Astrea Academy Sheffield: Parents' fury over 'prison camp' detention system they say has left pupils suicidal

They claim the hardline approach to discipline at Astrea Academy Sheffield, on Andover Street, in Burngreave, is damaging pupils' mental health so badly that many come home crying every day and some have been left feeling suicidal. The Star has spoken to around a dozen mums whose children attend the school, none of whom wished to be named but all of whom said that students are being unfairly punished for the most minor indiscretions, often when they are blameless.

Simply turning around when you hear a noise can earn you a 'negative', two of which will land you with a 45-minute detention, they say, while four 'negatives' means a 90-minute detention and a whole day in isolation. Talking in the corridor, asking to go to the toilet and even failing to put your hand up high enough were among the reasons parents said their children had been given ‘negatives’. One mum told how her child has diabetes and was punished for turning around in the dining hall to seek help from a friend when her blood sugar level dropped.

What have parents at Astrea Academy said about the impact of ‘negatives’ on their children?

One parent said: “My son’s gone from being a happy kid three years ago when he joined the school to the most depressed, sad kid I’ve ever seen. He said to his older brother that he felt like killing himself.” She told how she had been ‘embarrassed’ to mention this at a public meeting in October, attended by numerous parents, but when she did so her comments were ‘echoed’ by almost everyone in the room.

Another mother described how her daughter ‘goes to school crying and comes home crying every day’, and a third said: “My daughter’s told me that she doesn’t want to go to school, she wants to move school. She was crying. She’s changed, she has so much stress and anxiety.”

One parent shared a heartrending letter written by her daughter, who is in year seven, which she said had been shared with Ofsted. In it, the pupil writes: “If you value, the sanity and mental health of your child please do not send your child to this school. I cannot stress enough about how much you need to avoid attending this school if the rules are going to continue. I feel like this school is like a jail, and for me and others we feel like we are being pressured and miserable attending.”

When they have raised their concerns with staff, parents claim they have been ignored, with one even saying she was told ‘we’re not forcing you to keep your child here’. Several parents told how they would love to take their child out of Astrea but there is nowhere else to send them.

‘Up to 200 pupils a day in detention’

A number of parents told how they felt awful that they had initially dismissed their children’s complaints, assuming they had been fairly punished by teachers for misbehaving, only to speak to other parents and hear the same story ‘again and again’. They said they could understand the school’s approach if it was a few ‘naughty’ children finding themselves frequently in detention, but between 50 and 200 children each day were typically kept back after school. “We want discipline and rules for our children but this feels like a prison camp,” said one mum.

Although the school also gives pupils ‘positives’ for good behaviour, the parents said there was much greater emphasis placed on the ‘negatives’. Astrea Academy Sheffield opened in September 2018 and parents said the ‘negative’ system had been in place from the start but had been made even stricter this year, with the number of ‘negatives’ required for a detention reduced from five to two.

Astrea Academy Sheffield, which is an all-through school, catering for children aged between two and 18, has yet to be inspected by the education watchdog Ofsted, with which some parents said they had raised their concerns. A spokeswoman for Ofsted said: “Ofsted does not comment on or confirm whether we have received complaints about an individual school. However, we always take any concerns shared with us seriously and carefully consider what action we may need to take.”

Astrea Academy Sheffield said the vast majority of points awarded to its students were for ‘positive reasons’, and it encouraged parents to raise any concerns directly.

What has Astrea Academy Sheffield said about parents’ concerns?

A spokesperson for the school said: “At Astrea Academy Sheffield we have high expectations for all scholars. We maximise learning time and ensure a calm, safe and purposeful environment, where all our scholars can learn and all our teachers can teach, free from disruption. Since September 80 per cent of points awarded have been for positive reasons.

“The partnership between us, our scholars and their families is essential. We communicate weekly with our parents and carers through a newsletter which shares any key information and updates. There is an open invitation for all families to book to come into school on any day of the week between 9am and 10am where they will receive a guided tour and get to see learning in action.

“We were not invited to the recent meeting and were only made aware of this afterwards. We have received no concerns following this meeting. We have made contact with Councillor Dawn Dale to invite her to visit the academy for a tour and a date is confirmed for this half term. We encourage parents to raise any concerns with us directly so we can address these on an individual basis.”