Chapeltown Academy students organise against their headteacher

Supposedly students of Chapeltown academy walked out in July in response to their headteachers plans to teach new "non-academic" subjects.

I got this information from a website they set up only a few days ago, it seems to have gotten around on facebook only recently(I cannot link the site due to spam protection but their twitter is @ChapeltownAlum2)

Apparently they were worried about teachers leaving over new policy?

Students and parents sent a letter to the governing body expressing their concerns which seems to have been ignored prompting them to organise a walk out, here's a quote from their website:

Once it became clear that our teachers would be leaving, a walkout was organised among students of the 4th Cohort. Over 30 participated in the event, which took place on the 13th July 2018.

 

The Y12s also report that in this case they have yet to receive a genuine response combatting the reason for their walkout.

I'm pretty surprised, I'd heard good things about the school despite the problems they faced when it was set it up.

Yeah, the situation is serious. They've got a facebook page now, too.

They're terrified of what's going to happen in the future - as a student in the year above those lot that did the walkout, I can confirm that the Headteacher is making teachers redundant that were like, founders of the Academy. Some of the best ones there. It's absolutely awful and without reason. The walkout was carried out because the teachers announced their leaving. Even we were told by the head that it was their choice, but one must understand that the student-teacher relationship in Chap is impeccable, we were very familiar with each other and understood that some of these teachers wanted to retire in Chap.

It's got some really good results this year and that's all well and good. The academy itself performs amazingly. Yet, the teachers responsible for these grades are being made redundant. No joke, one of the founders of the sixth form (Ali Jaffer) got the best results this year. I took his class and none of us got less than a B grade. They ran oxbridge programmes and pastoral care, without them the students are gonna be so isolated and the quality of the academy is shot.

So yeah, more to 'em. I hope they keep it up. The best I can do is support them from afar now and I know we're all doing the same. Only the students can say for sure.

Hi, I'm one of the students who partook in the walkout. We did indeed walk out, and for exactly the reasons you have stated above. The Headteacher, Mr Dayle Coe, who has only been head of Chapeltown Academy for one year now, wants to save money by making most of the SLT (senior leadership team) redundant. The SLT team consists of some extremely capable and dedicated teachers, notably the three who have effectively no dignified choice other than to leave as a result. These are Ali Jaffer (Spanish and Law teacher and deputy head), Antje Pieper (German and History teacher) and Juliet Rowson (geography teacher).

Ali Jaffer, Deputy head of the sixth form, originally conceived the college and indeed was instrumental in its founding and critical to its successes. He was acting head last year during which time the college flourished, however he was under a lot of pressure and felt he could not hold the position. Which is why it's extremely concerning that the founder of the academy is being ousted by someone who has only been in charge for a year. Not only is Ali a great teacher as BernardaAlba has said, he is also arguably the most important person behind the college being established and as such he has a heavily vested interest in it succeeding and flourishing. I'll post a link to a site the Chapeltown Alumni and students have created, which has the full story: I couldn’t post a link, but a simple search for “Chapeltown Alumni” should yield the correct results.

I can say from first-hand experience and in absolute confidence that Chapeltown Academy is probably the best college in Sheffield bar any private schools. But without the incredible staff that make it the amazing place it is, it will go downhill. If we didn't believe this to be the case or didn't think our education was in jeopardy, we wouldn't be acting to prevent this. We really need help spreading the word and gaining support, as the Governing body has simply ignored a letter with over a hundred signatures from concerned parents and students. So, any help or spreading of this information and site would be greatly appreciated.

How many members were/are there on the SLT and what salaries were they on?

There were 6 members of SLT, and there will be 3 leaving, but there will be 3/4 SLT members moving forward. The reason that Dayle Coe has given for making these teachers redundant is that he is saving the college money, but he is also doing away with vital teachers that promoted extracurricular programmes and higher education systems that will no longer be offered with their leaving. Their salaries should be found on the Chapeltown Academy website, on their finance sheet - I'll check it myself.

Unfortunately, the new SLT members coming in this year already teach up to 3 subjects on top of this - the place will fall to inefficiency and incompetence if this keeps up.

---------- Post added 02-09-2018 at 21:26 ----------

I flicked through the financial statements and found some stuff but it's from 2016, before Dayle joined - it says that higher paid staff don't get pay that exceeds 60k , give or take. That's not really helpful though so I'll keep digging.

If I had to guess, I suspect that pay doesn't exceed 30k for SLT, because as much as chap is an amazing school, it wasn't making much money in the beginning cos it had no students, which will mean everything to a free school. That'd include teaching their subjects too - busy folk.

It's not very much. On top of that, Chapeltown has prided itself in the onslaught of new students it's gotten this year as a result of the excellent A-level results the place achieved. Their funding levels will be far more comfortable, there is no doubt.

That is why these redundancies make no sense.

My son completed his A levels at Chapeltown academy in 2017 he had a fantastic experience there and did brilliantly, Ali Jaffer founded this place and was the most fantastic and supportive teacher anyone could wish for. Hoping the mess can be sorted out and all the best to Ali and the other teachers.

Yeah it's really sad - he is an excellent teacher, excellent Headmaster too. It's absolutely heartbreaking that his law and spanish students won't have him for much longer

Have the governors approved all this? I'm sure a couple of them were there from day 1 as part of the parents committee.

The students - myself included - have tried to contact the governors on various occasions. They have been eerily quiet, despite the rowdy nature of the students in protest of these changes. The only real contact we got was a student-parent meeting with one of the main governors after the walkout and parents were really disappointed with his rude attitude toward people present.

It's distressing them a lot because they feel like there's no other avenue of protest besides the governors and they don't want to see their teachers go.

So. A school is formed outside of the normal system. A radical school, if you like.

Then, folks are surprised when the radical school appoints a radical head, who does radical things.

I imagine that most local taxpayers just want their money spending more wisely. If the small number of parents and students at Chap Academy don’t like that, maybe they could become fee paying instead.

I implore you to visit the website. The small number you speak of is proportionally, well, enormous.

It is a natural thing for a local community to stand up for what it believes in. The head is not radical - just incompetent.

Of course, it takes a good few executive decisions for people to figure these things out.

If I had to guess, I suspect that pay doesn't exceed 30k for SLT

Average SLT salary can be anything from £40k to £60k and beyond, depending on size of school, experience and job load.

A regular teacher will get nearly £30k, I can't imagine anyone doing the extra level of work that an SLT member does for so little.

Although you're probably sad you've lost some "nice" teachers, I would expect that this decision hasn't been taken lightly, and has been done with approval of the governors.

If it doesn't work, then that's for OFSTED to decide.