. The head of department, Mervyn Hinds, left soon after in controversial circumstances and the Hackney Black Parents and Teachers' Group, of which both teachers were members, leafleted parents. This is an insult to the vast majority of parents, the governors, teachers, the two local MPs, the wider community (2,500 signatures collected) and the council who wanted to keep the school open. Acting on this information, two plain clothes officers subsequently picked up an eleven year old boy and took him to the police station for questioning. Teachers did not wage a campaign of block-headed union militancy, whatever that means. The Police have shown no such willingness even after the Policy Studies Institute Report clearly documented systematic racist and sexist behaviour and remarks throughout the Metropolitan Police. We can pinpoint some particular matters for concern; Given the present situtation in Hackney, with police behaving in an openly racist fashion, teachers who do not challenge their presence in school are put in the position of being seen by the students as colluding with the police. It will enable schools and the department to identify more quickly and accurately individuals who are involved in governance, and who govern in more than one context. It voted to become comprehensive in 1969,[clarification needed] and in September it became a comprehensive school. Michael Barber talks fatalistically about why the school had to die, without acknowledging the sure signs of life and progress the school exhibited to any unbiased observer. At this point, given a permanent headteacher, stability, capital investment in unsafe buildings and targeted support for the disproportionate number of children with special educational needs, the school could have progressed. At another local school, a year earlier, a member of staff had intervened when some boys from the school were being questioned and frisked just outside the school premises. Teachers in many Hackney schools have operated our policy for a number of years. In such cases, the introduction of the police is not only a matter of concern at the time, but also raises the problem of false accusations remaining on both police and school file to blight a students subsequent career. 01-226 0580, Pingback: Police Out of School, 1985 | The Radical History of Hackney, Pingback: 1985 TV news report: Police charm offensive in Hackney | The Radical History of Hackney, Pingback: When Hackney (almost) defunded the Police | The Radical History of Hackney, Pingback: Ten years of the radical history of Hackney | The Radical History of Hackney, Pingback: Today in London policing history, 1983: Colin Roach dies in Stoke Newington Police Station | past tense, Pingback: Exclusive: More London children speak out about horrific police strip searches | SRI LANKA. He was a tall man who suffered from malaria and had a great passion for poetry and dramatic literature. Background material relating to a book about the closure of Hackney Downs School entitled 'Hackney Downs: the school that dared to fight' by Maureen O'Connor, Sally Tomlinson, Elizabeth Hales and Jeff Davies. Exterior. In 1968 it became a comprehensive school. monitoring of attacks by staff was negligible Michael Barber claims there was no alternative to closure (The school that had to die, TES, November 17). They come into Britain take up our homes our jobs and our resources and contribute relatively less to our once glorious country. Find the perfect hackney downs secondary school stock photo, image, vector, illustration or 360 image. Correspondence relating to the report of the Education Association, notably a response from the Senior Management Team to the Secretary of State, and the formal letter of closure from the S of S. Hackney Black Parents and Teachers Group - pamphlet, Hackney Downs School Parents Newsletter, 16 May 1995, 'The future of Hackney Downs School: report to the Secretary of State for Education and Employment' by the North East London Education Association. As many children have experienced the more worrying aspects of Police activity either directly or via elder brothers and sisters*. No other school faced a closure threat. Over the past year we have witnessed Hackney police undertake a massive public relations exercise to facilitate this approach. It is difficult not to conclude that they took the opportunity to settle scores with a local teacher who they knew to take the side of deportees. It is a remarkable document which makes a compelling case for what seems on the surface like a militant demand. He was a very good teacher and well respected by the East London community. However, it is essential information for the department to be able to uniquely identify an individual and in a small number of cases conduct checks to confirm their suitability for this important and influential role. Bus London Overground Lines at this station London Overground London Overground; Plan a journey. The familys two children, Senep and Fatih, were born and had only lived in this country. Home-beat officers drop in at school during break-time for a chat with pupils or teachers. They must start by tackling racism in the force. Despite Lord Scarmans report, in the wake of the Brixton uprising, recommending that the Metropolitan Police do the same and make racist remarks and behaviour a disciplinable offence the Home Secretary, the Police Federation and Sir Kenneth Newman have rejected this recommendation. He had not been there more than half an hour before he was astounded to hear the community liaison officers getting into the swing of things by cracking a stream of racist jokes. Recently, an article appeared in the Hackney Gazette blaming a mini-crime wave on the break up of schools for half term. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/data-protection-and-privacy-privacy-notices (opens in new tab), There is no governance information for this establishment. Published by Hackney Teachers Association (NUT) 23 Walford Road, London N16 But even there, any good the police did for their image was outweighed by their behaviour on the street. The police, in line with their neighbourhood policing policy, want to get into the schools, and the NUT have a policy of keeping them out. They organised two open days at Hackney Police station in May. Change), You are commenting using your Twitter account. This field shows whether a pupil's family have claimed eligibility for free school meals as reported in They found that 70% of West Indians in vehicles were stopped and searched without sufficient reason, compared with 49% of whites and 29% of Asians. The report says there can be few other groups in which its normal, automatic and habitual to refer to black people as coons, nigger and so on.. A series of displays organised in this way is obviously likely to be attractive to some young people as it highlights the adventurous crimebusting aspect of police work. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Maureen O'Connor is a freelance education journalist (previously education editor at the Guardian); Sally Tomlinson is at Oxford University, having been a Professor at Goldsmiths; Elizabeth Hales was Head at Hackney Downs; Jeffrey Davies was Deputy Head at the school. 01-354 0557 Pupils or their parents are able to claim free school meals if they These Hillingdon findings are confirmed by the PSI report which pointed out the consistent stereotyping evidenced by police towards black people, women, homosexuals and trade unionists. A previous post on this blog looked at some responses to this publication in Police Review and by a Hackney MP in Parliament. The various branches of the Hackney police force mounted displays: Mounted Branch, Dog Section, River Police, CID/Fingerprints branches, Traffic Patrol and so on. Location: Enfield - easily accessible from central, north and east London, as well as surrounding areas. (LogOut/ service are consistent. It has been replaced by the Mossbourne Community Academy. But when do we hear of, say, structural unemployment, racist policing, lack of facilities and life opportunities the real problems facing the youth that led them to rebel against the system in 1981. We'd like to use additional cookies to remember your settings and understand how you use our services. . This might sound fine on the face of it. As teachers trying to overcome these disadvantages and get the best for our pupils and the best from them, it is impossible for us to retain the confidence of black parents and pupils if we are seen to be allowing the police access to our schools and classrooms. An updated edition was published in 2012: Hackney Downs 1876-1995: The Life and Death of a School. Other transport options . The low roll was engineered by the LEA. The first question the researchers wanted to ask was What did the children learn from the police visits? The answer, so far as knowledge of the law is concerned, is absolutely nothing. There have been strong demands from many unions and the TUC to disband the SPG to no avail. A number of people like to hold the comforting view that although racism is widespread in the force things are different at the top; that a real attempt is being made to clean up the Met. The teachers also had another reason for not supporting the police they had become aware of the distrust and suspicion which many black children and their families felt for the police. On June 28 this year, after nine months of campaigning and reasoned argument, supporters of the school had persuaded a clear majority of Hackney councillors to keep the school open. The school had been an innovator. Our small school sits in the heart of Hackney Central close to the beautiful outdoor space of Hackney Downs and the vibrant local areas of Clapton Ponds and Stoke Newington. The Police insistence that they be allowed to present to children these parts of the curriculum has an ulterior motive of control and intelligence gathering. Pupils or their parents are able to claim free school meals if they Only later did they contact his mother. This property comes under Hackney local authority/council with C council tax band and total council tax charges are 1,344 per year. Many thanks to thedonor, who kindly scanned in their copy and emailed it to me. Professor Barbers claims are based on loaded Government statistics of the cubic capacity of classrooms. Hackney Downs in fact took the most impoverished children in the most impoverished borough in England. 1 History. Secondly, police officers have no special expertise on the cases of the crimes and offences they deal with. At the time of writing this pamphlet, the Hackney newspapers have been full of praise for a young constable who injured his back after falling through the roof of a local mortuary chasing a suspect. Typeset by Breadn Roses, 2 St Pauls Road, London N1. Travelling by rail from central London: Our nearest overground station, Turkey Street, is a 10-minute walk from the school and stops at Seven Sisters, Stoke Newington, and Hackney Downs on the way to Liverpool Street. The figures In fact, one of the EA team acknowledged that he himself would have been unable to do any better. This now extends to disco dancing, five a side football, the showing of police films and free lectures on child develop-ment and animal appreciation! Britains educational apartheid will continue until there is true equality of opportunity. How could we improve this service? Ark John Keats is part of Ark Schools, a hugely successful network serving pupils from deprived communities. The school was confident of moving forward. And it produced international sports champions like Dalton Grant and Eric Bristow. Others include the wrongful arrest and assault on the White family who got over 50,000 compensation and the wrongful arrest of Newton Rose for murder. The police then harassed the whole school over a long period surveillance by phone-tapping, interfering with mail, police stake-outs of the school and helicopter observation of the playground. England service are consistent. Teacher strikes: Will there be more walkouts in the summer? Find stops or routes nearby. In their description they referred to a part of town where they claimed the council had a special squad whose job it was to clean out filthy council houses. They realised that if the police could not get into the schools then they would have to get the schools to come to them. The front elevation and entrance, with debris heaped up in the playground, after the school was bombed. Things came to a head in the 1990s, when the school made national news by being described by the then Conservative government as the 'worst school in Britain'. In the event, the school to which the Hasbudak children went, William Patten, in Hackney, took the side of the Hasbudaks as part of the school and ILEAs anti-racist policy. In the Jamaican, he informs us,you have a people who are constitutionally disposed to be anti-authority., (quoted Daily Mirror 30/6/82). Hackney Downs School, London, 1941. The school has been denied a permanent head since 1992, although the leadership of the current acting headteacher has been commended by OFSTED and HMIs. The police remain their own judge and jury they are not accountable. In one school the police got from the school the names and addresses of all the black boys in the first year. For example, in Edith Cavell School a boy was accused of the theft of a wallet and the police were involved in the investigation without the childs mother, his only parent, being informed. As the researchers noted, the police exhibited a level of emotional reaction that would make it very difficult for any teenagers who might subsequently become child-abusing parents to face up to the problem effectively. Despite Michael Barbers professed concern for the pupils his recommendation to close at Christmas shows little understanding for pupils in the final few months before GCSEs when they need continuity of teachers, exam boards, and environment. A letter from T.Hurley of the Hackney Police Monitoring Group to the Hackney Gazette describes the incident: At approximately 9pm many Hackney residents will have witnessed a helicopter flying over their rooftops, spinning round in circles and making a hell of a noise. It was an historic victory. Beware the hundreds of other schools similarly labelled . It was ill-served by those who blamed it for the problems of its desperately difficult intake and who allowed its buildings to fall into squalor. This was estimated at about Pounds 250,000 over the next two years until the school had reached viability under formula funding. National Rail services are also a 10-minute walk and stop at Tottenham Hale and Hackney Downs before finishing at Liverpool Street. A teacher from Hackney Downs School witnessed twelve and thirteen year old boys in their lunch-hour being stopped, spreadeagled and searched, in their school uniforms, by an SPG squad. I will not forget that he was murdered by an unnamed policeman who may still be a member of the Police force.. The P.S.I. Hackney Local Offer Information relating to special educational needs and disabilities in Hackney can be found on the Hackney Local Offer website. It was left to Hackney Schools Support Centre to point out that schools hadnt broken up for half term it was absurd to blame children for increased crime. History [ edit] This section does not cite any sources. It has been replaced by the Mossbourne Community Academy. Newcome's or Hackney school came to be the largest and most fashionable of all 18th-century private schools. Betty Knight was awarded nearly 70,000 in | 67 comments on LinkedIn Maria Rooney on LinkedIn: Black teacher accused of 'playing the race card' awarded 70k compensation | 67 comments This history is not an excuse but an explanation. Learn how your comment data is processed. The school was labelled a failure and since failure is unacceptable, it must close. The closure was not sympathetic euthanasia but premeditated murder by the Government with an instrument of its own creation . Horror stories of muggings and rape (largely carried out by black youth), vandalism and drug addiction (the afflictions of the white working class) regularly appear in the press. The Grocers' Company School, later known as Hackney Downs Grammar School, was established as a middle-class day school for boys in 1876. If teachers behaved and expressed themselves in the same manner as the police, they would be sacked and expelled from their union. Our beautiful building creates an environment like no other. It is a matter of considerable concern that police should have any dealings at all with children that age, and incredible that a Headteacher did not feel able to tackle the problem herself. The age range that the establishment is legally allowed to make provision for. It is time for some joined-up thinking on inner city education.Maureen O'ConnorOxford, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. Instead, it had a freeze on recruitment of Year 7 for two years and no midterm entrants for the last year; a block on appointing a permanent head and finally in October 1994, came the proposal to close the school. If you would. All the talk of conservatism in refusing to change, of rent-a-mobs, raucous and hollow opposition to closure is a pathetic smokescreen to disguise the fact that the schools proposals for the future did accept the need for change and did outline a route to recovery . from the schools, pupils and their characteristics statistical release published each summer. First of all, the police are not disinterested parties. Hackney Downs School was an 11-16 boys, community comprehensive secondary school in Lower Clapton, Greater London, England. In early 1984, the police tried a new tactic in Hackney. Michael Caine British, Actor Overview:Sir Michael Caine CBE (born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite Jr., 14 March 1933) is an English actor. HACKNEY TEACHERS ASSOCIATION, HACKNEY NUT PRESS STATEMENT ON POLICE IN SCHOOLS, After the death of Blair Peach in 1979 the association was so disturbed by the Metropolitan Police cover-up of his murder that we resolved that we did not want the Police in our schools. This was a quite definite effect, whatever one may think of the validity of those opinions. National Rail services are also a 10-minute walk and stop at Tottenham Hale and Hackney Downs before finishing at Liverpool Street. It has been replaced by the Mossbourne Community Academy. Its action plan provided the basis for full recovery. In this way whole sections of the community will be sending a clear message to the police that they will not have our consent to come into our schools and that they must become accountable. There is something of a stalemate between the police and schools in Hackney. It was established in 1876 and closed in 1995. This demeaning situation would never have occurred if the mother had been informed prior to the police being called in and if the schools had an open record policy. No one denies the need for a subsidy. Another said it had been a defeat although I managed to hit a nigger in the head. But it needs to be stressed that the panels will bring more young people than ever into contact with the criminal justice system, on the basis of police evidence, and that they provide the opportunity for the cross-classifying of information on young people by all the various institutions involved. The freedom with which police enter school premises staff rarely know when or why they are there and, unfortunately, few staff feel free to challenge their presence. The researchers distributed detailed questionnaires to the children who had been visited and to a large number of children who had not. The Hackney Reading Centre, a place where adults came for literacy classes, ran from the mid-1970s to the 1990s in a small room at the top of the Centerprise building. Was this massive operation, all at the ratepayers expense, justified in the fight against crime? The Scarman report on Brixton called for the Police to outlaw racist practice and behaviour in the police force. Average salary for Havant & South Downs College Learning Manager in Carshalton, England: [salary]. Their parents were served with a deportation order. report found that 70% of West Indians in vehicles were stopped and searched without sufficient reason, compared with 49% of Whites and 29% of Asians. It notes that on the protest march following the Deptford fire racist comments abounded: some described the march as hundreds of rampaging niggers. By and large the attitudes of all the teenagers interviewed (those who had not been visited by the police in school as well as those who had) were favourable to the police, and the schools were open and friendly to the police. On one occasion the children were invited out into the playground to inspect a police car, but the main focus of the activity was in the classroom. Barber says the few who wanted to keep the school open were united in an alliance for inadequacy. As teachers and trade unionists we find ourselves unable to accept the level of racism found throughout the Metropolitan Police. It was established in 1876 and closed in 1995. Such events have typified police behaviour for years. On his way back to the coach, long after any confrontation had finished, he was set upon by a group of policemen dressed in full riot gear who beat him up and left him unconscious on the ground. It has become commonplace to associate young people, especially young black people, with crime, to stereotype them as criminals and delinquents, and to blame all sorts of evil upon them. Save up to 30% when you upgrade to an image pack. These films or slides would then be used as a basis for discussion with the pupils about the topics concerned. Amhurst Terrace, E8 2BT London, UK But we feel that small children are quite capable of understanding the dual role of the Police: the lifeline and the racist. A minimum set of information needs to be provided before a record can be saved. Hackney Downs was founded as the Grocers Company School in 1876. from the schools, pupils and their characteristics statistical release published each summer. I have just spent three years working on a book with the last head and deputy of Hackney Downs School which closed at the end of 1995, pilloried by the then government, its education association . the percentage of those who are eligible to receive them. receive a qualifying benefit. But Professor Barber goes further and swallows wholesale Government assertions about surplus places, claiming that even after the closure of Hackney Downs there will be 1,700 spare places in the boroughs secondary schools. (A response from a Hackney policeman is included at the end of the pamphlet). The policy is one of protest and non-cooperation and raises in sharp focus the racism of the Police. The report found the search, without another adult present, was unjustified and. Our outstanding curriculum is built around 'The City Experience' which . Salary: Ark MPS or UPS (Outer London) 33,209- 44,274 or 46,477- 49,981, depending on experience. They also laid on displays by the Police Cadet Adventure Training Unit, the First Aid section and organised a game for visiting school children to play Sherlock Holmes in a specially constructed Serious Crime scene. https://www.tes.com/magazine/archive/murder-hackney-downs. Most schools welcome and encourage this informal contact and may ask home-beat officers or juvenile bureau officers to have an unofficial word with pupils or their parents, about whom they feel anxiety in relation to criminal activity.. So where does Hackney Downs School fit into this process? In fact, multi-agency policing was fully put into practice as a response to the 81 uprisings and in the knowledge that the protest of black and inner city youth needed to be controlled and quelled. The children who had been visited thought the police force should be strengthened and supported and that laws and penalties should be made tougher. some staff members may have sympathised with the views, if not the methods used by the attackers This event seemed a bit of a mystery until we realised that police from Stoke Newington were amongst those who had been drafted to the picket. Or register to get 2 articles free per month. It is vital for us to get our message home we are not against policing: we are against drunken policing, racistpolicing and corrupt policing. The pamphlet reproduced below explains why. In 1979 the Hackney branch of the National Union of teachers (HTA) started a policy of non-co-operation with the police. "Grocers" was an imposing Gothic building wedged between two railway lines feeding into the commercial heart of the City. Printed by Community Press, 2a St Pauls Road, London N1. The intimidating atmosphere that police can produce in a school, both for children and staff. The boy was innocent. Its closure was described in a TES editorial ( 1 December 1995 behind paywall) as 'not sympathetic euthanasia but premeditated murder by the Government.' the name of the archive where they are held, and reference information to help you find the collection. This is most instructive. In our opinion, it is quite out of order that the police should have such direct access to information about children without their parents being aware of it, and it is outrageous that a boy can be picked up by the police in this way without his parents being made aware of it prior to the event. the annual spring school census. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders. Former high jumper and Board Director of London 2012 Olympics Bid Team Dalton Grant attended Hackney Downs School in the 80s. For example, the essays written by trainees were typified by such passages as,Quite frankly I dont particularly have any liking whatsoever for Wogs, nig nogs and Pakies. Our policy was reaffirmed again after the release of the racist crime figures last March by the Metropolitan Police. It is a slur on teachers and educational reformers to say that failure has been tolerated since the mid-19th century. Teachers are supposed to take the place of parents when children are in school. St Pauls Place, Norfolk Street, Sheffield, S1 2JE. A Turkish family, the Hasbudaks, have recently been deported. Another said it has been a defeat although I managed to hit a nigger in the mouth: Colin Roach, the 21 year old black man found dead in Stoke Newington Police Station on 19th January 1983 killed himself, a jury decided in June (Majority verdict 8 to 2). from 1851. a.a. 1850: 70 B and 80 G, taught on separate evgs. This field is not editable by establishment users as it is populated by the DfE using the underlying data There was a smattering of strikes by students in schools across the country at the time, inspired by the student unrest of the late 1960s and counter-cultural publications such as 'The Little Red School Book.'