Whistle blower lifts lid on controversial school

Collective Spirit school in Chadderton

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A WHISTLE-BLOWER is urging parents to get their children out of a controversial Oldham school.

The member of staff has catalogued a list of damning accusations against Collective Spirit Free School - including pupils throwing urine over a girl, a craze of students slashing their arms with scalpels and pupils bullying teachers

The insider claims the majority of lessons at the Chadderton secondary school are taken by supply teachers - who can't cope with the poor behaviour - with some quitting part-way through lessons. Another teacher had a heart-attack at school after being bullied by pupils, it is also alleged.

Calling the school a "disgrace", the insider fears that pupils won't pass their GCSEs and said: "If I could send a message to parents it would be 'get your kids out of that school'. Do something now!"

The claims are the latest blow to Collective Spirit which opened in Butterworth Lane in 2013 after the council was forced to hand over part of the former South Chadderton School site for the project.

Its first students will sit their GCSEs in 2018 but a deeply critical Ofsted inspection last year - described by then Oldham West and Royton MP Jim McMahon as the worst he had seen - found that it was failing to give pupils an acceptable standard of education. It was rated as the bottom grade of inadequate and placed in special measures.

And in March, the Oldham Chronicle revealed that scores of concerned parents had transferred their children to other schools or were waiting on places to become available.

But the member of staff, who wishes to remain anonymous, says standards at the school are even worse than described by Mr McMahon and others. And they accused the school of "fobbing off" parents' concerns with promises that never happen.

Other allegations include

* 21 members of staff leaving in the space of 12 weeks

* a teacher quitting after being bullied by pupils

* poor facilities including no heating in the sports hall which also has a leaking roof

* pupils locked in a fenced area in the playground during a fire drill when staff couldn't find the keys. The keys to get back into the school after the drill were also misplaced.

* angry parents cornering the head teacher during parents evening iwhen teachers weren't available to speak to them.

* a member of a new senior leadership team, brought in to turn-around the school after the Ofsted report, resigning in protest

* staff not being paid on time

The whistle-blower believes that the school, set up by Collective Spirit Trust, should be closed rather than taken over by a new organisation as has been mooted.

They added: "The parents complaining about the school are right. Their children aren't making progress - they can't be making progress because they are being taught by supply teachers.

"A typical child can go through the day not seeing a permanent teacher. Supply teachers have no allegiance to the school, they don't know the children's names and they are possibly only there until the end of the day. Many of them don't even make it through the day because the behaviour is so bad, they can't cope.

"There is absolutely no way the children will pass their GCSEs, how can they? There might be a few kids that pass a few GCSEs: that's because they are clever but they will never reach their full potential."

"What can a new trust they do at this point? They have got a school full of children that have missed out on one, two, three years of education. How can you save children that haven't received any education for three years? How can a new trust get them up to speed?"