A senior leader of a school that featured in the Educating Greater Manchester TV series asked staff for an update on “removing some of our worst-performing year 11s” before the census “so they don’t count on results”.
Drew Povey, and his then deputies Jennifer Benigno and Ross Povey, are accused of off-rolling three pupils to boost performance data and amending attendance data.
He and Benigno deny wrongdoing. Ross Povey is not attending and is not represented.
Drew Povey, the former executive head of Harrop Fold School in Worsley, claimed Salford City Council pressured frightened colleagues into giving damning statements about him, a Teacher Regulation Agency (TRA) sitting heard this week.
However, the panel heard that Benigno had discussed removing some of the school’s “worst-performing year 11s” from the roll before the January 2018 census.
Email sent to senior leaders
Barrister Andrew Cullen, who appeared for the TRA, said Benigno sent the email to Gary Chambers, the school’s director of attitudes and learning, Ross Povey and another staff member, Julie York, in November 2017.
“The subject is ‘Year 11 needed off roll’, and it says ‘just conscious that PLASC [the January census] is approaching and wondered where we were up to with removing some of our worst-performing year 11s so they don’t count on results. List below’,” he said.
The GCSE results of pupils who are not recorded in the January census do not count for the school’s performance that year.
Benigno said teachers had not been able to predict grades for 14 pupils, marked as “x” on the school’s system because they either joined in year 11 or were being educated elsewhere.
She said some of the pupils were on managed moves and “at least a couple” had spent two years at the Canterbury Centre where the school placed pupils with mental health needs.
“If they didn’t need to count because they were supposed to be in another centre, on their roll, then, if they were going to do badly, I wouldn’t have wanted them to necessarily feature on the results,” she said.
Head says he ‘didn’t understand’ off-rolling
But she did not want them taken off the roll if it were illegal or incorrect practice.
Ofsted has defined off-rolling as removing a pupil from the school roll, without using a permanent exclusion, when this is primarily in the best interests of the school, not the pupil.
Drew Povey said he wasn’t aware of the email. Asked if he was surprised by the content, he said: “I’d have probably had a conversation to say it needs to be the right pupils.”
“But I would have believed in Jen’s integrity to make sure we were doing it the right way. [She] would never go down that track, it’s not the way she’s built… I didn’t understand [off-rolling] was a thing you could do – I didn’t understand it was a practice.”
The panel heard two pupils were attending alternative provision, but were recorded as being home-educated. The third was “missing in education”.
Povey admitted the wrong code was used for two, but it was a clerical error.
The panel also heard how office staff “altered attendance data for quite a lot of children” in May 2018.
Vendetta ‘like one against Gareth Southgate’
Povey said the school was in special measures when he joined in 2006 and had been branded “the worst in the country”.
He announced his resignation in a letter published on social media in September 2018, accusing Salford of pursuing a “personal vendetta” against him.
He said council staff had an axe to grind because he publicised the school’s financial woes and did not join an academy trust.
He compared his situation to the “doom loop” experienced by Gareth Southgate. The former England football manager was “somebody I have met and worked with, [an] incredible leader”.
“When he left his England role, it was disgraceful the comments made about him,” said Povey, who now runs leadership workshops for people in sport, the police and business.
But he also suggested the council pressured former colleagues into making allegations about him.
Phil Ince, a senior staff member, last week told the hearing that a breakdown in pupil behaviour from 2015 onwards saw the school become “like a zoo”.
Povey said he was “appalled” by Ince’s choice of words and that they were “wide of the mark”.
His “mantra” was to be inclusive and to take on challenging children.
The TRA also heard pupils were regularly sent home before the end of the school day, a practice that was not logged properly.
Povey said this happened when a child “couldn’t cope”. It was about their mental health, rather than behaviour.
The hearing is due to end today. A decision will be published later.
