shocking after\u2011effects. Both schools were awarded the \u201coutstanding\u201d grade. As a parent of two children with a high level of special educational needs (Send) who were harmed while in mainstream schools, I welcome the Wood report, finally recognising the damage that is done to children through harsh regimes. Katharine Birbalsingh, take note.<\/p>\n However, the government\u2019s stance on targets contributes to this pressure cooker atmosphere in schools, and the latest announcements to cut back on mental health support fill me with\u00a0horror. Where is the help for the children recognised as harmed in this report? A real overhaul of education would recommend that all children, even those with Send, get the support they need in school and for their mental health, so that they can emerge as young adults unharmed and able to confidently contribute to society. While it is shocking to hear of the awful treatment of children at MVPA, this climate of fear is a reality in too many schools, where results outweigh welfare and happiness. Teachers are made accomplices to this culture by allowing these abusive systems to happen. They too are fearful of being seen as incapable of maintaining \u201cgood discipline\u201d. Education must be concerned with creating happy, healthy people rather than just churning out GCSE passes. Have an opinion on anything you\u2019ve read in the Guardian today? Please <\/em><\/strong>email<\/em><\/strong> us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our <\/em><\/strong>letters<\/em><\/strong> section.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s little wonder that parents at Mossbourne Victoria Park academy (MVPA) are calling on the leadership of the school \u201cto change course or be replaced\u201d (London academy staff instilled \u2018climate of fear\u2019 among pupils, 9 December). It was a year ago that the Guardian\u2019s John\u00a0Harris outlined the details of an investigation carried out by the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37175,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[439,1518,798,588,20606],"class_list":{"0":"post-37174","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-classroom","9":"tag-fear","10":"tag-place","11":"tag-schools","12":"tag-staffroom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37174\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/37175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Bernie Evans<\/strong>
Liverpool<\/em><\/p>\n
Name and address supplied<\/strong><\/p>\n
Pat Porter<\/strong>
Wallington, Surrey<\/em><\/p>\n