West Heath School (special school)

The New School at West Heath is a registered charity (West Heath 2000 Ltd) and independant school for children for whom mainstream schooling has broken down, for varying reasons. While many are not mentally or physically disabled, many have been through harsh circumstances and suffer from related things such as emotional trauma, which lead to the school's motto being "Rebuilding damaged lives." It is based in Sevenoaks, England on 31 acres of parkland for its use, all of which is on lease from Mohamed Al-Fayed. Its current Principal is Valerie May.

It was founded in its current form on September 14, 1998 and at the start the school had around 30 pupils. At the time it was named The Beth Marie Centre (for traumatised children), this was a relocation from its previous premises in the centre of Sevenoaks.

Boarding began in the year 2000.

"The school is becoming a real living memorial to the life of Diana, Princess of Wales and her companion Dodi Al Fayed." --Valerie May, Principal

History

The old school house was originally built in the 18th century and was the home of the Elliot family. It became a school in 1932.

The school used to be called West Heath Girls' School, and was a very exclusive girls' school with around 100 boarding pupils. Diana, Princess of Wales spent her childhood education there.

In the 1990s, the school got into financial difficulties and the receivers were called in in 1997, coincidentally on the very day the Princess died.

The Princess of Wales Memorial Fund wanted to buy the school at first, but decided it could not. Mohamed Al Fayed stepped in to buy West Heath as new premises for the Beth Marie Centre. He had previously seen for himself work being done by the Centre's founder, Valerie May, in a collection of portable buildings.

The school was founded in its current form on the 14^th September 1998 and at the start the school had around 30 pupils. Boarding began in the year 2000, and there are six boarding houses, each named after one of the Trustees; Sleep, Sissons, Astor, Ruth, Hunniford and Esther.

Management

The school is ran by a board of trustees who are the tenants of the Al Fayed Charitable Foundation. Peter Sissons - a nationally-known newscaster who can still be seen today on BBC News 24 at weekends - is the chairman and other trustees include: Wayne Sleep, prominent dancer, Lady Gloria Hunniford, former Radio 2 presenter and Irish singer, Lord and Lady Astor of the well-known Astor family, Esther Rantzen, founder of the charity ChildLine and [[Ruth

Policy documents, syllabuses, schemes of work, National Curriculum and Ofsted documentation can be made available on request to the Head of Education, Chris Moffet.

General information

Criteria of students - 11 to 19 years old, female or male.

Possible disabilities include: Asperger syndrome, Bipolar, ADD/ADHD, High functioning autism and Autistic spectrum, Challenging behaviour, Developmental delay, Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, Emotional and behavioural difficulties, Epilepsy, Genetic disorders, Pervasive developmental disorders, Semantic pragmatic disorder, Tourette syndrome, Conduct disorder, Obsessive-compulsive disorder, Pathological demand avoidance (PDA), and other various mental health problems.
However many of the disadvantaged students have never had the opportunity to get a formal Statement of Special Needs due to not fitting into the standardised criterias used by the government.

Costs - £15,790 p/a (per annum) for day students, £42,972 p/a for residential (boarding) students.
Class size - 8 maximum.
Funding - The school has no state school status, however it is indirectly funded through the Local Educational Authorities of individual students. Each student has an annual review each year to determine if their needs are being met and what changes if any need to be made in their education. Recently the school has had to cut back hard on funding due to less charity donations than previously, and Al-Fayed ceasing to fund the school.

It received some money from Children In Need in 2004, and teachers and students have also partook in fund-raising activities for Children In Need as a whole, for example sponsored silences, head shaves, makeup-for-the-day and so on.

Entry - Entering the school requires a Local Educational Authority procedure or Social Services Referral, as the school has the status as a Special School.

Post 16

As well as the school teaching students from Years 7 to 11, the school operates a section allowing students to get "support" from the school while going to college - the school itself does and cannot afford staff to teach A-level quality subjects itself. Many continue boarding at the school while going to college from there. Due to many of the students living far away, once they start a College course while staying with the Post 16 section of the school, it is very hard for them to move to another college if they change their mind and wish to stop boarding at the school. Often students are given the option of abandoning their college course and the qualification they have worked for a year on, or moving to another college and leaving the school. Most students just cannot afford their own transport and Local Education Authorities (LEAs) work on a yearly basis and will not help pay for transport if a student wishes to leave the school.

Fund a Child's Education (FaCE)

The New School has set up a fundraising drive, FaCE (Fund a Child's Education) to enable it to help enable children in need of the school to move from its very large waiting list of potential students. They appreciate any help, be it a donation, fundraising by a coffee morning, or corporate sponsorship.

Educational Rights for the Individual Child (ERIC)

ERIC, or Educational Rights for the Individual Child, is a campaign and support group for the families of children whose mainstream education has broken down.

Under the 1988 Education Act, children experiencing difficulties which prevent them from attending school are not entitled to a full-time education as a statutory right, and the amount of education they receive is at the discretion of the Local Education Authority. It may be as little as three hours of home tuition each week, or part-time attendance at a special unit.

Whatever the amount of time offered, it is rarely full-time. This means that the National Curriculum, or even a broad curriculum, cannot be followed. Not surprisingly, few qualifications are achieved by these children unless they are lucky enough to gain a place at a school such as the New School at West Heath.

The stated goals of ERIC are:

To support for families and others who are concerned about a child in distress who has no statutory right to full-time education.
To create awareness of this problem and to highlight the weakness of current legislation.
To change educational law so that all children have the same rights to achieve the skills, knowledge and behaviour that will give them a good start in adult life.

Issues

Does not meet many of the criteria of the British National Boarding Standards set by the government that all boarding schools are supposed to legally abide by.
Police have been present on the premises several times due to students such as Daryl Herman-Allen (who has a long and colourful criminal record for violence and theft) engaging in violent criminal activity, damaging both school and public property.
Much of the boarding staff are untrained in any kind of care, many having no qualifications at all. The daily handover books where details of each student in each boarding house's day is entered have often been accused of bias by students, for example staff have been known to antagonise students deliberately then write down, when students react, that it was completely unprovoked so the students get punished the next day. A clique culture exists between the staff, often seeming threatened by the fact that many of the students are more intelligent and have more qualifications than them despite having had a more difficult life.
Violence and bullying is commonplace, and wannabe-gangster and chav culture prevails among some. Smoking, while forbidden by the school rules and much of it being done by underage children, is ignored by the boarding staff who turn a blind eye to it. Often violence is met with only one day of suspension (a day where the student does not have to attend school) and the stories of events are toned down to avoid police action or possible negative publicity. Police cannot pursue a prosecution for physical harm either by another student or staff without the cooperation of the victim, and students are encouraged not to "get the school or your mates into trouble" and sometimes in bullying scenarios where the victim has done things to provoke an attack have been fabricated where nothing actually happened.

Staff are unqualified for any intervention, security are half a mile away down the drive and composed mainly of old unfit men, and there have been numerous incidents of students having to visit the hospital after students with criminal links bring in gangs of "mates" to assault their enemies. Rarely do one-on-one fights happen, chavs preferring to get others to do the fighting for them.

Home addreses, telephone numbers and other personal details are available for any pupil to see in the various offices within the houses - these are kept locked however students are often in and out of them due to needing to use the house phones - which are kept locked in the office of each house.
Al Fayed gains publicity from his association with the school and visits occasionally, but does not donate money to the school and still owns the land used by the school, who pay rent to him, seeming unwilling to give it away.
Often students have no privacy whatsoever and staff enter boarders rooms when they desire to. Students are given keys to their doors, however staff's keys open these anyway. There have been several incidents of staff entering students' rooms after they have been told not to, sometimes when students are undressed. The unqualified, untrained night staff just have no respect for students whatsoever and also gossip about them behind their back. Many are teenagers who have been through a lot, and staff often seem to treat their difficulties as reality soap operas for their own entertainment.

External links

The New School at West Heath's official website
Information about the school on Al-Fayed's website
The New School at West Heath on Independant Schools of the British Isles