Dad's school removal threat over silent corridors

A dad said he had applied to send his son to a new school after the head teacher imposed hour-long detentions for pupils talking in corridors between lessons.

Southchurch High School in Southend-on-Sea brought in so-called silent transitions from Wednesday.

Lee said his son was already struggling with depression and anxiety. An online petition protesting against the changes has received more than 500 signatures.

Head teacher Tracy Airoll said the silent transitions policy had been "tried and tested" at other schools within its academy trust.

In an email from the school, parents were told one-hour same-day detentions would also be given out for misdemeanours including forgetting stationery, wearing incorrect uniform and failure to complete homework.

Lee said the rules could "seriously harm" his son's education, who is studying for his GCSEs.

"For somebody like [my son] who has to verbalise at short notice when he's feeling something, not being able to speak to somebody in between classes in the corridor is going to be really, really bad for him," he told BBC Essex.

Another parent Stuart said he replied to the school "it was using a sledgehammer to crack a nut" when he was asked for feedback.

He said he told his son not to attend any same-day detentions.

"They're implementing the same level of punishment for any transgression, no matter how stupidly minuscule," he claimed.

Parent Abbey Riley, 35, said pupils got detentions for "silly little things" and added: "You lose a pen, you get detention; you talk, you get detention."

She started a petition asking for the policies to be re-evaluated, which surpassed 500 signatures in 24 hours.

Southend-on-Sea City Council's Labour cabinet member for culture, tourism and business - Matt Dent - added his comment under more than 600 others on the petition, expressing concern.

According to a survey of 6,283 teachers carried out by Teacher Tapp last month, 1% of them in the East of England said their own school had enforced silent corridor rules.

The figure was 7% for London.

Gráinne Hallahan used to teach in Essex and is head of community at Teacher Tapp.

She pointed out that secondary schools had to meet the challenge of managing students in large buildings, while trying to enforce one-way systems and staggered times for different year groups.

"You want to do that as safely as possible and that's why things like silent corridors come in," she explained.

Ms Airoll said silent transitions had worked well within some of the other 18 schools within the Learning Partnership Trust, which operated predominantly in the capital.

"We have been extremely pleased with how well our students have adapted to the new expectations," she said.

"Feedback from teaching staff this week has been overwhelmingly positive; students are arriving calmly to lesson and, more importantly, ready to begin their learning promptly. "

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