Former Mossbourne Community Academy students call for government inquiry into nationwide school practices

Mossbourne Victoria Park Academy. Image: Google

Parents and ex-pupils are campaigning for a national inquiry after practices such as public humiliation and excessive shouting were uncovered at a top Hackney school.

Mossbourne Victoria Park Academy (MVPA) was the subject of a Local Child Safeguarding Practice Review (LCSPR) published last month, which found the school’s “uncompromising culture” was, in some cases, “exacerbating mental health issues in pupils”.

But now, former students at a different Mossbourne academy have claimed similar practices took place during their time at school, and are calling for a national inquiry into school culture and student mental health.

A group of Mossbourne Community Academy (MCA) alumni and parents are urging the government to take action to prevent future pupils across the country from going through similar experiences, alleging former students are “still feeling the long-term impact” of their experiences.

A change.org petition titled ‘Call for a national inquiry into school culture and child mental health’ had garnered more than 700 signatures at the time of publication.

“We call on the government to conduct an inquiry into the effect that the rapidly changing environment in many schools has had on children’s mental health and development, and to act on the findings to protect all young people”, the petition reads.

“For over two decades, governments have presided over a largely unmonitored social experiment. A combination of increasingly punitive discipline, rising exam pressure and academy structures with limited accountability may be contributing to an escalating mental health crisis.

“Like a canary in a coal mine, the harm identified by the safeguarding review of one of the first academies [signifies] an urgent need for action. As adult former students still feeling the long-term impact of our experiences we believe voices like ours deserve to be heard”.

The petition was set up by Andy Leary-May, a former Mossbourne parent who also founded Educating Hackney in 2024 to draw “attention to links between the way behaviour policies are implemented in some schools and potential consequences for children’s wellbeing”.

He told the Citizen: “The safeguarding review laid bare harmful practices at Mossbourne. Testimonies from adult former students now suggest these practices have been affecting children for nearly two decades.

“Mossbourne’s methods have been widely copied, raising serious questions about whether the same failures of governance and accountability are allowing similar harm to continue unchecked in other schools.

“As the body directly responsible for academies, the Department for Education must urgently examine how this harm was able to happen in plain sight for so long — and whether it is still happening in other schools.

“Vested interests and academy politics cannot be allowed to stand in the way of protecting children”.

Educating Hackney has also compiled testimonies from former MCA pupils. One ex-student said: “I will always advocate for high quality education, but I believe Mossbourne thinks it’s okay for children’s mental health to be ignored in order to achieve amazing grades.

“All I want is to make sure other children can go on to do what they’ve always wanted without being put down, or leaving education with lifelong mental health issues.”

The review into MVPA found the school upheld a “no excuses” behaviour policy which reportedly saw staff members dole out harsh sanctions for what the review described as “minor infractions”, which disproportionately affected students with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and pupils of certain ethnic backgrounds.

Former Mossbourne student Nathan Creighton is now part of the maths department at Oxford University. He told the Citizen the review into MVPA was consistent with his experience at MCA.

Despite performing well academically — having achieved an A* in Maths GCSE at the age of 11 — he claims he was still subjected to harsh sanctions. This, he alleges, was often to do with his inability to perform certain manual tasks due to his mild cerebral palsy, including being unable to complete a sewing assignment.

“I was a good student and I got detained”, he told the Citizen. “It doesn’t feel like they’ve taken any steps to improve things [since I left]. […] A lot of students aren’t doing well from the disciplinarian approach at Mossbourne”.

The review into MVPA made a number of recommendations, including that the “no excuses” attitude to behaviour should be replaced with “high expectations combined with genuine care, flexibility, and individualisation”. At the time, there are no public plans for a review into any other Mossbourne schools.

More information about the petition can be found here.

The Citizen has contacted Mossbourne Community Academy for comment.