Concerns have been raised about discipline policies at one of England’s biggest academy trusts, after teachers described assemblies in which pupils were routinely humiliated and made to cry.
In a letter passed to the Guardian, three former teachers at Outwood Grange academy trust (Ogat) confirmed reports that the chain staged “flattening the grass” assemblies, in which children were screamed at in order to establish discipline when the trust took over a new school.
The three teachers behind the letter, who asked not to be named, worked at Outwood academy Bishopsgarth in Stockton-on-Tees. The Guardian has also heard from other teachers that such assemblies took place at other schools in the trust, which runs 31 schools across the north of England and the east midlands.
