Hartsdown Academy

Hartsdown Academy
Established 1958
Type Academy
Headteacher Matthew Tate
Location George V Avenue
Margate
Kent
England
DfE number 886/4172
DfE URN 136571 Tables
Ofsted Reports
Gender Coeducational
Ages 11–18
Houses Bronte, Newton, Brunel,, Johnson
Website www.hartsdown.co.uk

Hartsdown Academy is a secondary school with academy status in Margate in southeast England, which teaches years 7-14 (UK school years; age range 11–19 years). It has 1,000 students and 150+ staff.

The school holds the Arts Council of England, 'Arts Mark' and is a holder of the Investors in People standard.

Performance

The school has consistently exceeded expectations for examinations results for its intake range of students. When the DfE (then DCSF) in 2008 established a minimum threshold of 30% of students attaining 5+ GCSEs including English and Maths for all schools, to be achieved by 2011, Hartsdown immediately surpassed the standard with 32% of students reaching this level in 2009, followed by 43% in 2010.[1] This figure rose to 44% in 2011, 46% in 2012, and 51% in 2013, but fell to 19% in 2014. [2]

In the News

The new head teacher hit the UK news headlines soon after taking office by introducing a strict school uniform. Some parents claimed no official policy nor clear guidance was published. Despite this 95% of the pupils conformed to the guidelines.[3][4]

For many years it had been the accepted understanding that as long as the pupils attire fell within what was suitable for school -it was OK.During this time the school did not meet expected performance levels.[4] The new head reminded parents of the school's new position by letter over 2 months before the policy was implemented. This left a tiny minority of parents (many of whom could not afford to buy instantly, the expensive official school uniform), in the position where their children were denied access to their school. The UK press quickly picked up on the internal contradiction that the new head considers that the best way to improve the exam results is by denying students of this school, access to their state funded education, paid for by their parents via their taxes. This is school which was awarded a government grant of £300,000 for the very purpose of providing that education. The heads previous position was where pupils were selectively favoured from higher income strata of society where the parents didn’t have to consider shall we eat this week or buy a new school uniform. The aggrieved parents view, whose children where sent home, unaccompanied and without supervision, is that this the not Christine way, which is to except all without favour, regardless of individual's circumstance and not cast young children out from the protection of the school's environment for the day, to fend for themselves for reasons that were no fault of their own. [5][6]

Many of the parents would have appreciated a clear and unequivocal policy about uniforms from the start -before buying clothes, but not the fuzzy blur where the new head master used his own on-the-spot-opinions, leaving parents having to mind-read-him at their own expense and at their child's educational sufferance. If the uniform supplier only stocks the most popular sizes, this also exasperates those mothers whose children don't fit the normal sizes held in stock.[5][7]

References

  1. ↑ "BBC News - Secondary schools and colleges in Kent". Bbc.co.uk. 2011-01-12. Retrieved 2014-02-17.
  2. ↑ "The Department for Education - Performance Tables - Hartsdown Academy, 136571, CT9 5RE". Education.gov.uk. Retrieved 2015-12-21.
  3. ↑ "Headteacher who sent 50 pupils home for 'wrong' uniform promises to continue with tough policy". ITV News. Retrieved 2016-09-08.
  4. 1 2 "Hartsdown Academy - Ofsted" (PDF). Ofsted. Retrieved 2016-09-09.
  5. 1 2 Boult, Adam (7 September 2016) Can you get your child into Hartsdown Academy? Try our extremely difficult school uniform challenge. Daily Telegraph. UK. Accessed 8 September 2016.
  6. ↑ Flynn, Ellie (6 September 2016), "Class Warfare: Cops called after furious parents clash with new head who sent home 'half the school' over uniform breaches on the first day of term", The Sun, retrieved 8 September 2016
  7. ↑ Hawken, Abe (8 September 2016) Uniform-gate reaches a THIRD day: 'Gestapo' headteacher is still refusing to back down over his school's strict dress code and turns even more children away Mail Online, UK. Accessed 9 September 2016)

Coordinates: 51°22′47″N 1°22′7″E / 51.37972°N 1.36861°E / 51.37972; 1.36861

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