Shamed £200k superhead drove students to the brink of suicide
Distressed children were told not to return Boy said to parents: ‘They want me gone’
THE controversial ‘superhead’ of a top grammar school left sixth- formers suicidal after kicking them out when they were unlikely to achieve high grades, according to an official report.
Charismatic A yd inÖnaç, the £ 200,000- a- year headmaster of St Olave’s Grammar School in Orpington, South-East London, saw himself as a ‘Renaissance man’, but critics accused him of turning the school into an ‘ exam factory’ where results and league tables were prioritised.
Children who failed to attain three Bs at AS-level or in internal ‘mock’ exams were asked to leave after Year 12 for fear they would affect the school’s league-table ranking.
The policy was pursued for years, leaving teenage students traumatised. But after a group of parents made a legal challenge last September, the Department for Education announced that it was illegal to expel children for poor exam results.
Mr Önaç, 66, was suspended but then resigned as an independent inquiry was launched. Just two out of 100 staff spoke in his favour and one glowing letter turned out to be from Mr Önaç’s wife, using her maiden name.
According to the inquiry report, Mr Önaç’s approach created a schism between parents, ‘largely split by ethnicity’. One group who backed MrÖnaçw as entirely made up of ethnic minorities. The majority of those opposing him were white.
The independent report, commissioned by the London Borough of Bromley, which oversees the grammar, found Mr Önaç had left at least three Year 12 children at risk of suicide due to the pressure of needing high marks or being told their offer of a place was ‘ withdrawn’. Six students who had failed to make the grade were summoned to see a senior teacher and emerged from the meetings ‘ very distressed and with no adult to support them, before or after they had been told they couldn’t return’, said the report.
One student said he was so fearful of telling his parents that ‘he might as well kill himself ’. Another was overheard telling his parents on the phone: ‘They just want to be rid of me, they just want me gone.’
The inquiry, headed by former education chief Christine Whatford, noted that Mr Önaç told parents the school was broke thanks to cuts, but actually had £2 million sitting in the bank.
Councillor Peter Fortune, Bromley’s portfolio holder for children, education and families, said the council ‘fully accepts the recommendations in this independent report… following discussion with the local auth- ority, the school has put in place a School Improvement Partner to carry out an annual school performance review which ‘ is not reliant solely on examination results’. Mr Önaç had a reputation as a ‘superhead’ who could boost performance. In 2007 he was given a £40,000 golden handshake to be head of Fortismere School, a North London comprehensive. However, he was criticised for reducing provision for children with special educational needs. In 2015, St Olave’s was honoured for academic achievement at the London Evening Standard School Awards. Mr Önaç received a trophy from the then Education Secretary Nicky Morgan. Mr Önaç was not available at hi s North London home last week, but a note in the window advertised his services coaching 11-plus pupils, maths at GCSE and A-level, and helping ‘practise Oxbridge or university interviews’.