4 April (Part 2) - In praise of Shenstone School
On a day when Bexley Council’s failure to adequately provide for vulnerable
children is the major topic on BiB, a look at the other side of the coin.
You may remember a handful of blogs in 2021 and 2022 which reported on the
plight of an autistic boy in Thamesmead who was being abused by Jubilee School.
He was kept isolated and uneducated and when his parents complained they were
banned from contacting the Head mistress and being on school premises. She
reported the parents to Social Services with an entirely false story which was
investigated and rejected by Bexley Council and the concocted story contradicted by the family GP and the boyְְ’s hospital consultant.
When that line of attack failed the Head reported the father to the police for
harassment when he had the temerity to seek a Subject Access Request from the school.
Then he was accused of writing rude letters and the contact ban continued. I
wrote a very polite letter to the Headmistress which the mother submitted and
she too was labelled rude and banned from writing again. There is
a little Index
which will take you to seven relevant blogs.
Then I lost contact with the family for more than a year which was perhaps
remiss of me. A couple of weeks ago I gave them a call. “How are you getting on
with that monstrous Headteacher at Jubilee School?” was the deliberately provocative opener.
“We beat her” came the response. We managed to get [name redacted] into Shenstone School
about six months ago and he is utterly transformed; and both parents were so
obviously overjoyed by the improvements they had seen. He likes going to
school, comes back bubbling with enthusiasm and is no longer completely withdrawn
from social life and is speaking when he rarely did before.
Obviously Jubilee School and Trinitas Academy Trust are places to avoid if you
value your child’s education and the Council run Shenstone School is far
superior if you have a child who deserves a bit more loving care than the
“monsters” who run Trinitas are prepared to offer.