As part of a wider national picture, there is growing evidence in Hackney of the likely impact of harsh and inflexible practice in schools:
Experiences within some Hackney schools include children being excessively isolated from class, intimidated and humiliated by teachers, shouted at, and caused to soil themselves due to rigid toilet rules. Children often experience a decline in mental health, sometimes severely, and children are predominantly those with SEND, neurodiversity, or other protected characteristics.
A growing number of parents and teachers would like to share experiences with Hackney Council as part of a review, and their contact details have been offered to relevant officers.
The Independent Safeguarding Children Commissioner for Hackney, Jim Gamble, produced an update in June 2023 to his report the previous year in relation to the ‘Child Q’ case in a Hackney school. He consulted widely with children and parents in Hackney, and the concerns he reported include:
…For some with whom I spoke, they reflected a view that schools were only interested in academic results and that issues of wellbeing and fairness were afterthoughts, if thought of at all.
…The clear message to me was that in some of Hackney’s schools, children experience what they perceive as an unhealthy and unhelpful culture of authoritarianism and on occasions, harsh discipline. Some believe it is the rigidity in these settings that can lead to children’s needs, including their safeguarding needs, being overlooked.
…Ultimately, this is about balance. It’s also about creating an environment that actively mitigates the risk of something happening like it did to Child Q – where discipline, not welfare and safeguarding, were at the forefront of professional thinking.
…Many parents believe that schools adopt an authoritarian and rigid approach to discipline which undermines student wellbeing and safeguarding. They relayed that many young people feel that there is no one they can talk to at school when a significant safeguarding concern arises. Some parents also felt that communication can be transactional and cold, preventing effective partnership working between parents and schools.
In July 2024, a deputation was presented to Hackney Council demanding urgent reform of discriminatory and humiliating school behaviour policies. Campaigners spoke of the damage to children’s mental health, and of cases in which a child has self-harmed or tried to take their own life.
Covereage of the deputation in Hackney Citizen
View a video of the deputation in July 2024
The DfE’s official suspension and permanent exclusion data in England, Autumn 2023/24 show Hackney as the inner London borough with the 2nd highest number of suspensions (1178) and permanent exclusions (24).
Read the 2022 “Outcome of School Exclusion in Hackney” report
In 2023, the Hackney Independent Parents Forum (HiP) conducted a survey of the experiences of children experiencing school distress. Almost all parents who responded said their child was diagnosed with a neurodivergent condition, with a high prevalence of autism. The survey found that “there is a significant difference in the approaches taken by individual schools … [some schools] responded with detention, isolation rooms and exclusions”. The experiences shared included:
My daughter reverted back to not speaking due to her autism. She stopped eating entirely at school, she would cry and beg not to go to school every single day and would come home and cry. She has been severely affected by this and now believes every school is the same and she will be physically hurt and not listened to. She felt/feels unsafe at school.
Wished that she was dead, low self-esteem and feeling worthless about herself. Became argumentative with siblings, frequent meltdowns. Just very sad. Writes ‘I am sad’ on her body.
[school] failed to listen to my own observations and opinions and keep in good communication, failed to make reasonable adjustments. used punitive measures for behaviour relating to my child’s special needs/difficulties.
Instead of getting support they tried to force her in, it was a punitive approach and left her traumatised. For example, they banned her from the after-school club she loved and told her she couldn’t take part in the school show as her attendance was so low.
Threats, exclusions, detentions, bullying my child, threatening my child, allowing my child to be assaulted on school site, protecting the bullies.
Put her in isolation rooms. Forcefully removed her out of class when she shut down.
Detentions. Every day our daughter attends is a huge achievement. Punishing for not completing homework works counterproductive.
Whenever I managed to get him in, they punished him for truancy, underachieving and defiance. Which in turn makes him not want to go in, it was a vicious cycle.
Educating Hackney 