My son started high school on Tuesday 2nd September 2014, we were both excited and the endless possibilities this new super school would have to offer, things I could only have dreamt of whilst at school. However reality was painfully different, in the space of around weeks my son went from a straight A student, the only time I had ever been asked to go into school was for them to tell me he was FANTASTIC, to getting detentions and warnings. When I questioned them I was told he had them for pathetic reasons. The final straw for me was when I received a call from the receptionist advising me my son (11 years old) had been robbed and his money taken, I asked to speak to my son because I had no idea if he was even ok, I was told I could not, I then demanded to speak to the head teacher. I was told he was on playground duty and would call me back. I pleaded with them to let me speak to someone and hand the call disconnected. For around 45 minutes I was frantically trying to call back, my calls were ignored, when they did answer I was told the same. After 45 minutes I finally got someone on the phone and was told the head teacher was now about to go into a meeting and she asked if I realised the head teacher was NOT there to be at my beck and call. I was hysterical, she also refused to give me any information about the person who had robbed my son. For all I knew it could happen on the way home too.
I then started doing some research about the school and found this is by far not an isolated incident and the whole Outwood Academy is a complete mess.
I was told the school would be strict and I actually like this, I don't want my son getting away with murder, however these are beyond strict, it is in fact child abuse. If I told my son he could only use the toilet at home 3 times a day for 5 minutes each time, if I refused to feed him due to punishment, I would have social services involved and rightly so, however these schools are doing this on a daily basis.
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