[Education For Tomorrow: No 98, 2008]

Ridings roller-coaster

 “We are delighted and immensely proud of the achievements of our young people. Their examination results can only be described as outstanding and reflect the hard work and application that they have shown in their chosen subjects. It is their drive and determination above all else that has created the changed atmosphere in the school and the culture of success for all that we now see. There is no doubt that the high quality of teaching now found in the school has been a catalyst to inspire so many to step forward and do well."

With these words the Head Teacher of Ridings School, Halifax, Stuart Todd, greeted the new academic year on the school website. It’s ironic that this encouraging message should be issued as the school heads into the sunset, to be reborn as an academy in the autumn of 2009.

The story of the school is brief and troubled. Dogged by a salacious press campaign for many of its fourteen years, the first head teacher faced problems from the outset. Karen Stansfield had worked in a Bradford school as Deputy Head when she was appointed to the Ridings. It was to be a new school, but with two separate histories, having been formed from Ovenden Secondary School and Holmfield High School in 1994. A further problem arose when the school’s opening was delayed by a term, but the really big issue on opening was how to integrate staff and pupils from two different schools.

Mrs Stansfield blamed the merger of the rival schools as the root cause of those initial disciplinary problems which the school has fought ever since. She said in a BBC Panorama interview that the rivalry existed among staff, let alone the children. The merger had seen teachers from the two previous schools competing for jobs. She added: “There were lots of losers — more losers than winners, because there was a reduced number of roles. We had two nervous breakdowns before the school opened and those continued afterwards. There was a high level of illness and stress among the staff." The children also found themselves vying with one another as a new pecking order was established.

She was also scathing about the local authority, however. She claimed that underfunding had exacerbated the problems, particularly in regard to adequately providing for the needs of difficult children and those with special educational needs. The Panorama interview, however, was recorded after her resignation in October of 1996. Perhaps her views were tainted by her experience.

“The School from Hell"
Early in the 1996-97 academic year news of a discipline meltdown had hit the local and national headlines. Called “The School from Hell" and “Britain’s worst school" the media rallied to spread the bad news. The person who broke the story, Chris Bunting, was working for the Halifax Courier but the story was soon taken over by the nationals.

Mike Baker, writing for the Guardian in September 2007 says of the trouble: “It began when the teachers threatened industrial action unless some 60 “almost unteachable" pupils were excluded. The teachers called in their union’s leadership because they felt they had been getting no support from either the governing body or the local authority as they struggled to keep discipline."

Clearly, however, it had begun earlier than this, for example with the under-resourced amalgamation. Yet Baker’s is the take that all the media pundits have of the crises that Ridings has had to cope with. The heated responses of the press were bound to happen given the politicisation of education especially since Tony Blair had promised “education, education, education" as his priorities on taking government.

The Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) was called in, the team led by the distinguished Mike Tomlinson. His report was indeed troubling. “It was clear", he said, “that the school could not account for the whereabouts of its pupils or guarantee their safety." He described the corridors of the school as being a racetrack for some of the pupils and there was an instance of an inspector having to break up a fight because no teachers were available to do so.

Whilst the inspection was taking place the Panorama crew were filming lessons from a crane situated outside the school grounds. It didn"t make for a calm teaching environment. “It was quite frightening. On my way into school, I was sidestepping reporters as they tried to get comments," one teacher said.

Panorama’s surreptitious filming of apparently chaotic classrooms was open to misinterpretation however, because no one explained that these were not normal lessons but pupils waiting to go home just after they had been told the school was closing temporarily. The Head Teacher, Stansfield, had already handed in her resignation and was working out her notice. The school was put into special measures, and in November was closed temporarily after a number of alleged assaults on teachers had occurred.

Superhead
On reopening the school had a new head, Peter Clarke, who had been head of a neighbouring school. The press referred to him as ‘superhead" in keeping with the nicknames previously given to William Atkinson, Head Teacher of Phoenix High School, Hammersmith and Fulham and Jean Else at Whalley Range in Manchester. When the Ridings was reopened later in November he immediately excluded 33 pupils, 12 of them permanently. Anna White, a Calderdale head teacher who later became head at the Ridings, was brought in as associate head and a new discipline policy was introduced.

Clark spent a year there supported by Anna White. Their first task was to boost the image of the school. Mr Clark declared neither the children nor staff were uniquely dreadful and started the process of restoring a normal atmosphere. This included new carpets, security doors and hands-on management. The issues of pupil attendance and discipline were tackled with firm policies, including use of the cane.

Measures were taken to improve learning in the classroom and raise staff morale and effectiveness. Within six months there were already signs for the better.

Both heads were subsequently awarded CBEs for their work at the Ridings. Such an accolade means that they “turned the school around", one would think. In October 1998 news came that The Ridings was off the Ofsted list of failing schools. Indeed as early as the spring term of 1997 good order and control had been restored. Not only that, but “A" level courses had now been offered and the news about Ofsted followed shortly after the first A level results. “In almost nine out of ten lessons the quality of teaching is now satisfactory or better; in almost half it is good or very good," the inspectors found. “There is now generally good behaviour, pupils are attentive and wanting to learn and they have teachers who can teach them. The standard of teaching has improved greatly," Ofsted reported. White and Clark were both praised for the impact they had had on the school.

Clark’s CBE was awarded in 1998, effectively for preventing a further slide in the school’s fortunes. By this time he had published Back from the Brink a book about how he transformed the school. He was only in post there a year, however, and by the time Anna White was awarded her CBE in the New Years Honours list of 2000, Peter Clark was reprising the superhead role in Brighton. Meanwhile, “It’s been very much a story of everyone working together over the past three years to keep the momentum going," White told the media.

In October 2005 the Times Educational Supplement headlined ““Hell school" in trouble again". A matter of months after Anna White relinquished her headship and twenty days into the new school year Ofsted had visited and once more found the school wanting. The current head, Stuart Todd had been in post such a short time that the threat of special measures was seen as unfair by local teaching unions. However the schools GCSE results had slumped to 14 per cent of pupils leaving with five or more at grade C or better. It seemed as if the boasts of the two superheads were premature and the improvements they had made were unsustainable.

So the momentum was not maintained. Results for 2002 to 2003 showed that the “five GCSE at grade A*-C" rate fluctuated — 7 per cent to 25 per cent, 14 per cent in 2004, 20 per cent in 2005, 19 per cent in 2006 and 21 per cent in 2007. (These figures use the same benchmark, not the most recent ‘standard" which specifies that English and Maths must be at or above grade C among the five.)

The political scene had shifted by this time, with the first academy having opened in 2002. Speculation began that this would become the fate of The Ridings. It is clear from Stuart Todd’s remarks at the opening of this article — and from the statistics — that the school has improved since the 2005 and 2007 inspections. 64 per cent of pupils left with five or more A*-C grades this year — hardly a failing school now, albeit one with a chequered past, one might think. Yet the decision to close The Ridings had already been taken. The Local Authority cites “the poor standard of achievement at the school" and the cost of keeping it open with falling rolls. An estimated £6.5 million has been thrown at the school since it first fell foul of Ofsted, partly spent on buildings (a new sports hall, science block, expressive arts block, library, English classrooms and rooms for graphics and electronics) and partly on the regime of inspections.

So what is the legacy of this saga? It seems that an academy is to be set up in Halifax. The new establishment is going to effectively amalgamate two schools (as the Ridings had in 1994), the Ridings and Holy Trinity. But under the scheme will there still be an intake of over 30 per cent of pupils having special needs support? For this truly was a school doomed by its circumstances. Around it in Halifax there are two grammar schools (99 per cent A*-C), two faith schools and a number of independent schools. As Richard Garner, education editor of the Independent put it, “To a certain extent, The Ridings never stood a chance. It serves a neglected area of Calderdale, the authority in charge of the school, which is mostly made up of run-down council estates, and competes locally with two faith schools — one Church of England and one Roman Catholic — and a selective grammar school for pupils. It is, local teachers" leaders point out, the only community comprehensive school in the area. However, because of the status of its neighbouring schools, many argue it should be called a secondary modern."

It seems to be a school betrayed by seven different Secretaries of State (within 14 years!) and will now be offered up to the Academy system. Three ‘superheads", and improved teaching and learning, have not made the required impact. So what chance for this latest initiative?

Andy Garner

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