England’s largest academy chain seeks to quell parental and student upset over “oppressive” disciplinary policies, including now-scrapped requirement for one school’s pupils to wear behaviour cards around their necks

One of the behaviour cards - this one photographed last term - which have been in use at Coleridge Community College, Cambridge

England’s largest academy chain appears to have gone into listening mode after parents and pupils at a secondary school which it took over two years ago launched a vigorous campaign against behaviour rules they described as “draconian” and “oppressive”.

The United Learning Trust has been implementing get-tough policies on uniform, equipment and behaviour within at least three of its secondary schools in the south of England, including at Coleridge Community College in Cambridge, where a large campaign in opposition has developed and where I understand staff have also had concerns.

At Coleridge, which United took over in 2019, months after Ofsted had adjudged it good and praised pupils’ behaviour under a less strict regime, the policies have been linked by the school’s headteacher, and by trust headquarters, to the government’s £10 million “Behaviour Hubs” scheme.

But Coleridge parents submitted a dossier to the school setting out more than 125 experiences of their children which they felt had been negative, including one who said their child had missed several days of school as he was “panicking” over whether his tie was the right length.