Parents have likened their children’s school to a “military base” after 25 pupils were suspended in the first week of term following the appointment of a new headteacher.
Dan Jeffries, interim principal at Frome Community College in Somerset, said he stands by each of the 25 suspensions, which he said were issued for “persistent disruption”.
However, parents said they are “outraged”, claiming children were suspended over incidents including “zipping their bag too loudly” and “looking out of a window”.
Natalie Morris, one parent, said her daughter was suspended during her first week at the school for “nervously laughing”.
She said: “She has SEND [special educational needs and disabilities], additional needs and sensory needs. So that was a massive setback for her when she did get suspended.
“She was just nervously laughing because of her surroundings, strange faces. She gets overwhelmed – it’s a new school with new people.”
Ms Morris also said other pupils had been suspended for reasons such as “being a minute late”. She added that the atmosphere at Frome Community College had affected pupils’ mental health, with one child reportedly feeling they needed to “hide in the toilets”.
She said: “You want your child to feel safe, you want them to learn. You want the same opportunities as every other child, like everyone else’s kids that come here.
New headteacher Dan Jeffries has prompted “outrage” among parents, although he says he stands by the suspensions.
Parents of pupils at Frome Community College in Somerset have compared the school environment to a “military base”.
‘That’s all we want, we want the kids’ needs to be met and not be treated like it’s a military base.’
Ann-Marie Ramsey, who also has a child with SEND needs at the school, described the discipline as ‘crazy’.
She said: ‘If she was a bit fidgety or not concentrating, she would be sent to the reset room where they get disciplined if they’re not doing what the school wants them to do.’
Ms Ramsey said her child does not get the ‘movement breaks’ she needs when sent to the room.
She also claimed students were being policed on ‘hair and nail colour’ and that parents were ‘not being listened to’.
But the new headteacher said all suspensions involved cases of ‘defiance leading to the disruption of the running of the school’ and not reasons of ‘uniform or lateness’.
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Ex-rugby union player and coach Mr Jeffries said: ‘For someone to be suspended for disruptive behaviour, they’d have to be completely defiant and disrupting us four times, in our policy, before we’d consider it.’
He added: ‘I am there to ensure we are inclusive and that we maintain really high standards.’ But not all parents have taken issue with his approach.
Liz Halliwell said: ‘He has come in and he is making sure that the rules are being followed.’
She added that ‘as long as it’s fair and consistent for everybody involved’ she was pleased there would be a ‘more consistent education’ for her child.
Film and media teacher Seth Lavington said: ‘The idea is that these are clear and consistent routines which are going to enable the best learning.
‘Overall, the messages are still positive. We want disruption-free learning, we want the best possible outcomes, you need to try your hardest – none of that has changed.’
But sixth-form student Liam Backhurst criticised the approach, saying the reasons behind some suspensions were ‘outrageous’.
‘The most upsetting thing about it is that it has affected them mentally. These are new year nines which are coming up, excited to start a new chapter with school, and they now feel really unmotivated to carry on learning,’ he said.
Another student, Sam Shearman, added: ‘It sounded like teachers are stepping in expecting to give punishments, and I definitely don’t agree with that.’
Mr Jeffries said the number of suspensions should be considered in the context of the school’s overall pupil population.
He said: ‘We have 1400 children at the college, we had a total of 20 days’ worth of suspensions last week – that’s with some children receiving more than one day.
‘It wasn’t a wide-scale number, it wasn’t a particularly large-scale event. It is safe to say a number of children did find returning to school more complicated, and that does happen some Septembers.’
Mr Jeffries added that upholding school rules allows teachers to be ‘more consistent with behaviour’ so students feel ‘safe to learn’ – something he said was requested by parents in a recent survey.
He concluded: ‘All children deserve to have interruption-free education and where we have a very small minority of pupils who are disrupting the learning of others, it’s important that we support as much as we can, but we don’t allow that to affect everyone else’s education.’
- Is YOUR child a pupil at Frome Community College, or do you know “Jaff” from his rugby days? Email eleanor.mann@dailymail.co.uk