A headmaster renowned for his ‘zero tolerance’ approach has turned around a troubled high school – using weekend detentions, extra maths classes and clamping down on uniform.
Alun Ebenezer, 50, was dubbed the ‘headmaster from hell’ by parents after he sent 50 children home in one day over uniform violations such as wearing the wrong socks and the lengths of girls’ skirts.
But now he is celebrating exam success by pupils at Caldicot School, Monmouthshire, which was previously gripped by turmoil as teachers repeatedly went on strike over violent pupils and unruly behaviour.
Mr Ebenezer brought in a range of different methods such as Saturday detentions, university-style maths classes, and house choir competitions to install discipline.
He also returned the school to wearing blazers and introduced rewards for high attendance rates.
And the results have been a boom in successful exam results at the 1,300-pupil school.
Figures released by the school show GCSE scores this summer rose by 14 points, equivalent to nearly two-and-a half grades per student.
In A-level results, 39 per cent of all grades were A or A*.
Alun Ebenezer, 50, was dubbed the ‘headmaster from hell’ by parents after taking over at troubled Caldicot School – but says his ‘zero tolerance’ approach has been vindicated by improved exam results this summer
Caldicot School in Monmouthshire where turmoil saw teachers repeatedly go on strike over violent pupils and unruly behaviour before Alun Ebenezer took over
University applications increased by 15 percent, with every applicant securing a place.
Mr Ebenezer said: ‘Caldicot is not chasing trends.
‘It is building a culture where every child belongs, every child can achieve, and every child matters.’
The teacher, who grew up a ‘free school meal boy’ in the rundown village of Beaufort, Blaenau Gwent, added: ‘You learn from the past.
‘There were things that went on when I was a child which were wrong.’
The state secondary school in the south Wales market town had been struggling when he was brought in as an emergency measure last year.
It was effectively run by its students, teaching unions suggested.
Mr Ebenezer – whose ‘zero tolerance’ approach also hit the headlines in his previous posts – brought in the giant maths classes with 60 pupils to a room after a shortage of teachers.
He later introduced Saturday detentions and said they were needed in cases where other punishments, including being held after school, had not worked.
But he said the weekend classes had an instant impact.
He said: ‘Even the hardest 11 kids turned up in full uniform for Saturday detention.
‘That tells you something.’
Mr Ebenezer, a teacher for 27 years, has spent the past two-and-a-half years working with schools to advise on leadership and culture.
During his uniform clampdown parents said girls arriving for class reported being confronted with wet wipes to remove make up and nail clippers to cut their nails, as well as demands that the length of their skirts are measured.
Previously when head of the Deepings School in Lincolnshire he was unrepentant after putting 50 pupils into isolation for wearing the wrong kind of black socks.
Furious parents hit out, accusing Mr Ebenezer of being ‘heavy-handed’ and running a ‘police state’.
But the head – who previously ran Fulham Boys School in London where a Rastafarian boy was asked to shave off his hair if he wanted to attend lessons – defended the zero-tolerance policy at the time, saying any slip in discipline ‘leads to carnage’.
