Academy Schools Abusing Their Powers - a Role for the Children’s Commissioner for England?

SJA Grove made this Freedom of Information request to Children's Commissioner for England This request has been closed to new correspondence. Contact us if you think it should be reopened.

The request was successful.

Dear Children’s Commissioner for England,

Following the appearance of Anne Longfield OBE on a Cathy Newman C4 News discussion on 29th August 2018 (that detailed serious matters around well-being in childhood) two communications (from one IP address) were made to Greetland Academy Multi-School Trust questioning whether an Instagram social media profile (with “followers” comments pertaining to the sexual attractiveness of the swimwear-modelling photographs) belonged to the "Director of the Teaching School". The result of these two communications was that an unknown person, who was likely to be a "Specialist Leader in Education", contacted West Yorkshire Police. West Yorkshire police then issued a threat/warning to the member of public that if they were to contact the Academy School again they would be arrested under Section 1.1.b of The Malicious Communication Act 1988. It is only by residing in a separate UK legal jurisdiction from England that prevented the member of the public from being arrested by a police officer from West Yorkshire Police. The threat/warning was formally issued by a separate UK police force from West Yorkshire Police, and shortly after this the email from West Yorkshire Police was deleted from their system (information communicated at the time by a non-West Yorkshire Police officer who sounded extremely uncomfortable about this whole matter).

It is probable that the "Specialist Leader in Education" who was using the agency of the West Yorkshire Police to issue the threat is Dr Jo Pearson. Dr Pearson has used her Twitter account to highlight a ‘The Guardian' newspaper article ridiculing the author Jordan B. Peterson (of "Ha Gotcha" Cathy Newman C4 News fame). The newspaper article that was "retweeted" from another educator (going by the Twitter name of "The Primary Head"). The article evidenced male gender-shaming tactics together with a ridiculing of Peterson’s description of the peer-reviewed publications that pertain to the fundamental and evolutionarily conserved serotonergic neurobiology of resource hierarchies in biological systems. Ironically these are the very same social media-evidenced hierarchies that a "Director of the Teaching School" could be demonstrating (if indeed this "Director of the Teaching School" is the owner of the social media account in question, a question that has never been answered by Greetland Academy Multi-School Trust or AA Teamworks) and that a "Specialist Leader in Education" (who could be Dr Jo Pearson) is trying to cover-up the social media-mediated exhibition of from entering the public domain as mutual knowledge, with the agency and sanctioning of West Yorkshire Police.

What statuary powers does the Children’s Commissioner for England have to enforce Academy School educators in England to undertake mandatory training on the uses (and abuses) of social (and other) power or do children just have to accept that issues around the way in which Academy Schools in England use (and potentially abuse) their powers could be a manifestation of what biologist Bret Weinstein describes as a cultural form of biological senescence and that these powers are outside of their locus of control?

Yours faithfully,
SJA Grove

FOSTER, Lyn - Children's Commissioner, Children's Commissioner for England

6 Attachments

Dear SJA Grove,

 

I refer to your email which we received on Sunday 4 November 2018 which
includes the following Freedom of Information request;  

 

‘What statuary powers does the Children’s Commissioner for England have to
enforce Academy School educators in England to undertake mandatory
training on the uses (and abuses) of social (and other) power’,

 

Please be advised that the Children’s Commissioner’s Office does not have
any statutory powers to enforce Academy school educators to undertake
mandatory training on any issue.

 

However, with reference to your wider concerns and should you wish to take
this forward, I have provided  a link to the Gov.uk website on how to
complain about an Academy:

 

[1]https://www.gov.uk/government/publicatio....

 

In addition, should you wish to complain about the actions of a police
officer from West Yorkshire Police you could contact the [2]West Yorkshire
Police and Crime Commissioner,  Mark Burns-Williamson.

 

His contact details are as follows:

 

[3][email address].

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Lyn  

 

 

Lyn Foster
Business Support Adviser
Children's Commissioner's Office
[4]Childrens Commissioner
Advice Line: 0800 528 0731
Direct line: 0207 783 8203

Telephone: 0207 783 8330

Email: [5][email address]
Post: Sanctuary Buildings, Great Smith Street, London SW1P 3BT
Online: [6]www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk
[7]facebook [8]twitter [9]youtube
[10]Promoting & protecting
[11]http://www.design-m.co.uk/lsdesign/child...

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-----Original Message-----

From: SJA Grove <[FOI #530122 email]>  

Sent: 04 November 2018 15:00

To: REQUEST, Info <[12][email address]>

Subject: Freedom of Information request - Academy Schools Abusing Their
Powers - a Role for the Children’s Commissioner for England?

 

Dear Children’s Commissioner for England,

 

Following the appearance of Anne Longfield OBE on a Cathy Newman C4 News
discussion on 29th August 2018 (that detailed serious matters around
well-being in childhood) two communications (from one IP address) were
made to Greetland Academy Multi-School Trust questioning whether an
Instagram social media profile (with “followers” comments pertaining to
the sexual attractiveness of the swimwear-modelling photographs) belonged
to the "Director of the Teaching School". The result of these two
communications was that an unknown person, who was likely to be a
"Specialist Leader in Education", contacted West Yorkshire Police. West
Yorkshire police then issued a threat/warning to the member of public that
if they were to contact the Academy School again they would be arrested
under Section 1.1.b of The Malicious Communication Act 1988. It is only by
residing in a separate UK legal jurisdiction from England that prevented
the member of the public from being arrested by a police officer from West
Yorkshire Police. The threat/warning was formally issued by a separate UK
police force from West Yorkshire Police, and shortly after this the email
from West Yorkshire Police was deleted from their system (information
communicated at the time by a non-West Yorkshire Police officer who
sounded extremely uncomfortable about this whole matter).

 

It is probable that the "Specialist Leader in Education" who was using the
agency of the West Yorkshire Police to issue the threat is Dr Jo Pearson.
Dr Pearson has used her Twitter account to highlight a ‘The Guardian'
newspaper article ridiculing the author Jordan B. Peterson (of "Ha Gotcha"
Cathy Newman C4 News fame). The newspaper article that was "retweeted"
from another educator (going by the Twitter name of "The Primary Head").
The article evidenced male gender-shaming tactics together with a
ridiculing of Peterson’s description of the peer-reviewed publications
that pertain to the fundamental and evolutionarily conserved serotonergic
neurobiology of resource hierarchies in biological systems. Ironically
these are the very same social media-evidenced hierarchies that a
"Director of the Teaching School" could be demonstrating (if indeed this
"Director of the Teaching School" is the owner of the social media account
in question, a question that has never been answered by Greetland Academy
Multi-School Trust or AA Teamworks) and that a "Specialist Leader in
Education" (who could be Dr Jo Pearson) is trying to cover-up the social
media-mediated exhibition of from entering the public domain as mutual
knowledge, with the agency and sanctioning of West Yorkshire Police.

 

What statuary powers does the Children’s Commissioner for England have to
enforce Academy School educators in England to undertake mandatory
training on the uses (and abuses) of social (and other) power or do
children just have to accept that issues around the way in which Academy
Schools in England use (and potentially abuse) their powers could be a
manifestation of what biologist Bret Weinstein describes as a cultural
form of biological senescence and that these powers are outside of their
locus of control?

 

Yours faithfully,

SJA Grove

 

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