The CHSCP chose to focus its safeguarding review on recent experiences at Mossbourne Victoria Park Academy, with the findings relating to the past five years only. While 133 of the testimonies submitted by Educating Hackney concerned that school, a significantly larger number — 186 — related to Mossbourne Community Academy (MCA). Reading the accounts, it is clear that the experiences described are largely identical across both schools and that the same issues have persisted since MCA first opened.
While the safeguarding review has very effectively shone a light on harmful practices, the Council now has an opportunity to go further by examining their long-term impact. Many testimonies come from former students now in their mid to late twenties, who reflect with considerable insight on both their academic success and the cost to their mental health, confidence and personal development. A significant number still describe ongoing trauma.
Many families have reported that their children have thrived at Mossbourne. At the same time, the review rightly acknowledges that some children are seriously harmed by this school environment and many leave as a result. Between these two extremes, however, there may be a much larger group: students who survived the system, achieved academically, but nonetheless carry lasting emotional or psychological effects that have never been recognised or examined.
The testimonies — and the contact details of those willing to speak — already exist, meaning this work need not be extensive. Hackney has a unique opportunity to inform national undertanding and policy by giving these former students a voice. Mossbourne pioneered practices that have since been widely copied, and two decades of lived experience is available to highlight the potential long-term impact that, until now, has gone largely unmonitored.
Andy Leary-May
14th January 2026
Educating Hackney 