We create a school where pupils want to be rather than have to be...
A HIGH school has beaten the odds to be rated as ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted.
Burnage Academy for Boys has made the leap from ‘requires improvement’ to ‘outstanding’ after being inspected last month.
It’s an impressive feat for a high school which educates kids from some of the most deprived parts of Manchester. But the school’s straight-talking head, Ian Fenn, is reluctant to crow too loudly about the school’s excellent Ofsted report.
Burnage Academy’s objectives go beyond Ofsted inspections or the whims of each government, says Mr Fenn. And it has taken decades to get the school where it is today.
“We’ve been rating ‘outstanding,’ so what?” says Mr Fenn, who has been at the school for almost 19 years.
“There was a murder here in 1986. If you take that as ground zero, it’s taken all that time, successive headteachers and successive populations of children coming through to get to the stage where we are now.
“At no point have we changed what we do to fit in with Ofsted.
“We have a set of values which I kind of inherited and happened to coincide with my values, and we’ve built on that.
“For the first time in 30-odd years, what Ofsted want and what we deliver seem to converge. Those who want to trim their sails according to the next gust of wind are fine if that’s what they want to do. But I’m afraid that’s of no interest to me whatsoever.”
Inspectors are full of praise for the way Burnage Academy is led, and the way staff respond to the challenges pupils face. Poverty, domestic violence, knife crime and extremism are just some of the issues in children’s lives.
Teaching is excellent, as is pupil behaviour and the safeguarding measures in place to keep them safe.
“The school welcomes pupils of many different backgrounds,” the Ofsted report states. Some pupils have previously had very difficult experiences in their lives. These include pupils who have travelled as refugees from war zones. Pupils get on well together and treat each other as equals.”
The murder Mr Fenn refers to was that of 13-year-old schoolboy Ahmed Iqbal Ullah, who was killed at the hands of a fellow school pupil in the playground of Burnage High in 1986.
Years later, another trauma would have a direct impact on pupils.
Within 24 hours of the Manchester Arena attack, it emerged that the bomber, Salman Abedi, was a former Burnage Academy pupil.
Not only that, some of the Libyan pupils at the school had their family homes raided by police in the early stages of the investigation.
Mr Fenn said he never imagined his school would have such a direct connection to an atrocity like the arena attack. But like many schools in Manchester, staff and pupils faced what happened with honesty and maturity. Working with organisations like the Peace Foundation has helped too.
Events like the Arena attack are examples of the external pressures that have an impact on teenagers’ lives.
Mr Fenn says these factors are out of the school’s control. Their task is to equip boys with the moral tools to make the best choices they can.
“Our values are simply about getting pupils to be the very best they can be,” he adds. “And above all, making the right moral choices. It’s not just about how well you do in your exams.
“It’s actually about what kind of person you are going to be.”
Mr Fenn isn’t always serious. Some members of staff can be heard laughing in the next room. He breaks off: “I do apologise, people are laughing, I don’t normally allow that.”
The school’s task for the future is to build on its work providing the best opportunities for students.
“The lack of services, the lack of policing, the lack of any youth provision – all of these things impact on the lives of our boys,” adds Mr Fenn. “They come here and we have to create a safe haven.
“We have to create a school where they want to be here, rather than a school where they have to be here.”