Educating Greater Manchester star headteacher banned from teaching

A headmaster featured on TV's Educating Greater Manchester has been banned from teaching indefinitely after a tribunal heard the school was like a 'zoo' with 'dangerous' behaviour worsened by his refusal to exclude pupils.

Andrew 'Drew' Povey, 47, former executive head of Harrop Fold School, Worsley, was accused of 'off-rolling' three pupils before the January 2018 census to boost performance data by marking them as having attended when they were absent.

Phil Ince, a senior staff member, said in a statement read to the panel that he'd heard Povey using walkie-talkies to order staff that 'kids be sent home'.

A professional misconduct panel heard that Povey caused or failed to stop data being amended to record that two of the pupils had attended when they hadn't.

Pupils regularly sent home before the end of the school day were also not logged properly, according to claims put to the Teaching Regulation Agency panel in Coventry, which they found proven.

Povey's deputy, his elder brother Ross, was also found guilty of the same allegations relating to the 2017-18 academic year and was likewise banned from teaching indefinitely.

Phil Ince, a senior staff member, said in a statement read to the panel that he'd heard Povey using walkie-talkies to order staff that 'kids be sent home'.

Faux said that occasionally, when a pupil was 'having a meltdown, in mental distress, parents would be called and with their agreement the child would go home before the end of the school day'.

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Ince told the hearing Povey's refusal to exclude pupils and alleged withdrawal to focus on external projects led to a breakdown in pupil behaviour.

'Towards the end it was a zoo,' he said.

He claimed the behaviour policy was not followed, and that staff had considered striking over safety concerns while Povey was in charge.

'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.' Ofsted rated Harrop Fold 'inadequate' after inspecting it in October 2018 and it reopened as the Lowry Academy in 2021.

The hearing was told three pupils were off-rolled in an 'inappropriate way' in a 'certain window' ahead of the statutory census in January 2018, and then put back on soon afterwards.

Two were in alternative provision and the third was 'missing in education'.

Andrew Cullen, for the TRA, asked the panel to consider whether there was 'some calculation here…to make the school look better'.

In a statement, Drew Povey said he held his hands up for 'administrative mistakes that were made involving two children, and as the leader of that school, I take full responsibility'.

But to conclude that there was a 'deliberate plan to off-roll to benefit the school's performance as a whole is completely wide of the mark'.

Povey, who featured in the Channel 4 fly-on-the-wall documentary in 2017, announced his resignation in a letter published on social media in September 2018.

He alleged a 'heavy-handed' approach from Salford City Council, which he claimed had 'completely ignored the best interests of the pupils, staff and school'.

Mr Cullen claimed attendance data was 'inflated to create a distorted picture of attendance'.

Colleague Gary Chambers, the school's director of attitudes and learning in the 2017-18 year, told the Salford-backed investigation, that he was 'vaguely aware' of some pupils being taken off roll around census time, the panel heard.

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.

Chambers said in the statement this was done to 'artificially amend the figures relating to school performance and I think that means artificially improve the figures', said Andrew Faux, representing Drew Povey.

If pupils were not recorded in the January census, their GCSE results would not have counted for the school's performance that year, Faux said.

However, he claimed Chambers was not being 'wholly truthful'.

Povey's 'mantra' was about being inclusive, not excluding pupils and taking on challenging children from other schools.

Faux said Povey wasn't 'bothered' by taking on pupils who would 'never' get five A*s to C grades, and asked why he would then off-roll children to boost statistics.

The panel included extracts from good character witnesses from peers and colleagues on behalf of Drew Povey, which included: 

• 'Drew's kindness and his desire to support colleagues was astounding'
• 'He is a breath of fresh air with his leadership knowledge combined with his front facing style'; 'Drew is the type of person, friend and colleague whom you can rely on'
• 'He was, and still is, an exceptional charismatic leader, who works tirelessly in his pursuit for improvement of self and others'

Ross Povey did not attend the hearing and was not represented.

Finding the charges proven, the panel, in its decision published today said that both men would be prohibited from teaching indefinitely at any school, sixth-form college or children's home in England.

In the case of Drew Povey, the panel concluded: 'The findings of misconduct are serious as they include a teacher failing to protect pupils from risk of potential harm, as well as conduct which lacked integrity and was dishonest.'

In the case of both men the panels found their conduct fell 'significantly short of the standards expected of the profession'.

In the case of Ross Povey, the panel cleared him of dishonesty, but concluded: 'The findings of misconduct are serious as they include failing to protect pupils from risk of harm and acting in a way which lacked integrity.'

Neither of the men would be able to apply for the prohibition order to be lifted for two years.