Update on resignation of Mr Smith here.
Daniel Smith, the controversial new 'tough-love' Headteacher of Pimlico Academy appointed in September and now engaged in a battle attracting national media coverage, was previously employed at the notorious Ebbsfleet Academy in North Kent for four years from September 2013, ending as Associate Principal. This was also a tough-love school, under its Principal Alison Colwell, who made the school’s approach crystal clear when she left the school in 2019, publicly blaming white working-class parents for her difficulties.
By coincidence, I also wrote about Mr Smith back in 2013 when he was an Assistant Principal at The Quest Academy in Croydon, on the occasion when he sent an email to a parent at Swan Valley School (subsequently Ebbsfleet Academy). The parent was politely questioning Swan Valley about the principle of a very restrictive home school agreement insisted on by the school, the email (excerpt reproduced below) unlawfully threatening her with the possibility of applying for a court-imposed parenting order under the Academy’s Code of Conduct if she would not sign it. The school was not even an academy at that time so could not have had such a Code of Conduct.
Mr Smith subsequently took up a post at Swan Valley, which continued the policy of threatening legal action for ‘difficult’ parents as it developed its tough-love policies. The unfortunate consequences of these are outlined in various articles, typically here, which also demonstrate that the many claims about its success were false and that confrontational leadership does not work, as is also apparent in the current drama at Pimlico. A recent letter to parents underlines the warning signs seen even before the start of the Autumn term when he took up post: 'We were suspicious when we received Daniel Smith’s new policies a week before the start of autumn term, but curious to see how they would be received. As the first isolated showers of exclusions turned into a storm, we started to get very worried….'
If Mr Smith is forced out, as seems increasingly likely, it will not be the fault of the students, but of those who mistakenly appointed him.
I have covered the misfortunes of Ebbsfleet Academy many times in this website, including one of my earliest articles written in 2013 which covers the above incident. It explains that the email was sent to the parents from the Quest Academy, copy to the head of Swan Valley, although a representative of Swan Valley confirmed to me that the school had no connection whatsoever with Quest at the time. However Mr Smith, its author, wrote about ‘our Home-school Agreement’, and indeed the Swan Valley agreement at the time appeared based on that of Quest. The email can only be described as threatening, especially the section: “These expectations closely mirror the Academy's Code of Conduct to which all students must subscribe and reflect the various legal obligations which are placed on parents by statute (for example, in relation to ensuring the children behave at school and attend regularly). Of course, in cases where parents do not support their children in meeting our expectations, the academy may ask parents to sign a parenting contract or may apply for a court-imposed parenting order”. A letter to another pupil at the time made clear that it was necessary for the Home School Agreement to be signed ‘so that your son can start the new academic year in September as planned’.
A subsequent article comments on a feature in The Times, explaining how tough-love had transformed Ebbsfleet Academy, which it had but for the worse. I also have a walk-on part in the feature after an interview with the author: ‘An educational consultant tells me parents would come to him and say, “Get our son in anywhere … Anywhere but Swan Valley.”’’ Absolutely, but I was talking about events under the transformed new culture which continued until Ms Colwell and Mr Smith had both left the school, and not the improving school they had inherited. At the foot of my article, I appended a postscript: ‘After I had briefed the parent about the legal situation, she explained the regulations to the school, as a result of which they have now conceded they cannot stop her son returning to school in September. How unnecessary it all is, when with a different approach she would have been perfectly happy to sign’. By this time Mr Smith had taken a Graduate Diploma in Law whilst at The Quest.
Mr Smith has had a rapid rise to the top. After a degree in PPE at Oxford in 2007, he immediately joined the Teach First Scheme for highfliers and was placed at Westminster Academy where, according to LinkedIn, he left three years later in 2010 as Assistant Principal, having taken an MA Degree in Political Theory in his spare time. He then moved as Assistant Principal to The Quest Academy in Croydon, where this time he gained a Diploma in Law in his spare time, no doubt encouraging him to offer legal advice. Joining Ebbsfleet Academy, in 2013 as Vice Principal, he had the time to acquire his first education qualification with an MA in Education Management. Mr Smith moved to Harris Garrard Academy in nearby Thamesmead as Principal in 2017, a school which had been placed in Special Measures shortly before he arrived, but he only stayed there for three years before moving yet again to Pimlico in September 2020. The ‘back to basics’ approach which he applied from the start without taking up any time to assess the situation, not only proved unpopular with students from a traditionally activist population, but ‘Even teachers have joined the uprising against Mr Smith, with up to 30 said to be planning to leave at the end of the year, and a vote of no confidence in him by the National Education Union last night’, as reported by Mailonline, although this is a regular supporter of tough love policies. Surely this was a car crash waiting to happen from the start, with even the Trust leadership now backing down on various issues in the trial of strength with students, rather than supporting their uncompromising headteacher. How the Trustees must be wishing they had researched the appointment further to avoid this.
A letter sent to parents by Mr Smith in July last year, even before he took up post (once again), painted a remarkable picture of the world he wished to create at Pimlico Academy. It begins: 'Under my leadership, the academy will be characterised by the highest expectations of conduct and achievement for all. It will be a happy and caring community, but one in which academic achievement remains an unrelenting focus. Students will make excellent academic progress and achieve impressive exam results as a direct result of the excellent teaching that they receive. Through both the formal and informal curriculum, students will accumulate cultural capital and develop good character. They will become thoughtful and polite young people, interested in the world around them, in the arts, in culture, in travel and in politics. They will relish their time at the academy and, when the time comes, they will leave ready and eager to lead their lives as effective, well-rounded and responsible citizens'. But parents had been warned: 'We will adopt a mantra of ‘every day, every child, no excuses’. In the event, the magnificent promises of the first quote haven't quite been delivered, partly because the disastrous 'no excuses' culture of Ebbsfleet Academy has been repeated.
Whilst not directly relevant to these events, I was struck by the following links between two very well connected headteachers. Dr Jo Saxton was appointed as a Curriculum Consultant to Future Academies in 2012 whose lead school was Pimlico Academy, and whose Board Chair is Lord Nash, former Minister of State for Schools. Pimlico had previously been found Ofsted Outstanding in 2010, after being placed in Special Measures four years earlier, bringing to an end its reputation as a school for the children of left-wing intellectuals to attend. Shortly afterward she became CEO and Director for Education, resigning in February 2016 when she moved to Folkestone to found and run Turner Schools, a controversial and underperforming Academy Trust during her time with the Trust. She was then appointed to a post in the Department of Education in March 2020, when she also resigned as a Director of Ofqual, leaving the Turner Trust with a budget deficit of £1.3 million, in the hands of Sean Murphy.
Mr Murphy, then a young science teacher had married Alison Colwell, when both were at Deptford Green School, Ms Colwell being Deputy Head. She left mid-term to move to Ebbsfleet Academy, subsequently taking over as Principal at no notice when her predecessor, who had been doing a good job improving the school, was sacked with no notice. He subsequently went on and secured two consecutive Outstanding Inspection reports at his new school. Meanwhile, Ebbsfleet became the most unpopular school in Kent under Ms Colwell and Mr Smith, through its uncompromising and confrontational approach to difficulties, an approach which Mr Smith appears to have taken with him to Pimlico.
Concerns have rightly continued to grow about the management at Pimlico Academy, attracting considerable national media attention including London Drive Time radio and across the internet. Four items of note. First, a visit by the local Member of Parliament. Secondly, a reported debate tonight at Westminster Council, although as Pimlico is an Academy it has no direct responsibility (how often do Local Authorities elsewhere meet to discuss individual academy issues). Thirdly, the Academy Trust has appointed Sir Michael Wilshaw, former Head of Ofsted as a mentor to Mr Smith (showing the unique pull of the Trust, whose Board is headed up by Lord Nash, former Minister for Schools, and his wife). Fourthly, there is an exodus of teaching staff, a common sign of dissatisfaction with the leadership of a school, not the pupils.
Responsible parents have produced a letter for all Pimlico parents, that sets out their concerns in a rational way, far from the hysteria of the more excitable press. The excerpt in my introduction points to parallels with Mr Smith's arrival at Ebbsfleet eight years ago, laying down the law before understanding the school!
