Shock Horror. Interim Head Jo Hodges confirms

CLOSED DOOR POLICY AT HARLOWFIELDS

Many parents have contacted me about the bizarre Jo Hodges letter saying they were shocked and disppointed in the manner and description that you must make an appointment before tuning up at school. It's true that it's not far from what is common sense in schools i.e. that you don't bother the school in school hours and obviously don't keep turning up unannounced, because it is inconvienent. But this letter crossed the boundary of what is acceptable. By the way the reference to someone encouraging parents to go in regardless was not us, or at least I'm not aware. Every parent must be responsible for their own actions, and make their own minds up. However it is an important princple that every parent should have instant access to their child if they feel it is necessary.
You see if the letter had erred on the side of  "please behave with common sense and use your judgement about what is best" instead of the dictatorial rant of a may I say "here today, gone tomorrow" interim head, then it might have been acceptable.
Parents are right to be worried about this now open confirmation of what we have known for a long time. Of course we want our children to be protected from outside dangers and to be contained safely, but in view of what we know about the school, the arrogent lack of genuine adult communication, the deaths and frequent unsatisfactorially explained accidents with children, secretiveness, lack of any policy statements about imminent changes in the school, the lack of will to appoint a new Head quickly to name just a few problems this CLOSED DOOR POLICY reeks of extremely suspicous motives,
We had hoped that it was just the ranting and delusion of one particular former Head, but this has persisted since she left, if anything got worse. So the conclusion is that it is an LEA policy (not a written one of course). So the reasons behind it are greater. LEA are still not telling parents how the school is going to be reorganised or when. Interim Heads, some of whom run New Model Special Schools actually deny all knowledge of how an NMSS school functions so of course tell anyone who enquires "I know nothing"
PARENTS ARE NOW EVEN MORE CONCERNED ABOUT THIS LOCKED UP SCHOOL  WHICH IS NEVER GOING TO BE TRANSPARENT OPEN AND MATURE.

LOADS OF FEEDBACK FROM OTHER PARENTS THIS MONTH

"Why is there no Head still"
"We need stability"
"We still haven't heard (officially) why Mr Miller was suspended"
"As soon as we get to know the Head, talk to them about our child and their needs, someone else is in the office next time we need to talk to them"
"We cannot understand why so many heads and WHY the delay in appointing"
"Why do parents need to make an appointment to visit the school?"
"Why is there pressure to move some pupils out of Essex?"

SALE OF WEBSITE
I was hoping to close the website after BT left, but Tim (bless him) was so obviously the wrong person that I carried on to see how things panned out.
Then when Tim went, after the predicted 2 years, I naively thought the LEA/Govs would be urgently looking, or already had someone in mind for the Head's job.
Having seen the advert in the Autumn Term  there was something very odd. It certainly didn't descibe Harlowfields or trawl for the super-duper candidates that they now seek
So why do I want to sell the website? Well;
  1. I will sell to a suitably insensed and empowered parent for a nominal £1 or
  2. I will sell to the LEA for £500,000 which should sort out my child's education
If interested please reply to e-mail address on home page
If not well I will just carry on exposing these arrogant bastards

A SUBSTANTIVE HEAD IS NOW SOUGHT
Well that's good news anyway. I've had a bet with another parent that it's an external appointment, if it ever happens that is, and the other parent is convinced that it will be internal. It is a small wager of £2 or £3 is at stake.
My definition of a substantive Head (their word not ours) is one who has proved him/herself as capable of the complex multi faceted job of ....whatever. That we don't know, because we have no proof of what type of school Harlowfields is about to become.
Two things we DO know is that
  1. HFS is not licenced to cater for PMLDs
  2. HFS is not listed on the NAS Accredited Schools list and doesn't teach Autistic pupils differently or separately as is established practice elsewhere, which is of great concern.
As Autistic pupils are the largest number in the school why are the school seeking to bring in an even more draconian Behaviour Policy which is totally inappropriate for Autistic pupils. It is also totally inappropriate for every other child with Learning Difficulties. The acceptable answer for special Needs is a separate Behaviour Plan for each pupil
The New Head will have to be conversant with the Children's Trust Research and Policies which Essex is part of; strangely evolved out of the"Every Child Matters" paper, when we seem to be fighting HFS because the very opposite seems to apply

ALL AGENCIES WILL WORK TOGETHER!

On the face of it having a joint approach of school, health, social services etc is  avery good idea, IF THE CHILD IS GOING TO BENEFIT  however, knowing what we know and what we have experienced already THIS SYSTEM IS WIDE OPEN TO ABUSE, the authorites
will no doubt all gang up to save money, because lets be under no illusion
THIS IS ALL ABOUT SAVING MONEY    (to pay for buying my website!) (if only it was) no we are talking about millions to reduce Statement costs  (at the cost of your child's rightful education)

WE THINK YOUR CHILD'S ANNUAL REVIEWS ARE BEING MANIPULATED TO REDUCE THE COSTS FOR THIS NEW SYSTEM

WE THINK HFS AND YOUR CHILD ARE BEING, AND HAVE BEEN FOR SOME TIME USED IN A HUGE RESEARCH PROJECT, WITHOUT PERMISSION

WE THINK STATEMENTS WILL SOON BE DISCONTINUED FOR MLD PUPILS AND EVENTUALLY FOR ALL PUPILS  BY THE BACK DOOR

APART FROM MONEY, WHY KEEP PARENTS OUT
  1. They are educating PMLDs and Autistic in the same class which is madness and results in injuries
  2. A signicant number of pupils have no class teacher, which is a SCANDAL
  3. EBD Behaviour and Discipline Policy applied across the school regardless of disability
  4. The school is EBD Training Centre for all Essex, They hold Care and Restraint Courses!!
  5. There is no HYdro therapy Pool, yet PMLDs are being put in the ordinary pool which is TOO COLd for them, which makes them more suseptable to infection
  6. Admin/Office seems to be unmanned for large parts of the day and no one answers the phone at lunch times/break times  - scarey
  7. Nurse is not based on site and is rarely there. Medication continues to be an issue of concern
  8. To get out of the school, assuming you managed to get in for an appointment,you need one of the few members of staff who knows the 4 figure code and can remember it, to get out, or you maybe temporarily held prisoner IN the school.
  9. School Doctors bring child's notes to the school and there is shocking evidence that they have been read by school staff in the past.
  10. There are no First Aiders trained to help pupils!!!
  11. Considering PMLDs and Autistic pupils there is an alarming lack of Adult Supervision in the playground leading to bullying.
  12. PMLDs have been seem parked UNSUPERVISED all in one room at lunchtime
  13. Against Govt Policy the Schhol still has Barbara's 1950's School Tuck Shop selling Sweets -Disgraceful