low graphics version | feedback | help
| Front Page World UK UK Politics Business Sci/Tech Health |
| Education |
| Correspondents How the Education Systems Work |
| Sport Entertainment Talking Point In Depth AudioVideo |
|
 Education Correspondent, Mike Baker"New headteacher firm on truancy"  real 28k |
Violent school opens under new head
St George's school was closed a week before half-term
The school where headteacher Philip Lawrence was murdered five years ago is reopening after an outbreak of violence forced its temporary closure.
St George's School in Maida Vale, west London, will welcome back students on Tuesday with new head Marie Stubbs.
St George's School in Maida Vale, west London, will welcome back students on Tuesday with new head Marie Stubbs.
 Rules are rules, and students will abide by them.  |
Marie Stubbs St George's head |
Westminster Council is giving St George's a year to come off the list of failing schools.
Lady Stubbs, a 60-year-old devout Catholic who came out of retirement to take up the job, said there would be a new emphasis on discipline.
She made it clear she would not tolerate violence or truancy among pupils.
St George's recently had the worst truancy record in England.
In the years since Mr Lawrence was murdered as he protected a pupil from attack, there has been a sharp fall in standards.
It was failed by schools inspectors and last month Mr Lawrence's replacement took early retirement after a pupil was injured in a gang fight in which a classroom and a teacher's car was damaged.
St George's is reopening under a task force headed by private education company Nord Anglia, which is costing Westminster �400,000.
Clean sheet
Lady Stubbs retired last autumn after 13 years as head of another Roman Catholic secondary school, Douai Martyrs in Hillingdon, west London.
Before that, she ran education in a secure unit for girls in Lambeth.
Lady Stubbs said: "Every student ... every single one of them comes in with a clean sheet, but each of them will be told that there are clear boundaries which must not be transgressed.
"Rules are rules, and students will abide by them."
Westminster's director of education, John Harris, said "milestones" had been laid out.
"If attendance levels don't rapidly improve, then clearly we would have evidence that the school isn't saveable," he said.
"Staff and pupils had got into a cycle of expectation of confrontation.
"We have to establish a different pattern from the moment they come into the school. That is about the clarification of expectations."
Lady Stubbs is convinced it can be done.
"If we are talking about what is called 'a cycle of deprivation', I think not to believe this can be broken is a counsel of despair and no sensible teacher can subscribe to a belief in the inevitability of a cycle of deprivation.
"All our professional training and sense of vocation, particularly in the Catholic sector of course but not exclusively, leads us to believe that positive intervention can bring about change, and that's what I want to see happening in St George's."
She wanted the children to feel that the learning programme was going to be exciting and interesting, and that they wanted to learn, because they were society's future.
Asked whether she was frightened of the place, Lady Stubbs said that as an experienced teacher and as a mother and grandmother she liked to think she had some "life skills" - and she liked young people.
"I'm looking forward very much to this post," she said.
Lady Stubbs, a 60-year-old devout Catholic who came out of retirement to take up the job, said there would be a new emphasis on discipline.
She made it clear she would not tolerate violence or truancy among pupils.
St George's recently had the worst truancy record in England.
 Killed head: Philip Lawrence |
It was failed by schools inspectors and last month Mr Lawrence's replacement took early retirement after a pupil was injured in a gang fight in which a classroom and a teacher's car was damaged.
St George's is reopening under a task force headed by private education company Nord Anglia, which is costing Westminster �400,000.
Clean sheet
Lady Stubbs retired last autumn after 13 years as head of another Roman Catholic secondary school, Douai Martyrs in Hillingdon, west London.
Before that, she ran education in a secure unit for girls in Lambeth.
Lady Stubbs said: "Every student ... every single one of them comes in with a clean sheet, but each of them will be told that there are clear boundaries which must not be transgressed.
"Rules are rules, and students will abide by them."
Westminster's director of education, John Harris, said "milestones" had been laid out.
"If attendance levels don't rapidly improve, then clearly we would have evidence that the school isn't saveable," he said.
"Staff and pupils had got into a cycle of expectation of confrontation.
"We have to establish a different pattern from the moment they come into the school. That is about the clarification of expectations."
Lady Stubbs is convinced it can be done.
"If we are talking about what is called 'a cycle of deprivation', I think not to believe this can be broken is a counsel of despair and no sensible teacher can subscribe to a belief in the inevitability of a cycle of deprivation.
"All our professional training and sense of vocation, particularly in the Catholic sector of course but not exclusively, leads us to believe that positive intervention can bring about change, and that's what I want to see happening in St George's."
She wanted the children to feel that the learning programme was going to be exciting and interesting, and that they wanted to learn, because they were society's future.
Asked whether she was frightened of the place, Lady Stubbs said that as an experienced teacher and as a mother and grandmother she liked to think she had some "life skills" - and she liked young people.
"I'm looking forward very much to this post," she said.
| Search BBC News Online | |
|  Advanced search options | |
| |
 | |
 | |
| |
| BBC RADIO NEWS |
| |
| |
 | BBC ONE TV NEWS |
| |
| |
| WORLD NEWS SUMMARY |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| PROGRAMMES GUIDE |
See also:
Internet links:
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites
Links to other Education stories are at the foot of the page.
E-mail this story to a friend
