Richmond Park Academy

Did me so dirty, actually deflated my predicteds so thanks for that . Uni applications looking peak
Oct 18th, 2022

would rather spend a year in alcatraz
Aug 6th, 2022

Jun 20th, 2022

Apr 2nd, 2022

With the previous RPA leadership of 2016-19 replaced; the governing board replaced; an overhaul of policies, including a staff disciplinary policy exemplifying misconduct, and thereby also framing what good practice looks like; the promotion of a whistleblowing policy; mandated staff training; and with the local authority having claimed oversight of attendance at the school, RPA should be in a good position to leave behind weak governance and, at times, dangerous and unlawful practice by its staff. As a parent of a former pupil at RPA, although I could comment widely backed by comprehensive documentary evidence on numerous past serious failures at RPA, I have limited my review around the points below that I believe the public should be made aware of: ATTENDANCE: My experience of the management of attendance at RPA was that staff were focused entirely on the pursuit of attendance statistics by putting up barriers to absences and lateness, without any apparent regard for, or understanding of, the risk to sick pupils from doing so; and resorting to off-rolling if unsuccessful. My understanding is that these failures have since been addressed by the Trust. Additionally, the local authority has claimed oversight of attendance at RPA through its Education Welfare Service, which should be reassuring to other parents, as it removes the opportunity for RPA staff to disregard professional advice given to them on the management of attendance for sick pupils, as has happened in the past, and thereby putting pupils at extreme risk. BULLYING: Other reviewers on here mention bullying at RPA, a concern I share. Again, it should be reassuring for pupils and other parents to know that all RPA staff and governors have been mandated anti-bullying training through a court order; and subsequent advice from an independent complaints investigation panel recommended an independent review into the quality and effectiveness of anti-bullying practice at RPA. GOVERNANCE: In my experience, past governance of RPA was weak and ineffective, i.e. relying on assumed integrity of staff whose actions they were meant to scrutinise and hold to account. This enabled RPA staff to propagate and embed false narratives favourable to themselves, leading to damaging and dangerous responses being formulated and implemented, and thereby putting pupils at risk. Our personal data was withheld for nearly two years after it was first requested despite it being an organisations obligation to release it as soon as possible making it difficult to counter false, inaccurate, and misleading narratives as they were put forward by now former RPA staff. I believe the approach has changed since. The previous board repeatedly failed to follow RPA's complaints procedure, even when warned about serious operational failures within the school, simply handing complaints back to the very person complained about, resulting in the issues brought to the boards attention not being addressed, leaving pupils at continued serious risk. In our case, it was not until the Trust got directly involved in overseeing complaints of misconduct against RPA staff, starting in December 2018, that staffs actions were scrutinised and held to account. Serious failures at RPA were finally being looked into over the subsequent months. Despite what was a slow take-up at the start of a prolonged process, it seems to me that the Trust has now come round to having a good understanding of recent past failures at RPA. The main staff member in question is no longer employed at RPA. This review was first posted in August 2020, and received over 10,200 views before being removed.
May 6th, 2022