Eventually the police presence around the mortuary seemed to ease, but at approximately 11 pm their presence escalated yet again. Although this is no more than the financial cushioning promised (but later denied) to the governing body for the non-attendance of Year 7 arising out of the application to go co-educational. In December 1825 the first attempt at etching by Stuart Howlings, aged 14, a plan of the school and grounds, was printed, and in the British Library's copy this drawing was coloured by hand, which makes The Hazelwood Magazine also the first school magazine to have colour illustrations. Hackney Downs School was an 1116 boys, community comprehensive secondary school in Lower Clapton, Greater London, England. The staff of the condemned east London comprehensive argue that it was killed off despite showing clear signs of recovery. West Indian youth figure high in the those-to-be-stopped group. A previous post on this blog looked at some responses to this publication in Police Review and by a Hackney MP in Parliament. It has been replaced by the Mossbourne Community Academy. Another said it had been a defeat although I managed to hit a nigger in the head. The cheapest way to get from East India DLR Station to Hackney Downs School costs only 6, and the quickest way takes just 11 mins. The Old Boys of Hackney Downs continue their interactions as alumni through the Clove Club, which meets regularly, has its own website, and sponsors an email group called The Clove eGroup (on Yahoo), and featured on The Clove Club website.[1]. 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. will help. . and articles by former pupils, members of the Clove Club, Old Boys Association This record is held by Hackney Archives See contact details; Details of 2013/23; Reference: 2013/23 . some staff members may have sympathised with the views, if not the methods used by the attackers At the national level, the schools inspectorate carried out a survey of policing in schools and published their findings in a report called Police Liaison with the Education Service. In the same way, the police are becoming increasingly active in the harassment and deportation of large numbers of black people. They have produced extensive documents in support of their policy and asked all schools to actively implement it. It notes that on the protest march following the Deptford fire, for example. Your 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. And that information is likely to end up stored on a police computer. racist comments abounded: someone described the march as hundreds of rampaging niggers. A number of recent studies have lent support to this policy. 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 verdict was dismissed by the Roach family and their supporters. The education associations own verdict was that there were some excellent lessons, a majority were satisfactory and a few were poor. There is not much sign that anything very much is changing. During the course of the investigation the head told his mother that they could not give her any details of the police investigation as the police had instructed them not to. Hackney Downs was a victim of its own success. 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. privacy policy, GB/NNAF/C58082 (Former ISAAR ref: GB/NNAF/O34534 ), Grocers' Company's School (Formerly known as). This includes education, health, leisure and social care. 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. They are, by nature, unintelligent and cant at all be educated sufficiently to live in a civilised society of the Western world. Teachers are supposed to take the place of parents when children are in school. I should warn readers that the text and images below include some examples of the polices racist language and racist behaviour. They said these behaviour patterns were beyond the remit of sustained and reasonable efforts of the staff. The P.S.I. Many thanks to thedonor, who kindly scanned in their copy and emailed it to me. Last year there were 918 deportations. However, in their policy, they have nothing to say about the police. A further factor cited as essential for turning a school around is a close working relationship between school and parents. from the schools, pupils and their characteristics statistical release published each summer. The misnamed report The Future of Hackney Downs School shows a failure of imagination and a failure of nerve. Professor Barbers claims are based on loaded Government statistics of the cubic capacity of classrooms. from the schools, pupils and their characteristics statistical release published each summer. Apply to School jobs now hiring in Hackney Downs on Indeed.com, the worlds largest job site. Hackney Downs School was an 11-16 boys, community comprehensive secondary school in Lower Clapton, Greater London, England. Published by Hackney Teachers Association (NUT) 23 Walford Road, London N16 No one would deny the school had problems. Shop-keepers were warned by police to be on their guard against pickpockets; local residents were told burglaries and muggings were up. Following a series of 'failing' inspection reports, the school was placed under the control of an Education Association appointed by the Local Education Authority in June 1995. In fact, one of the EA team acknowledged that he himself would have been unable to do any better. Save up to 30% when you upgrade to an image pack. At such a display the police will gloss over the fact that they only have a 12% clean up rate for crime in Hackney. The jurors said they were deeply distressed by police behaviour. Average salary for Havant & South Downs College Business Teacher in Woodham Ferrers, England: [salary]. The school was not complacent. Schools cannot compensate for the problems of society. In 1979 the Hackney branch of the National Union of teachers (HTA) started a policy of non-co-operation with the police. Teachers who tried to stop it were told not to interfere and to mind their own business. In one notorious incident in March 1981 the police responded to a hoax 999 call from a North London School in Archway by arriving with five police cars, a helicopter and a dog van and meting racial abuse and violence on black children. Year 9 Cricket on Hackney Downs. This was rejected both by the police and the government. Or register to get 2 articles free per month. By early May 1000 people had been arrested as a result of demonstrations organised by the Roach Family Support Committee, including James Roach (Colins father) who was arrested in March but acquitted in May. During the 1980s Hackney Downs School had been above average or average in the Inner London Education Authority exam rankings. Location: Enfield - easily accessible from central, north and east London, as well as surrounding areas. 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. used are the performance table figures which ensures GIAS and the Find and Compare Schools in England In fact in common law teachers are in loco parentis. They also asked for descriptions. Once the school NUT union group has voted on the policy it should be taken to a full staff meeting, the parents and Governors and, in secondary schools, to the school students for endorsement. No other had such disproportionately high numbers of children with special needs, educational and behavioural problems and second language needs. Select from premium Hackney Downs of the highest quality. 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. Two current members of the House of Lords are former pupils: (Lord Levy and Lord Clinton-Davis). Its action plan provided the basis for full recovery. 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. Find the travel option that best suits you. Downs Park Road, Clapton, London, E5 8NP Local authority Hackney (204) Headteacher / Principal Age range 11 to 16 Phase of education Secondary School type Community school Gender of entry. It was closed by the Government in 1995. We'd also like to use analytics cookies so we can understand how you use the service and make improvements. (Published by Cassell, 1999), Newspaper articles about the school and the book (including letters exchanged in the TES between Michael Barber and Sally Tomlinson), Letters from B G Bass (member of Education Association), John Kemp (former Head), Tony Burgess (Chair of Governors) and other staff related to Hackney Downs. Search for another station. 01-354 0557 document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. RHH] Group, the Intelligence Gathering Unit and all the other branches which exist to make life a misery for the people of Hackney. The opinion of the press is unsurprising given its relationship with the Government but claiming the support of the silent majority is a classic desperate last resort. 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 . Find the travel option that best suits you. In the Jamaican, he informs us,you have a people who are constitutionally disposed to be anti-authority., (quoted Daily Mirror 30/6/82). 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 . If they are to do that job properly, then, under present circumstances, they have to protect children from the police, and they have to make sure that any contact which children do have with the police takes place only when absolutely necessary and with full and prior knowledge of the childrens parents or guardians. Every year there are more and more. Home-beat officers drop in at school during break-time for a chat with pupils or teachers. This information will help us make improvements to the website. It was an historic victory. 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. We say that if the Police will not take on their own racism Hackney teachers should have nothing to do with them. Our secondary school is oversubscribed, with a waiting list for every year group. He arrived at the school in 1945 when theatrical studies were not yet a part of the school syllabus . 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. There could not be a neater and clearer demonstration of the rationale behind our policy on the police the best thing the police can do to improve their image and increase respect for law and order is to change their own behaviour. Subscribe now for regular news, updates and priority booking for events, All content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0, except where otherwise stated, 1862-1907: governors' minutes, letter books, financial records, register of scholarships, London Metropolitan Archives: City of London, 1876-1970: headmaster's journals, administrative records, pupils' records, societies' records and photographs, 2007-2013: obituaries and articles by former pupils, members of the Clove Club, Old Boys Association, c1920: photographs of pupils and teachers, About our The figures Michael Barber conveniently ignores this history when he asserts that other schools had a similarly disadvantaged intake and problems. But it had started to rise again and in 1993 reached 471 not far short of the local management of schools viability criterion. Change), You are commenting using your Facebook account. One Headmaster of a local Primary School was invited two Christmases ago by the community relations department of the local police force to a Christmas party. 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. This year the ILEA had produced an anti-racist policy. It is a remarkable document which makes a compelling case for what seems on the surface like a militant demand. 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 site of the old school is now occupied by Mossbourne Community Academy, founded by Sir Clive Bourne, which opened in 2004. 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. I will not forget that he was murdered by an unnamed policeman who may still be a member of the Police force.. We cannot accept that the police have any legitimate role in our schools. It is a pity that the lecturer who exposed this, John Fernandez, did not get the support of his national union, NATFHE, and as a result lost his job. So, in the light of this, what is the attitude of the authorities, both in the Department of Education and Science, and in the Inner London Education Authority, to the question of police in schools? These, together with Government insistence that the problem is not large classes but poor teaching, are a travesty of the real situation. But we feel that small children are quite capable of understanding the dual role of the Police: the lifeline and the racist. Artist:. We all want higher standards for our children, no one more than the ex-Hackney Downs teachers I have met, most of whom have moved on to successful careers elsewhere. Racist language was even used in radio messages. The figures used are the performance table figures which ensures GIAS and the Find and Compare Schools in This claim has only been made recently. The school had 600 boys with a sixth-form entry by the early 1970s. The follow-up inspection noted numerous areas of improvement and by June this year we had convinced the LEA to reverse its closure decision. Hackney Downs School This page summarises records created by this Organisation The summary includes a brief description of the collection (s) (usually including the covering dates of the. victims were treated with suspicion No less than 52 of the students had been stopped and searched by the police in the streets and the majority of them had found the police threatening and rude. It was initially a boys grammar school but became a comprehensive school in September 1974. The list People educated at Hackney Downs Schoolincludes The list consists of 39 members. The school was labelled a failure and since failure is unacceptable, it must close. Eventually, as a result of direct government pressure, the school was forced to close in 1995. Its contents suggest the six-person hit squad swallowed Government propaganda on surplus places and were given a heavy briefing along the lines of dont support the school if its not financially viable. English playwright, actor and theatre director, Community school in Lower Clapton, Greater London, United States Army personnel of World War II, People with acquired American citizenship, L'cole Internationale de Thtre Jacques Lecoq alumni, English people of Romanian-Jewish descent, 20th-century English dramatists and playwrights, Best British Screenplay BAFTA Award winners, Professional Darts Corporation Hall of Fame, Professional Darts Corporation founding players, I'm a CelebrityGet Me Out of Here! Hackney Downs in fact took the most impoverished children in the most impoverished borough in England. Recently, an article appeared in the Hackney Gazette blaming a mini-crime wave on the break up of schools for half term. As a consequence of taking such a stand, teachers themselves have been subjected to police attention. Hackney Downs Grammar School: Hackney Downs Boys' School, also known as the Grocers' School, was established by the Grocers' Company in 1873, and declared open in 1876. He missed his coach back to London and when he eventually got back by train, had to spend two days in hospital. It voted to become comprehensive in 1969,[clarification needed] and in September it became a comprehensive school. Last year the senior Inspector for Race Relations for the Metropolitan Police Force had to resign because he made what he referred to as a slip of the tongue and referred to black people at an annual police conference as nig nogs. Help with number of pupils eligible for free school meals field, Help with percentage of children eligible for free school meals field, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/data-protection-and-privacy-privacy-notices (opens in new tab). 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 school had been an innovator. It was established in 1876 and closed in 1995. 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. Buy Hackney Downs: The School That Dared to Fight New by O'Connor, M., etc., Tomlinson, Sally, Hales, Elizabeth, Davies, Jeff (ISBN: 9780304707102) from Amazon's Book Store. If you would. Over a two to three-year period, it could regain pupil numbers and at least average academic achievement. The majority of pupils do not go on to higher education. They allege obstruction, harassment. Hackney Downs was a victim of its own success. It is a slur on teachers and educational reformers to say that failure has been tolerated since the mid-19th century. https://www.tes.com/magazine/archive/murder-hackney-downs. About 1.5 million stops are made each year, but only about1 in 12 leads to the detection of an offence. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. 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. Contents. 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. Cushioning of staff numbers would have subsided as pupil numbers rose. The closure was not sympathetic euthanasia but premeditated murder by the Government with an instrument of its own creation . After the boy was cleared, his mother spent a long time trying to establish, with the greatest difficulty, that no reference to the disproven allegations existed either on his school record or in any police record. ParentPay Welcome Video Admissions Contact us Next Previous In 1979 the Hackney branch of the National Union of Teachers (HTA) started a policy of non-co-operation with the police. As the last long-serving teacher and headmaster of Hackney Downs School, John Kemp saw its successful transition from grammar to comprehensive school and then fought a losing battle to hold. Young people are increasingly coming to be seen as a problem, to be controlled and managed by the police, and the wider state apparatus; they are being criminalised. 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. Former high jumper and Board Director of London 2012 Olympics Bid Team Dalton Grant attended Hackney Downs School in the 80s. As if to underline this fact, in October of 1984 this same police station went to the same school because a black child there had been behaving in a disruptive way. Other Similar Properties Check other properties in the same postcode E9 5SW, sector E9 5 or district E9 Check other properties in the same street Hassett Road; 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. teachers; also industrial class of 10 G. . No other school faced a closure threat. Such events have typified police behaviour for years. In 2002, the borough entered into a ten-year contract with the Learning Trust, an independent collaborative body that organises education for Hackney's 27,000 pupils in over 70 schools, nurseries and play centres. For example, the Policy Studies Institute report on the Metropolitan Police dramatically underlines what has been going wrong with the police. Even Lord Scarmans recommendations for an independent complaints procedure were rejected by the Home Office and the Police Federation. (LogOut/ We believe excellence is achieved through three key ingredients: clear structures, high expectations and strong relationships. 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. Parents and staff, governors and borough council shared that view. Recently some black school girls were arrested on a bus in school time and were not allowed to see their teacher. Secondly, police officers have no special expertise on the cases of the crimes and offences they deal with. The immediate cause of this was the murder of a teacher, Blair Peach, by the police while he was on an anti-racist demonstration. Apply to School Catering jobs now hiring in London on Indeed.com, the worlds largest job site. on many occasions housing officers would refuse to take action because they believed Bengalis were dishonestly trying to get a transfer. HACKNEY TEACHERS ASSOCIATION NUT 23rd July 1982. the name of the archive where they are held, and reference information to help you find the collection. The cheapest way to get from Hackney Downs School to Epping costs only 4, and the quickest way takes just 27 mins. An official history of the school was published by the Clove Club in 1972. One eye-witness, deeply disturbed by the racist remarks being made, made a complaint there and then. As one of the country's first academies, located in a borough with wide-spread educational underachievement, it was an attempt to re-imagine what inner-city, non-selective education could . In Hackney we have had direct experience of this. (British TV series) participants, Members of the Fabian Society Executive Committee, People educated at Belle Vue Boys' Grammar School, Bradford, International opponents of apartheid in South Africa. The causes of baby-battering are complex and an important part of teaching on the subject should presumably be directed at offering help to students who might find themselves in stressful situations with young children in future lives and who would need help. Sadly the end of last year was a sad time with the news that three former teachers of the school had passed away: Basil Dowling, English (see page 3); Ione Hoskins, Commerce and Irene Munn (56-65 . 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 early 1990s were a more troubled period. Hillingdon is a fairly settled suburb in the stockbrokers belt with a low rate of unemployment (just 6.1%) and social stress and a mainly white population. the annual spring school census. The final report of the GLC Police Committee panel of enquiry into racial harassment on local authority housing estates states that: attacks were not taken seriously Teachers in many Hackney schools have operated our policy for a number of years. The police visits did increase the students respect for the police as an institution and strengthened their views on law and order. Hackney Downs School, London, 1941. The idea is that the police will present information to the panels, who will then decide whether to prosecute youths under 17 years old. The front elevation and entrance, with debris heaped up in the playground, after the school was bombed. The EA also hired three HMIs. Copyright 2023 Tes Global Ltd is registered in England (Company No 02017289) with its registered office at Building 3, Mossbourne Community Academy . The boy was innocent. However, as long as the police continue to behave in the ways we have illustrated in this pamphlet we will refuse to co-operate with them, and this includes opposing all their cosmetic exercises. 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.. Find stops or routes nearby. Find something interesting to watch in seconds. 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 police use every possible opportunity to make their presence felt in the schools and, it has to be admitted, wherever the NUT are not actively enforcing their policy, the police take the opportunity to come into the schools. Juvenile Liaison Schemes are being set up all over London. As many children have experienced the more worrying aspects of Police activity either directly or via elder brothers and sisters*. They must start by tackling racism in the force. In early 1984, the police tried a new tactic in Hackney. What crude logic! Typeset by Breadn Roses, 2 St Pauls Road, London N1. This collection is not catalogued. YouTube Encyclopedic 1/4 Views: 1 770 876 33 591 360 You can read two more articles on Tes for free this month if you register using the button below. View details of linked establishments. The ILEA and the NUT have made racist discrimination and remarks by any teacher disciplinable, both under the staff code and union rules. recalls when Centerprise started publishing poetry and autobiographical works by local school children: 'The teachers from Hackney Downs and all the other schools just fell .