Get to bed by 9pm, head tells teen pupils at failing school
PUPILS at one of the coun- try’s worst schools have been ordered to go to bed by 9pm and to wake up at 6.30am in an attempt to improve standards.
They are also being warned that their smartphones could be confiscated for up to four months if they are caught using them in lessons.
The new rules mean they must walk down the school corridors in single file and accept that teachers are the ‘unquestioned authority’ in all circumstances.
And pupils suspected of pretending to be ill in class will be given buckets in case they vomit.
The strict regime is being introduced at Great Yarmouth High School in Norfolk, where only 30 per cent of pupils passed English and maths GCSEs last year.
The school was rated ‘inadequate’ in an Ofsted report in November and put into special measures in May.
New head teacher Barry Smith – the fifth in less than two years – laid out his no-nonsense rules and expectations in a letter to parents at the start of the new term.
Some have expressed anger, setting up a Facebook page called Yarmouth High Worried Parents. One, Anthony Finch, wrote that he is ‘appalled’ his stepdaughter is ‘afraid to attend school’. Another, Tracy Cole, said her daughter was put in isolation and ‘made to cry on her first day back’, adding: ‘I’m fuming – she doesn’t even know why she was put in there.’
However, other parents have welcomed the changes, highlighting the turnaround at Mr Smith’s former school, the strict Michaela Community School in Wembley Park, north- west London, which was found to be ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted.
One Norfolk parent, Cheryl Ann Gardin, said: ‘That school was a joke and I’d bet money it’s about to turn around for the better.’ Mr Smith’s letter to parents came after the leak of an internal memo spelling out the rules to the school’s 1,000 pupils, aged 11 to 16.
It says children must ‘only ever look at your teacher or where your teacher has directed you to look’ and should ‘never get out of your chair without permission’.
It adds that those whose phones were confiscated in the last two weeks of summer term will not get them back until mid- October – ‘that’s almost four months’.
It warns: ‘If your phone accidentally goes off or accidentally falls out of your pocket, we confiscate it.’ On those pretending to be sick, it says: ‘If you vomit – no problem! You’ve got your bucket. If you are really ill we will make sure you get all the attention you need.’
It also advises that ‘as soon as you finish school you go straight home’, and orders a 9pm bedtime and a 6.30am alarm.
The Inspiration Trust, which now runs the school as an academy, said the new rules would drive up academic standards.
Spokesman James Goffin added that the school ‘ has a stricter approach to things like behaviour and uniform so everyone gets the chance to learn’.
Secondary school staff lose an average of 11 days of teaching time a year dealing with pupils disrupting classes by using their smartphones, according to a study by the internet firm Nominet.
‘Turn around for the better’