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Abstract

A troubled free school where seven teachers quit last term has been hit by another string of resignations amid claims managers are struggling to replace staff.

The Tribune has learned that four teachers at Tech City College, in City Road – which was failed by Ofsted in March last year – have resigned this term.

This follows the exodus just before Christmas and multiple sources have told this newspaper that the college, which specialises in STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and maths), has failed to replace them – leaving teachers not trained to teach specialist science subjects in charge of classes. In one case, it was claimed that a computing teacher was giving maths lessons.

A teacher, who did not want to be named, said: “I’ve never seen or heard of a school like this. Management are taking no responsibility for having created an environ­ment in which teachers do not want to stay.

“They’re getting cover teachers in who can’t teach the subject but just supervise the students. It’s very harmful to pupils’ learning. To see students struggling is making us [teachers] very upset.”

However, the college insisted all vacant teaching posts have been filled, with 21 teachers now at the school including staff covering for absences.

Until September, the school was known as the STEM Academy Tech City but was taken over after a damning Ofsted report a year ago. Since then it has been part of Aspirations, a multi-academy trust with schools and colleges in London, Banbury and Poole, which says it is improving provision but needs time to turn the college around. The school was subject to an Ofsted inspection last week and a report is expected within weeks.

Among those who have raised concerns about the management of the college is Emily Thorn­berry, the MP for Islington South and Finsbury. She sent a letter to Lord Nash, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Schools, last month expressing concern about his comments that Aspirations taking over was “good news”.

She wrote: “I was very concerned to hear from two separate sources that there are serious problems with management, staffing, timetabling, recording student attendance and providing adequate teaching.

“What input is the DfE [Department for Education] providing to ensure that this college does not continue to fail its students?”

The DfE did not respond to a request for a comment before we went to press.

Ken Muller, joint secretary of the Islington branch of the National Union of Teachers (NUT), said: “There needs to be an intervention which tackles the history of poor management at Tech City and STEM 6 and which doesn’t seek to blame teachers for its failings.”

Trust director Vanessa Miner said Aspirations needed time to turn things around.

“We have a track record of turning schools around and making them better,” she added. “When we took the college over there were a lot of deep problems around the quality of teaching, marking and data collection. None of those processes were in place. There are a lot of things that need to be fixed and we are in the process of fixing them.

“It’s not unusual at a school in difficult circum­stances that a number of staff are unhappy and want to leave. We need to develop a stable staff moving forward and are making a number of appointments.”