Tragic Devon teenage suicides prompt warning to multi-academy trusts
The founder of a Devon mental health charity for young people is calling upon school multi-academy trusts criticised for their ‘harmful’ and ‘draconian’ policies to do more to support pupils’ wellbeing. In a damning statement, Summerhouse Services is said to be ‘inundated’ with parents reaching out for support this year because of the impact it is claimed the academisation system is said to be having on their children. It says it is also concerned following the tragic deaths, believed to be suicides, of two pupils in separate Plymouth[1] schools within a week.
The service worked in one of those schools for most of the last academic year to help a group of young people whose friend had also taken their own life in November 2022. Plymouth-based Summerhouse Services is a humanist and preventative young people’s mental health promotion not-for-profit dedicated to the promotion of mental health for children and young people. Its founder and director is Penny Logsdail, a mental health professional with 25 years experience.
She has told how policies within some trusts and the implementation methods of some of those policies are said to be putting young people at ‘serious risk of harm’ both now and in the future in terms of development, mental health, learning and behaviour. She said: “I am speaking out about this issue now as if I don’t our service would simply be colluding with the draconian policies and practices of these trusts and ultimately making matters worse, rather than helping any given situation. This is a national problem but the issues seem to be especially marked in the south west.
“There are three multi-academy trusts that have made regional or national headlines in the past year about this and are seen as being especially controversial. They are Athena Learning Trust, Greenshaw Learning Trust and Westcountry Schools Trust. “For the past couple of years, I and our team have been going into schools to offer support and things feel different to 20 or so years ago when trusts were in their infancy.
Schools used to be welcoming and open and staff were interested and keen to help and get training. Now they come across as guarded and unapproachable; the difference is marked. “I know of young people, who in the main were attending school, enjoying school and learning and thriving, are now being taken out of school or are refusing to go, and some of them are very anxious, depressed or sometimes experiencing suicidal thoughts and feelings.
When we hear about concerns at a school, from a number of sources, we write to them requesting a meeting with the headteacher to offer our services and help and facilitate understanding. “Parents at a number of secondary academies within the Athena Learning Trust and other trusts have likened their methods to that of a cult. I agree with their concern; their practices smack of control, coercion and aim to become a closed society.
From a therapeutic perspective and from the aim of education that is supposed to put the best interests of the young people at the centre of everything, it is very unhealthy to say the least. “I also have concerns about Westcountry Schools Trust. We worked with one of its schools and sixth form for nearly a whole academic year last year after the group lost one of their close friends to suicide.
In the last two weeks, two further young people have died by suicide. The schools where the tragic events occurred are all within Westcountry Schools Trust. “When a young person takes their life, there is a multitude of factors, but young people spend half of their time in school and if that environment is toxic, controlling, harsh, frightening and dystopic it will have a huge impact, especially if they are already struggling.”
A spokesperson for Athena Learning Trust, said: “We take our responsibility for children and staff experiencing poor mental health extremely seriously, and the health, safety and wellbeing of our school communities is of the upmost importance. “We use a range of internal and external services to support our families and schools. We ensure that these services are properly vetted, that they put the well-being of all our school communities at the heart of their strategy, and that they work within our values of Dream Big, Be Kind and Take Responsibility.
Across our schools, there is positive recognition from Ofsted that student wellbeing is prioritised and supported. “As part of the extensive range of support offered throughout our schools, we use Local Authority services, pastoral mentors and ensure there are mental health first aid trained professionals across the schools to identify where there are mental health needs. Beyond this, we work in partnership with a number of mental health charities, including charities with specialisms on various mental health issues, including bereavement.”
Penny strongly believes suicide rates could be lowered if staff had training in place to better support pupils when they are in a crisis. She has offered this through Summerhouse Services on a no-cost or low-cost basis recently and last year. Revealing alleged examples of how better training could have helped young people, she said: “One of the worst things I have been told by a pupil is that they went to the pastoral leader for mental health help and in severe distress and were told, ‘sorry, you will have to put it in a box and get on with it’.
I can understand a lack of training but I cannot excuse cruelty and a complete lack of compassion for another human being. I hear similar everywhere we work and it is shocking. “The bottom line is people who work in schools predominantly really want to do a good job and help the young people they teach and know how to support them when things go wrong.
However, the multi-academy trust system compromises this with the punitive practices they feed down into their schools through their headteachers and the Department for Education does not equip school staff with the skills to be able to do their job effectively in this day and age. “Quite a significant part of our work as a service is being a practitioner training provider to help school staff understand the basics such as how to listen when pupils are in a crisis. The feedback we get from the schools we help is excellent.
“On a daily basis, I am shocked at the suicide rate in this country and at the same time, I am not surprised. Our education system is not working to help young people, or the adults that also work in those settings and we only have to look to the likes of headteacher Ruth Perry for that. “None of this is about blame, it is about understanding and bringing humanity and compassion back into the education system.
We are all products of our environment people just need to know how to make school environments helpful once again.” “By speaking out I am hoping to bring to the public’s awareness what is happening for young people and illustrate a part of the picture that has not been brought into clear focus until recently. “Once people understand, to help young people is quite straightforward.
They have told us that some of the reasons they struggle to ask for help is because they are worried about being judged, told off, being criticised, being unheard or being invalidated and misunderstood. Given a safe space, all young people shine. “If I were to dream big, it would be that one day in the future listening skills will be incorporated into teacher training as standard practice so that they can support young people and ultimately help to reduce our suicide rate.
Even if speaking out takes us down as a service, which I hope it doesn’t, I won’t change my view and I will not stay silent. “I will simply carry on doing what I have been doing for 25 years now and probably create a different service and keep speaking this message until things change.” Penny has also raised concerns about the appointment of Sir Martyn Oliver as the next Ofsted chief inspector.
He is currently the chief executive of Outwood Grange Academies Trust (OGAT), a large multi-academy trust which has grown under his leadership from 17 academies to 41 primary, junior, secondary and alternative provision academies in the north of England. Penny said: “The trust is renowned for strict discipline and high rates of suspensions and Sir Martyn is also creator and advocate of the highly concerning ‘Flattening the Grass’ assemblies as featured in The Guardian and issues of Schools Weekly. Sir Martyn is said to see young people as ‘grass’ to ‘flattened’ which is claimed to be through frightening young people, ‘en masse’ in assembly settings.”
Following the recent deaths of two young people in separate secondary schools in Plymouth, Summerhouse Service is offering free support to any parent, other family member, carer, young person or concerned staff member support whether they have been affected by what has happened directly or indirectly.
For more details email [email protected] in confidence.
Greenshaw Learning Trust and Westcountry Schools Trust have been approached by DevonLive for a comment.