‘I believe parents at Mossbourne Schools can take comfort that there will be action following the Child Safeguarding Review into Mossbourne Victoria Park’, says Penny Wrout, a ward councillor for the school.
I am relieved and reassured by evidence provided by the safeguarding experts, Jim Gamble and Sir Alan Wood, to Hackney’s Children and Young People’s Scrutiny Commission, that there will be action to address failings at Mossbourne Victoria Park (MVP) and the Mossbourne Federation more broadly. Prior to that, with no clear word from either the school, the Academy Federation nor the Department for Education, in the wake of a highly critical review, I feared the report’s recommendations could go unheeded. Jim Gamble and Sir Alan Wood made a compelling case for the need for change, at pace, in the Mossbourne Federation.
Three points made by Jim Gamble should give parents and students at Mossbourne reassurance.
- After the dissembling and lack of cooperation Mossbourne demonstrated during the year-long review, the need for change is urgent and Jim Gamble is clearly in no mood to be fobbed off by excuses from the school about a lack of time to respond fully. Still less is he sympathetic to the Federation’s claim that it needs to test the review’s conclusions ‘against the evidence available to us’. As an evidence-based, statutory inquiry, he says the school must accept and act on the review’s findings and if it doesn’t, as the Independent Safeguarding Children Commissioner, he will raise the failure to act publicly and privately.
- The review highlights failings in Mossbourne’s leadership, accountability and governance and in order to move forward, the Federation’s senior leaders must stop casting doubt on the review’s legitimacy. Jim Gamble is alive to the way issues raised in the review are being used to characterise behaviour policy as ‘zero tolerance versus chaos’. He rightly points out that this is a false dichotomy – the need for an orderly classroom is crucial for learning, but as he says, behavior policy must be fair, consistent and delivered with sensitivity and compassion.
- The review team doggedly sought out the information needed to draw well-documented conclusions. Only after 9 months did Mossbourne provide data which showed African and Caribbean boys 4 or 5 times more likely to be sent to the Behavioural Support Unit, effectively a detention space. The team’s determination to dig out what was actually happening in Mossbourne provides confidence they will also ensure their recommendations are followed though.
Finally, I was the ‘elected representative’ mentioned in the report who worked with one very dedicated parent to pull together testimonies to trigger the safeguarding review in the first place. We set out our concerns to various statutory agencies over an extended period, and offered to share case studies. It was disappointing that Ofsted, the Department for Education, and initially Hackney Council didn’t engage, so it is good to hear Jim Gamble say that should a similar circumstance recur, he would act sooner.
Cllr Penny Wrout, Victoria Ward
14th January 2026
Educating Hackney 