Jess Battison
The ex-headteacher from Educating Manchester has spoken out after he and an assistant headteacher were banned from teaching.
Drew Povey rose to prominence while working as the head at Harrop Fold school (now The Lowry Academy) when it was featured on the Channel 4 documentary series back in 2017.
His brother, Ross Povey, also worked alongside him as the assistant headteacher. Educating Manchester was such a success at time, the crew continued to film for a second season in 2018.
But the popular TV show's production was thrown off when Drew resigned from his role following allegations of ‘off-rolling pupils’ by the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA).
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According to Ofsted, off-rolling is the practice of ‘removing a pupil from the school roll without using a permanent exclusion’.
As a result of the accusations, Drew and brother Ross faced a misconduct hearing with the report made public earlier this week.
They faced allegations including 'failing to maintain and/or ensure that staff maintained accurate records in respect of pupil attendance on one or more occasions', 'caused and/or permitted and/or failed to prevent the off rolling of one or more pupils' and 'failing to protect pupil(s) from the risk of potential harm', according to the report.
The former head denied all of this, with Ross making 'no admissions of the allegations or as to unacceptable professional conduct'.
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Both men have now been prohibited from teaching indefinitely, meaning they can’t teach in any school, sixth form college, youth accommodation or children's home in England. They can apply for the prohibition order to be lifted in two years' time.
And speaking out as per Manchester Evening News (MEN), Drew said in response to the TRA’s ruling: “I am deeply saddened by this decision and the TRA panel’s conclusion.
“As I’ve said countless times, where administrative mistakes were made on my watch, I take full responsibility. But I will never accept that I was involved in any deliberate plan to off-roll or to change attendance data.”
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He continued: “My whole career in education was about supporting kids from tough backgrounds and helping them develop their self-belief and resilience – it was never about results or how data looked. Nor should it ever be and school leaders have a moral responsibility to guard against being drawn down that path.
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“Every leader, every teacher, every single person who works in schools has a duty of care to every child, with all their brilliance and all their complexities – and whilst this has been a painful and drawn out process for me personally - they are the only ones who matter in all of this.”
Both of the brothers' TRA prohibition orders added that: "The panel was satisfied that the conduct of [Mr Povey] amounted to misconduct of a serious nature which fell significantly short of the standards expected of the profession.
"Accordingly, the panel was satisfied that [Mr Povey] was guilty of unacceptable professional conduct."
Drew’s barrister, Andrew Faux, said the former head is now considering appealing the decision at the high court.
He said: “The panel's decision was very disappointing and relied to a troubling extent on hearsay evidence. We are considering carefully the right of appeal to the High Court."