| The true story of how a no-nonsense headteacher turned around one of the country's worst schools. The Secret Headteacher has spent the last 27 years in teaching, before which she spent 4 years in the police. This is the first memoir from a UK teacher to be published. Under the leadership of TSH, the school she led had a well-reported journey in turning around its reputation as one of the country's worst-performing schools, resulting in an Ofsted report judging the school "good". |
Just a few problems with this: (1) There is no secret; it’s about Alison Colwell, until last summer head of Ebbsfleet Academy, according to an advertisement for the book, reproduced below, although other advertising claims it is by ‘Anon’; (2) It was certainly not one of the worst performing schools in Kent before she took it over, let alone in the country - it was without any form of bad reputation at the time, and was in any case improving strongly before she was parachuted in as head; (3) Ofsted missed key indicators of decline during her leadership, including large numbers of families removing their children from the school, large numbers of families annually placed in the school who never applied for it, and high staff turnover - this is when the bad reputation set in; (4) ‘The first memoir of a UK headteacher’ – unbelievable; (5) ‘well reported’ refers to two puff articles in The Times and Sunday Times, the second being what, in my opinion, was a disgracefully unprofessional performance by the headteacher; (6) I received more complaints about this school from families, than any other school in Kent during much of this time; (7) ‘confrontational’ is a better word than ‘no-nonsense’.
Ms Colwell ran the school as one of Kent’s three tough love academies. With large numbers of pupils choosing to leave or being driven with the effect of improving performance, it became one of the least popular schools in Kent, as confirmed by the statistics. She publicly condemned the parents of the children at her school in the second ‘Sunday Times’ profile last summer, as she left to run a private school in Mallorca. The letter from Baleares International College, Sa Porrassa announcing her appointment has unfortunately got its facts wrong, as it falsely claims‘she has turned around a failing school into one of the most improved in the country’. Neither of these claims is true. Ebbsfleet Academy was certainly not failing when she arrived, as demonstrated below. At the time of her departure. Last summer, Ebbsfleet Academy was middling in terms of performance for non-selective schools in Kent (32nd out of 68 schools in 2019, 44th in 2018 by the government's preferred measure of Progress 8, with other Kent schools having improved and surpassed it.
Ms Colwell was no doubt encouraged to write the book by two profile items in The Times and Sunday Times. The first was in 2015, which I considered in an article written shortly afterwards, demonstrating the falsehood of many of the claims made. This is one of several articles I have written tracking the many problems in the school during Ms Colwell’s leadership, beginning here. Even her arrival was controversial, having been appointed to a post at Swan Valley (the then name of the school) working for headteacher Nigel Jones, possibly with an eye to what was soon to come. Mr Jones, her predecessor, had brought the school up by its bootstraps and been highly praised by Ofsted in doing so. Then followed a clandestine meeting at a hotel in Maidstone when she was offered his job before he knew he was going the following week. This was hosted by Simon Webb, the unlamented local KCC Area Officer,who went on to oversee the removal of multiple headteachers across the county. As a KCC school at the time, this broke regulations about appointing headteachers, and I am not aware of any grounds given for removing him. Mr Jones went on to show what he is capable of, currently running a nearby twice Ofsted Outstanding Special School (far more complex then Ebbsfleet Academy).
Interestingly, the author of The Times article interviewed me for the first article and, although clearly uninterested in any criticisms, managed to misquote me by totally reversing the meaning of my comment about the ‘anywhere but Ebbsfleet’ syndrome which developed under her leadership.
The Ofsted Report of January 2011 recorded that "Students’ attainment has risen significantly at Swan Valley over the last few years as a result of improvements in the quality of teaching and learning and careful tracking and intervention, particularly in Key Stage 4. Challenging targets have been set and exceeded. The proportion of students achieving 5A* to C grades at GCSE last year was the school’s best ever result at 63%. When mathematics and English are included, the number gaining 5A* to C grades was 34% in 2010, also a record for Swan Valley ". For 2011 GCSE performance, this figure rose further to 35%. For 2012 and 2013, now under Ms Colwell's leadership, GCSE performance had slumped to second worst in the county in both years, at 24% (with by far the worst progress level in the county) and 28% respectively, for whatever reason. By 2014, it had crept back up to 36% including maths and English, fractionally above where it was before she took over.
According to Ms Colwell's second ST article: 'Her regime transformed the lives of some children. She urged pupils to be in bed by 9.30pm, ready to rise at 6am. [...] The proportion of pupils getting five good GCSEs rose from 24% to 60%'. Apart from the strange and I believe intrusive imperative to rise before many of the children's families would be astir, the GCSE claim is misleading as the 24% figure comes under her leadership, and not before, and is a sharp fall from those previous years under Mr Jones. Yes, the proportion of 5 GCSE's new grades 4-9 did rise to 60% in 2017. which has been quoted for the next two years. More importantly, the more recent outcome for 2018 published way before her interview with the ST but not mentioned, and before she will have applied for the post in Mallorca, saw it fall back sharply to 47%. Progress 8 is the Government's preferred measure of performance and for 2018, Ebbsfleet reflected this decline, down to -0.39 (Below Average) placing it 44th out of 66 non-selective schools in Kent. It did rise to -0.33 for 2019, 32nd out of 68 n/s schools, but still hardy 'one of the most improved in the country'.
Congratulations to all our Year 11 pupils who have achieved the best ever results in the history of the academy, with a 72% success rate in maths and 80% in English. Well done to all!! We are so proud and happy to celebrate with you. And As I leave the school after 7 wonderful years, I just want to reiterate how incredibly proud I am of these results and indeed of the school we have built. Success comes down to leadership |
Sadly, both appear false. In the first, she has as usual been selective. In the four years of the new GCSE grading system, for the 2019 results in Progress 8, the government's preferred measure, Ebbsfleet achieved a lower result than in 2016 and 2017. In the perhaps more relevant % Level 5 in English and Maths, 2017 was a better year with 37% against the 2019 32%. See here. The second quote about the seven wonderful years simply takes one's breath away, in its direct contradiction to her claims in Ebbsfleet Academy: Parents rubbished by departing Principal, and below when she talks about the flood of UK teachers leaving state education for private schools abroad would surge unless foul-mouthed parents are tackled. 7 Wonderful Years?