The boss of one of country’s best-performing academy trusts has called for government to address “head on” the underperformance of white working-class youngsters, tackle “endemic” knife crime and fix broken mental health support services.
In a rare public appearance, Harris Federation chief executive Sir Dan Moynihan set out what he sees as the major issues facing schools.
Speaking at a panel at the Conservative party conference today, he said support services feeding into schools were “stretched to hell”, leaving teachers doing “more and more with services that really aren’t our business”.
He gave stark examples: for instance, more than half of the 300 pupils at Harris Primary Academy in Peckham, in south London, are homeless.
