*** 12th October news - 'A Decade Of Extraordinary Self-Service'

Yesterday the College published on its website news of the Headmaster leaving "A Decade Of extraordinary service". This attempted hagiography is beyond even Bradfield's spin doctors with the only identified 'positives' being that he's grown pupil numbers for 10 years. So what has he achieved in that decade:

1. Bradfield is not in the top 100 private schools for A Level results   https://www.topschoolguide.com/uk/league-tables/all-schools/top-100-schools-for-a-levels/
2. It does make it to 97th for the smaller group of Boarding Schools https://ukuni.net/articles/top-uk-100-boarding-schools-levels-results
3. The one list where Bradfield does almost make the top 10 is the list of the most expensive private schools
4. 2 damning independent tribunals and an independent report that laid bare a decade of failure

When one reads the Bradfield article the juxtaposition between the Headmasters personal career gains and those of the College are stark hence our more appropriate  title for the Headmaster article: 'An Extraordinary Decade Of Self-Service'

*** 7th October news - The Headmaster has finally 'resigned'

We are sure the College will say nothing at all to do with the current events. Anyone who has seen the reports referenced below, however, will have a different view. It is unclear at the moment who else will be 'resigning' but the Warden, Deputy Warden and entire board of Governors have questions to answer and will need to explain why they have consistently blindly backed the Headmaster and ignored parental complaints.  Daily we receive messages all of which have a disturbing similarity....complaints not listened to, feeling belittled and completely ignored. It is unfortunate that Bradfield will be saddled with a lame duck headmaster for another 9 months at the very moment  when change is most required. The governors need to act in the interest of the children not prioritise optics and, in the interim, word reaches us that the level of discontent amongst the teaching faculty is significantly increasing.

These are the governors https://www.bradfieldcollege.org.uk/about/governors/

Background:

In the 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 academic years Bradfield College failed in its teaching of key academic subjects to such an extent that there were substantial complaints. Dr Chris Stevens (current Headmaster) has repeatedly claimed to parents that he had investigated and there had been no  issues. Since June 2023 the Headmaster continued to assure parents that 'there was nothing to see here" despite being fully aware of  a damning internal Independent Report: the 'Gerard Evans' report. This report was commissioned on 31st May 2023 from Gerard Evans, an independent educational consultant https://www.linkedin.com/in/gerard-evans-3a8323184/?originalSubdomain=uk

There have subsequently been 2 Independent tribunals which have heavily criticised the College and Headmaster.

Some Excerpts From The Gerard Evans June 2023 Report:

• "How can it be that an experienced teacher and, what is more a Head Of Department, made  mistakes of this kind and that it was only at the end of the course, indeed on the very last day of teaching that the error came to light?"
• "The Department was flagged as being very low on added value and was therefore flagged as a concern"
• "The monitoring systems in place are not sufficiently robust"
• "Where a Department does not reach the expected standards the follow-up is not sufficiently rigorous"
• "The College needs to revise its current practice"
• And most worryingly as highlights systemic issue not a 'one-off'...."No follow-up on this <the now admitted failed academic department> as I understand from ELW <Liz Wells, Deputy Head Academic> that there were other HoDs <Heads of Department> who caused her more concern"
• "The strong impression I gained from talking to pupils, however, was that they had no sense of what aspects of the course they were due to cover and by when"
• "When a teacher cannot take a class for any reason, they should ensure that the pupils concerned have some work to do"
• "I urge the College to give further thought to how pupils can raise concerns about their teaching (or indeed any other aspect of their education)"

Some Quotes From The 2 Separate Independent Tribunals That Have Criticised Bradfield:

• Re the Headmaster "If I were in his position I'd be beating myself up" - Ralph Townsend Chair of Tribunal
• "It's unbelievable. There is absolutely no question as to a breakdown in professional standards" - Ralph Townsend Chair of Tribunal
• "There is no question that the governing body of the school must make sure this does not happen again. The school has let people down" - Ralph Townsend Chair of Tribunal
• "There has been a serious breakdown of <education> delivery" - Ralph Townsend Chair of Tribunal
• "We entirely support the criticisms of the school" - Ralph Townsend Chair of Tribunal
• In response to the statement "if the entire parent base were aware of the contents of the Independent report you wouldn't have anyone signing up to come here" the chair of the panel replied "Yes and I think the Warden is entirely aware of that"
• Referencing the Gerard Evans report "We were astonished when we read it" - Ralph Townsend Chair of Tribunal
• In response to the comment that the Headmaster tried to intimidate a female parent and claimed the issues were "too technical" for her to understand. both Jo (Current Governor) and Ralph Townsend said they believed  this to be a true statement
• "There is so much, so much that is wrong about this situation" - Ralph Townsend Chair of Tribunal
• "The school has got a problem and has to deal with it" - Ralph Townsend Chair of Tribunal
• "We need to impress upon the Warden what serious hurt and damage has been done" - Ralph Townsend Chair of Tribunal

Link to profile of  the highly respected Tribunal Chair Ralph Townsend: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Townsend_(headmaster)

Latest  Update:

• On Thursday 5th September Bradfield lost another independent tribunal to another parent
• Multiple serious complaints against the Headmaster and College have now been upheld
• Bradfield are using their lawyers to continually request new data as a way of delaying the  High Court proceedings. It is telling, however, that they know they can't refute the fact that both the Headmaster and the College have had serious complaints against them proven by two Independent Tribunals

More and more prospective parents have been in touch expressing concern about the College's reputation and leadership, if you have concerns we encourage you to make contact with the governors, details here:

https://www.bradfieldcollege.org.uk/about/governors/

In response to what is now a large number of requests from current parents with ongoing issues with Bradfield here is a link to the Bradfield College complaints procedure: 

https://www.bradfieldcollege.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Bradfield-College-Parental-Complaints-Procedure-2024.pdf

It is to be noted, however, that the behaviour of Stage 2 investigators has been found to be focused on delay and obfuscation leading to the Deputy Warden (Ian Wood-Smith) having to apologise recently when the following sequence of messages was revealed by a Subject Access Request. These messages were referring to a parent who had complained about the Headmaster and issues at the College with Ian Wood-Smith (Deputy Warden) as the College appointed Investigator.

Ian Wood-Smith to Headmaster (subject of complaint) at 06:38 referring to the parental complaint "I will shut down today, one way or another"

Ian Wood-Smith to Headmaster at 14:46 after being chased by Headmaster "I will deal with it today"

At 15:20 Ian Wood-Smith contacts the parent to say he has a personal emergency. It would be inappropriate to share details of the nature of the claimed emergency but suffice to say it sounded extremely sad and was ongoing.

At 15:27 the parent responded to Ian Wood-Smith to  express sympathy and to say that they would expect no further updates until the emergency was passed.

At 16:30 Ian Wood-Smith emails Bradfield leadership to announce "<parent> under short term control"

Out of human consideration  the parent waited 3 months (hearing nothing from Bradfield about the complaint in that time) before finding out from the Subject Access Request what had actually happened.

There are some things that it goes without saying that a parent should be able to expect from any school:

• That the correct GCSE and 'A' Level syllabuses are taught
• That academic oversight will be in place to ensure high standards of teaching
• That the school has the policies and procedures to ensure staff absences are known and appropriate cover is put in place when required 
• That, when there is a failing by the school, the focus will be on supporting the children impacted rather than self-protection with  denials, obfuscation and blaming the children
• That when there is an internal school report that clearly identifies the school has failed that parents will be told the truth and not be gaslighted with constant denials and attempts to wear them out
• That multiple independent tribunals won't find significant failures in teaching and leadership
• That the leadership team lives the school's stated values and that these values do not play 2nd place to protecting own reputation
• That the school won't be a future defendant in a High Court action where it's already had to concede substantive issues

The above would be non-negotiable for any school whether it be private or public sector. For Bradfield the above should represent just the starting point of what the school should provide in return for the large amounts parents pay.

There are, however, real concerns about the teaching quality at Bradfield College and how the leadership reacts when things go wrong. If you would like to share your own experience or learn more please contact us using the form below.

About Us:

We are a group of parents looking for accountability from the College to address systemic issues. At a time when it's increasingly challenging for hardworking parents to put their children through private education, we are looking for the very institution in which we have placed our trust to hold themselves to account for provision of a minimum set of educational expectations.