Government’s school behaviour tsar reacts dismissively to this website’s story about alleged mental health impacts on pupils of academy trust’s discipline policies

A "First Impressions" card as used at Coleridge Community College. The card is pictured outside of its lanyard, in which it had to be carried. The policy was modified last term so that the cards no longer had to be worn around pupils' necks.

England’s school behaviour tsar has reacted to tweets flagging up a lengthy article on this website about controversial disciplinary policies at schools run by England’s largest academy chain – but only to “like” reactions which had called the story into question.

Tom Bennett, who heads the government’s Behaviour Hubs policy to which the disciplinary approach at the school around which the piece centred has been attached, did not respond to a request to react to the substance of my twitter thread, which had flagged up concerns from parents and students about the mental health impact of the policies.

The twitter thread associated with the article published on Education Uncovered last week drew a large reaction, with my analysis suggesting the overwhelming majority of responses were distressed by what they had read – a couple of readers wrote of being in tears - although a minority appeared to take a very different view.

The detail

The piece, published on Tuesday, running to approaching 7,000 words and highlighted with a lengthy twitter thread by me the following day, centred on behaviour, equipment and uniform policies at Coleridge Community College in Cambridge, which since 2019 has been part of the United Learning Trust.