A former headteacher featured on Educating Greater Manchester has reportedly been banned from the profession indefinitely after a tribunal.
Andrew ‘Drew’ Povey’s school was accused of becoming a ‘zoo’ as pupils’ behaviour became ‘dangerous’ after he refused to exclude them.
The 47-year-old was executive head at Harrop Fold School, Worsley, but resigned from the role after allegations he had ‘off-rolled’ three students in an ‘inappropriate way’.
Off-rolling is where a student is removed from the school without being permanently excluded, usually done in the best interest of the institution rather than the child.
The Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) launched a misconduct trial after Povey was accused of regularly sending pupils home and not logging it, which was proven.
Povey’s brother Ross, who also featured on the Channel 4 show as his assistant head, was also investigated and banned over the allegations.
The accusations included ‘failing to maintain and/or ensure that staff maintained accurate records in respect of pupil attendance on one or more occasions’.
Povey also ’caused and/or permitted and/or failed to prevent the off-rolling of one or more pupils’ and ‘failed to protect pupil(s) from the risk of potential harm’.
According to the Daily Mail, senior staff member Phil Ince claimed in a statement that he heard Povey using walkie-talkies to order staff that ‘kids be sent home’.
He claimed that staff had considered striking due to safety concerns, adding in the now public hearing that ‘from around about 2015 it started to deteriorate fast and first it would be small things but then it became a snowball coming down a hill.’
The three off-rolled pupils were removed before a ‘certain period’ of the January 2018 consensus, which the TRA argued was ‘some calculation…to make the school look better’.
Two were given alternative provisions but the third was considered ‘missing in education’.
Povey said in a statement: ‘[For] administrative mistakes that were made involving two children, and as the leader of that school, I take full responsibility’.
However, he argued that to conclude a ‘deliberate plan to off-roll to benefit the school’s performance as a whole is completely wide of the mark’.
His brother was cleared of allegations of amending pupils attendance but all other charges were upheld.
Ofsted shut the school down in 2018 after rating it ‘inadequate’, with it later reopening as Lowry Academy 2021.
Povey announced his resignation the same year, which came months after the Channel 4 documentary show was filmed.
Educating Greater Manchester was due to air a second season but the episodes were pulled after the school was put on special measures.
The TRA stated: ‘The panel was satisfied that the conduct of [Povey] amounted to misconduct of a serious nature which fell significantly short of the standards expected of the profession.
‘Accordingly, the panel was satisfied that [Povey] was guilty of unacceptable professional conduct.’
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