Read on Twitter
https://schoolsweek.co.uk/childrens-commissioner-candidate-grilled-over-exclusions-at-her-academy-trust/amp/1/ 1/ It's taken a while to digest that M. Gove's fav teacher & staunch advocate of gov's ed policy has been appointed as Child's Comm, whose job is to challenge the gov. Goes beyond conflict of interest & into stark-raving chumocracy #education #edutwitter
2/ Rachel De Sousa's school have come under fire from Ofsted for off-rolling - East Point Academy in Lowesoft https://schoolsweek.co.uk/ofsted-flags-inspirations-flimsy-response-to-steep-home-education-rise/
3/ AND for the unbelievably high number of children with SEN moving "off roll" following academy conversion - "83 per cent fall in the number of SEND pupils at Great Yarmouth Charter Academy the year after the trust took over". https://www.tes.com/news/next-childrens-tsar-probed-her-trusts-rolling
4/ AND overseeing a primary school with exceptionally high exclusions - "Great Yarmouth Primary Academy, permanently excluded more children in a single year than any primary school on record". https://educationuncovered.co.uk/diary/diary/148771/academy-chief-executive-who-oversaw-primary-school-with-the-highest-number-of-permanent-exclusions-on-record-in-england-put-forward-by-government-to-be-the-next-childrens-commissioner.thtml
5/ AND leading a Conservative group, with faux grass roots, which is in actuality a political organisation with a very specific ideology about education, funded by Tory donors. https://schoolsweek.co.uk/vote-leave-campaigner-and-tory-donor-behind-parents-and-teachers-for-excellence-campaign/
6/ AND presided over schools with extremely questionable behaviour policies, such as Great Yarmouth Charter School. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-41228803
7/ The outgoing Ch Commissioner, @annelongfield has rightly called for better monitoring of '“off the grid” children, stronger measures to tackle off-rolling and that schools should be held to account for excluded pupils'. Under De Sousa, this will not be a priority.
8/ A broader point. The way Children's Commissioners are appointed & the total lack of political authority they hold (they have no powers to assert policy change) are anachronistic & anti-democratic. De Sousa's post will prop up the gov's ideology and rubber stamp policies.
