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Aydin Önaç

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Aydin Önaç (born December 1951)[1] is a former concert pianist, and teacher of mathematics and music who became a sometimes controversial head teacher of English secondary schools.

Early career

Önaç's family came from a village near Mount Ararat in Turkey. He was born in the Peak District and attended the Lady Manners School in Bakewell, Derbyshire. He won a scholarship to study at Sheffield University then studied at the Royal College of Music, was a concert pianist for 10 years, and went into teaching after gaining a maths degree from the UCL Institute of Education.[2]

He was deputy head of The Chase School in Malvern, Worcestershire up to 2002.[3][4]

Head teacher career

Tewkesbury School

Önaç was head teacher of Tewkesbury School in Gloucestershire until 2006.

Fortismere School

He was controversially given a £40,000 'golden hello' upon being appointed head teacher, aged 56, at Fortismere School in Muswell Hill in north London in 2006, but defended the step citing the costs of moving into London from the shires.[5][6]

Önaç attempted to raise the entry requirement for the school's sixth form from five GCSE A* to C grades to five A* to B grades. As a result, school governors were criticised by the Department for Education and Science.[7]

Önaç also pushed the school towards foundation status in June 2007, making the school financially independent of Haringey Council, allowing governors to change admissions criteria, sell off land and control staff's terms and conditions – despite opposition from 70 per cent of parents.[8] Students at the school had petitioned Önaç to be consulted on any changes relating to foundation status.[9]

In September 2009, Önaç altered the comprehensive school's entry criteria, reserving places for musically gifted children – a policy described as 'elitist', favouring wealthier parents and more academic children.[10][11][12]

Önaç was also criticised for changing policy towards children with special needs. Ten children were affected by the changes, which reduced personnel in what had been a well-staffed special needs department, and breached legal requirements concerning the hours of support provided to children.[11] Parents sought a judicial review of Önaç's approach to special needs provision, but in December 2009 he resigned from his post soon after the legal action started. The action was subsequently discontinued and special needs provision improved after Önaç's departure.[11]

His departure drew mixed reactions. Muswell Hill councillor Jonathan Bloch said "Aydin Onac will not be sorely missed by the community. He was the most divisive headmaster that could have been appointed to a comprehensive school in Muswell Hill.The governors should be hanging their heads in shame. Hopefully, the new appointment will mend fences in the community and make Fortismere the inclusive community school it once was."[13] Fortismere governors' chairman Jules Mason said: "We will all be very sorry to lose Aydin. He has led Fortismere through to foundation status and made a tremendous contribution to raising standards and achievement across the whole school. He will leave behind a strong and committed senior management team, well equipped to sustain and build on the improvements he has delivered."[13]

St Olave's Grammar School

Önaç had left Fortismere to take up the post of head teacher at St Olave's Grammar School in Orpington in September 2010, becoming the sixth headmaster of the school since 1896. One of his first acts as headteacher was to eat a poisonous spider in a fund-raising stunt.[14]

The school had consistently been one of the top achieving state schools in the UK (prior to Önaç's arrival, it was the Sunday Times State School of the Year in 2008).[15][16] Under Önaç‘s leadership, the school was steered through its most successful seven years in terms of A-Level and GCSE results.[17] In 2011 it was ranked as the fourth best performing state school in the country at A-level by the Financial Times,[18] adding to competition for places at the school. Önaç became strongly associated with the school's highly selective entry and retention policies.

On 11 May 2016 a petition was set up by students in the school objecting to new, harder sixth form entry requirements; it gained over 1,000 signatures in two days.[19][20]

In August 2017, parents were informed that 16 children were no longer welcome to continue into year 13, as their year 12 results were too poor. This caused a group of parents to take the school to court for excluding the pupils unlawfully.[21][22] On 1 September, the school made a statement that the excluded pupils would be allowed to return to school for Year 13.[23] The chair of the governors resigned due to lack of time.[24]

About the same time it emerged that Önaç and bursar Alan Wooley had set up a business earlier in the year, with the knowledge of the governors, where they were registered as the sole shareholders. The company filed three applications to hold trademarks related to St Olave's school. The governors decided the format of the business did not follow good practice.[25]

On 19 October 2017 the new chair of governors, Dr Paul Wright, announced that the head teacher had been suspended "without prejudice" while an inquiry ("in respect of concerns that have been raised over recent weeks") by the London Borough of Bromley took place.[26][27] Parents who supported the head and his methods, and described themselves as the "silent majority", used the annual general meeting of the school's parents' association in early November to campaign for Önaç's reinstatement,[28] but the following week, on 17 November, the school announced Önaç would be leaving the school in December 2017, "for personal reasons".[29][30] Freedom of Information requests revealed that 72 students had been forced out of the school during their A-level studies since Önaç became head in the 2010–2011 academic year.[28]

The report of Bromley council's independent inquiry, led by educationalist Christine Whatford, was published in July 2018, and accused St Olave's of illegally treating its students as "collateral damage" in the pursuit of its own interests. It called for a root and branch makeover at the school after exposing multiple cases of maladministration, and urged the school to scrap its policy of restricting access to the upper sixth form. The report also questioned Önaç’s claims that he did not know the exclusions were potentially illegal, and criticised the school's financial management.[31] The report also investigated suggestions of bullying, and in particular that Önaç had forced governors from the governing board via a reconstitution, in which five governors who disagreed with him were removed. The report concluded "that is a view with which the investigator concurs."[32]

References

  1. ^ "Aydin Onac". Companies House. Retrieved 18 November 2017.
  2. ^ "Aidin Onac". Lady Manners School Archives. Retrieved 18 November 2017.
  3. ^ "Setting Aim High". Worcester News. 9 August 2002. Retrieved 18 November 2017.
  4. ^ Howells, Nick (30 March 2007). "Opinion". Malvern Gazette. Retrieved 18 November 2017.
  5. ^ "Headteacher quits four years after £40,000 'golden hello'". London Evening Standard. 4 May 2010. Retrieved 18 November 2017.
  6. ^ "'Golden hellos' for head teachers". BBC News. 23 March 2007. Retrieved 18 November 2017.
  7. ^ Peters, Marijke (31 January 2007). "Governors criticised by government in Fortismere admissions row". Ham & High. Retrieved 18 November 2017.
  8. ^ Peters, Marijke (22 June 2007). "The deed is done: Fortismere's governors vote to go it alone as one resigns". Ham & High. Retrieved 18 November 2017.
  9. ^ "Fortismere students demand a say in foundation status controversy". Ham & High. 18 July 2007. Retrieved 18 November 2017.
  10. ^ Newton, Charlotte (24 September 2009). "Go-ahead for 'elitist' selection at Fortismere". Ham & High. Retrieved 18 November 2017.
  11. ^ a b c Taylor, Diane; Hattenstone, Simon (5 September 2017). "Before Aydin Önaç reached St Olave's, we fought him over our autistic daughter's care". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 November 2017.
  12. ^ "School accused of hiding places reserved for musical children". London Evening Standard. 18 October 2010. Retrieved 18 November 2017.
  13. ^ a b Newton, Charlotte (17 December 2009). "Controversial headteacher quits Fortismere". Ham & High. Retrieved 18 November 2017.
  14. ^ Evans, Martin (6 October 2010). "Head teacher shocks pupils by eating spider". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 18 November 2017.
  15. ^ "The Times – UK News, World News and Opinion".
  16. ^ "St Olave's Grammar School named State Secondary School of the Year in Sunday Times Parent Power". News Shopper. 19 November 2008. Retrieved 18 November 2017.
  17. ^ "Examination statistics" (PDF). St Olave's. Retrieved 4 January 2018.
  18. ^ "School rankings – Secondary Schools 2011". Financial Times. The Financial Times Ltd. 2011. Archived from the original on 29 March 2014. Retrieved 18 January 2016. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |subscription= (help)
  19. ^ May, Luke (23 May 2016). "Petition against changes to St Olave's sixth form entry nears 1,500 signatures". Bromley Times. Retrieved 7 November 2017.
  20. ^ Clark, Jess (16 May 2016). "'Already enough pressure on us': Students fight 'shocking' rise in St Olave's Grammar School, Orpington sixth form entry requirements". News Shopper. Retrieved 7 November 2017.
  21. ^ Weale, Sally (29 August 2017). "Grammar school 'unlawfully threw out' students who failed to get top grades". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 August 2017.
  22. ^ Weale, Sally (29 August 2017). "St Olave's teacher: 'Weak students are treated as collateral damage'". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 August 2017.
  23. ^ Weale, Sally; et al. (1 September 2017). "St Olave's allows rejected sixth-formers to return to school". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 September 2017. {{cite news}}: Explicit use of et al. in: |first1= (help)
  24. ^ Weale, Sally (12 September 2017). "St Olave's chair of governors resigns after exclusion controversy". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 October 2017.
  25. ^ Pegg, David (5 September 2017). "St Olave's head caught up in school trademark ownership row". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 October 2017.
  26. ^ Weale, Sally (19 October 2017). "Head of grammar school that excluded 'underachieving' students suspended". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 October 2017.
  27. ^ Coughlan, Sean (19 October 2017). "Grammar school A-level row head suspended". BBC. Retrieved 30 October 2017.
  28. ^ a b Bennett, Rosemary (11 November 2017). "Parents at St Olave's fight to reinstate suspended head who expelled weak A-level pupils". Times. Retrieved 17 November 2017.
  29. ^ Adams, Richard (17 November 2017). "Head of grammar school that forced out A-level students resigns". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 November 2017.
  30. ^ Burns, Judith (17 November 2017). "St Olave's Grammar School row head resigns". BBC News. Retrieved 17 November 2017.
  31. ^ Weale, Sally; Adams, Richard (10 July 2018). "Inquiry condemns school that barred A-level pupils". Guardian. Retrieved 11 July 2018.
  32. ^ Whatford, Christine. "Report of Investigation into St Olave's Grammar School (July 2018)" (PDF). St Olave's. London Borough of Bromley. Retrieved 16 July 2018.
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