The 'cult-like' Liverpool schools where kids are 'making themselves ill' to avoid going in

Pupils at a group of Liverpool schools are reportedly making themselves ill in order to avoid the ‘cult-like’ rules in place, an ECHO investigation has found.

The ECHO has been inundated with accounts from worried parents about how their children are being treated at schools in the city run by the Dixons Academies Trust - while a whistleblowing teacher has spoken out about the “chaotic and dysfunctional” city schools and the pressure on staff to discipling kids.

In response to the claims made about its schools, Dixons told us they are making progress and have a clear policy that when students misbehave or disrupt the education of others, there will be "fair and reasonable sanctions." They say a recent survey found that 90 per cent of staff have seen a significant improvement in behaviour.

One parent told how she had to pay for a taxi to bring her daughter home from school after she was suffering with heavy period bleeding but was not allowed to go to the toilet for four hours.

MORE: Parents pull children out of school and claim it's 'like prison'

MORE: Truancy, RAAC and worksheets: Three years of Dixons in Liverpool

Others have said their children have been relentlessly placed into isolation and detention for obscure and minimal offences like not having a green pen in their pencil case.

Multiple parents we spoke to in this investigation have removed their children from Dixons-run schools because of fears over their mental health - some have done this permanently.

Earlier this month the ECHO ran a story based on the accounts of parents with children at Dixons Academy in Fazakerley. Two separate parents described the school as ‘like a prison.’

Since then we have spoken to many more parents with children at the Dixons School in Fazakerley as well as other schools run by the trust in Liverpool.

Dixons Academies Trust is based in Bradford and was established out of the original City Academy in Bradford. The trust runs 17 schools across the country, including three in Liverpool.

In 2020 it was confirmed that Dixons would take control of the then struggling Fazakerley High School and Broadgreen International School. Both were in special measures after damning Ofsted inspections in 2016 and 2018 respectively. The trust has also since taken control of the former De La Salle school in Croxteth.

The city’s running of the schools made headlines in 2022 when it was revealed that pupils placed in isolation at the Fazakerley school had been given worksheets which stated that "young people who truant are more likely to use alcohol or drugs” or to have “early sex.”

The trust defended its practices then and did so again in our recent article - saying they “make no apologies for ensuring students are able to learn in a calm, respectful environment.”

But those associated with the schools who we have spoken to would not describe the learning environments on offer in any such terms.

Claire Edgar has had three sons go through the Dixons Academy in Broad Green.

She said: “My older son was at the school, he has left now. He had spina bifida but they locked the toilets all day and wouldn’t let him go, so he sat there all day in a wet pad. I complained and was told I wasn’t allowed at the school.

“Before Dixons took over the school it was brilliant, the teachers really cared about the kids. Most of them have left now.”

Claire has one son who is still at the school. She said he “hates it” and has taken some distressing actions to avoid going in.

She added: “He has been making himself sick to try and avoid going in. For a kid to be making himself vomit just to get out of school shows how bad things are.

“I have had to get support from the city council just to try and get him to go in.

“It is the way they treat the kids, constantly putting them into detention and isolation. Sometimes they are there for weeks. My son got a 60-minute detention because he did not have the right ruler.”

The approach to discipline and the manner in which punishments are handed out at the schools were common concerns raised with us by a host of parents.

One mother of a child at Dixons Fazakerley, who asked not to be named, said she tells other parents not to send their kids to the school.

She said: “My son left with the feeling his teachers hated him. He wasn’t giving the help he needed - they just thought he was naughty. My daughter is still in that school and I pray to the lord the year goes fast for her and then she can leave.

“She has come to me in tears many times. They won’t allow her to use the toilet when she needs to go. It is like a prison in there.”

The mum added: “It is exactly like a prison. Their first port of call is to put kids in isolation. My son got suspended for not having a green pen in his pencil case.

“They are trying to be really big on discipline but it is not working. They need a different way of doing things.”

Another mum of a Dixons Fazakerley student, who asked only to be referred to by her first name of Sarah, said the culture of the school has had a “huge” impact on her daughter’s mental health.

She said: “My daughter has been going to that school for about 18 months and her mental health has deteriorated massively. It is ridiculous how they treat the children. It is so unfair.

Detailing an incident that happened last week, Sarah added: “Last Tuesday of this week, she told the teacher at 9.30am that she needed to go to the bathroom. She’d had a heavy bleed and it had gone through to her skirt. She was covered in blood and they wouldn’t let her go to the toilet all day. She was reaching out to me for help for four hours.

“I demanded that they let her leave and in the end I paid for a taxi to get her out of there. I might not send her back, I think I would rather home school her. She doesn’t want to go back into school with its cult-like rules, she is really upset and embarrassed.”

Our investigation found that it is not only the parents and pupils at Dixons schools in the city that are unhappy with the culture and processes in place.

We spoke to a teacher who currently works at one of the city schools, who told us staff are demoralised and uncomfortable with how they are expected to treat the students.

The staff member, who spoke under condition of anonymity, said they feel like working at a Dixons school feels like working in a prison or at Borstal.

They said: “It is an utterly chaotic and dysfunctional place to work and staff and students alike are unhappy with the constant changes Dixons keep making.”

Speaking about the disciplinary culture instilled by the academy trust, the teacher added: “The policies that the academy have brought in for behaviour and expectations are very strict and punitive to the point that staff are expected to read instructions to pupils from a pre written script and dish out sanctions for the most minor infractions. It is not uncommon for in the region of 100+ pupils to be in detention (correction) on any given day.

“Corrections (Dixons word for detention) are handed out for relatively minor things such as being out of the line up, not tracking the speaker, not having a blazer on during transitions between lessons and also not having correct equipment etc etc. Myself and a lot of other staff are uneasy about a lot of the corrections we are expected to issue and the senior management actually complain that we are not issuing enough.”

Remarkably, the staff member claimed that if teachers are seen to be too lenient by school leaders, they will be forced to take part in “patronising” training to teach them the disciplinary rules.

They added: “This is where we essentially have to role-play the scenario, such as a pupil misbehaving in a line, and practise in the playground after school. Staff feel absolutely demoralised and brow beaten by this approach.”

The teacher believes that the ‘draconian’ approach taken to behaviour policy in its schools is not working, pointing to the high suspension and exclusion rates in the North West.

Looking at figures from the autumn and spring term in 2022/23, Dixons Fazakerley had the highest number of pupil suspensions of all non-special schools in the north west. This was followed by two other Dixons schools in second and third places.

The teacher added: “This approach isn’t working and I know from conversations I have had with parents that many of our pupils come to school feeling very anxious about what their day may look like and whether they will get screamed at.”

For some parents, the only course of action has been to remove their children from the schools altogether.

Thomas Fox from Fazakerley withdrew his two children from the local Dixons academy two months ago.

Mr Fox said his children were bullied “every single day” in the school and claimed he received no support from staff.

He added: “It was a massive decision to take them out of the school, they had friends there, and it cost us too in new uniforms. But we felt we had to do it after the hardest six months of our lives.

“My daughter ended up not eating and on antidepressants. Even though she is at a new school now, she has lost a lot of confidence and a lot of faith in the school system.”

In response to our investigation, a spokesperson for the Dixons Academy Trust said:

“These three schools joined our trust after Ofsted found they were Inadequate and in need of significant improvement, including to student behaviour. Excellent behaviour is vital if children are to learn in a calm, safe environment where they can thrive, and it’s why we make no apologies for focusing on it.

“In fact, the vast majority of our students behave really well, and we are grateful to parents for backing us as we transform the schools.

“Already we are seeing real progress, and a recent survey found that 90 per cent of staff have seen a significant improvement in behaviour.

“We never discuss individual children so that they are protected. Our policy is clear that when students misbehave or disrupt the education of others, there will be fair and reasonable sanctions, which all families agree to when they choose the school for their child.

“Families are able to visit our schools throughout the year and their feedback is always really positive about how calm and focused lessons are. This is about enabling teachers to teach and students to learn in a calm, effective environment.”

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