Monday last week marked the beginning of a new academic year for many secondary children. More than ‘back to school’, this was a first day in a year of new experiences, new opportunities and change.

Whatever our children may feel at the start of a new school term we, as parents and carers, entrust them to an institution in which we hope they will be stimulated and encouraged, and one through which we might hope inquisition, confidence and character grows. One in which they, with their unique and diverse thoughts and behaviours, are valued as individuals.

I feel a fool. I believed my young person would come home from school (Queen Katherine School in Kendal) enthused with new knowledge and ideas, alive with a bigger world in sight than the one in which they left with that morning.

I thought I might get a tale about a new experience on the horizon, or see them just tired from a day of stimulation and hard work. I thought perhaps a welcome assembly; in which [that] hard work was set within references of happy summers, new adventures and some placing of the shared world in which both teacher and young person live.

My young person returned home accompanied by exasperation. This followed an assembly framed by rules, conformity, consequences and regulation, and a summons to have clothing inspected. Clothing bought a week previously to comply with said rules and regulations. My young person’s trouser were branded ‘hideous’ and their shoes ordered to be replaced - the manufacturer’s logo, in black, hidden behind laces, on the tongue of their black shoes - contravened regulations.

This tale was exasperated by mail to my inbox. The first, from the head teacher, talked of ‘exciting times’ in reference to ‘mobile phone policy (to be switched off throughout the school day – sensible yes, but exciting?), and ‘uniform regulations’ (the on-going draconian policing striving to strip smartly-dressed-young people of individuality and self-confidence).

These ‘exciting times’, as the mail pointed out, would give students pride and raise standards. Surely the students’ part in ‘raising standards’ takes place only when they feel they want or can engage in the environment provided to them – I think that lays responsibility on a far less material construct than clothing.

The second email described, in impressive detail, the new ‘Behaviour System’, a timetabled approach of ‘sanctions’ (class withdrawal and detentions). I am under no illusion of the challenge to engage some young people in their learning but I fail to see how disengaging them further seeks to encourage them to embrace their learning environment.

The exasperation returning home with my young person was boredom of an institution travelling in the opposite direction to the rest of society. And in a global society where creativity, diversity, engagement and conversation are the increasing embodiment of social interaction and enterprise why in Kendal, at the very heart of a moral responsibility to value the next generation, have we an institution determined to undermine these global developments?

Amy Robinson

Kendal

* Editor’s note: The Westmorland Gazette contacted Queen Katherine School after receiving Amy Robinson’s letter and here is a response from headteacher Jon Hayes.

This year at The Queen Katherine School we have made a number of changes including to our behaviour and uniform policies. These were widely publicised to all parents well before the summer break and I spoke about my high expectations at the new intake evenings. These changes are part of our commitment to raising standards across all areas of the school including teaching, learning and student achievement.

I am sorry that your reader felt that their child did not have the start at QKS they wanted. This is not the experience of the vast majority of our students, who have spoken very positively about the changes and the atmosphere around school during their first days back. I hope that subsequent days in school have addressed any initial concerns that your reader has and that their child has settled in well.

If your readers would like to get a more rounded view of the improvements taking place at QKS, and then make up their own minds about them, our Open Evening is on Thursday, September 24, at 5.30pm. I will be on hand, along with staff and students, to answer any questions about the high expectations and aspirations we have for our school and we would invite any prospective parents to come along and see for themselves the developments and exciting opportunities here at The Queen Katherine School.