14 Saturday May 28 2022 | the times
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of a miner named the Guardian of the
Valleys, commemorating the men who
died in the mines.
Stephen Giffard, a parent who runs a
taxi firm and a mixed martial arts
group, said that coverage of Raheem’s
injuries had unleashed a torrent of
abuse on social media towards teachers
and the school. “Everything has been
blown out of all proportion on social
media. I know one teacher who actually
went and jogged up the mountain in-
stead of her [usual jog] on the road,
because she was worried [about secur-
ity]. There’s no condoning what hap-
pened to the poor little man but it is just
crazy the way it has been portrayed that
we are all racist. The [Bailey family] has
gone but this has left this massive scar.
“This is a former mining community
and one of the poorest areas of Wales.
It’s going to be even tougher for the
poor kids now.”
The school had been placed on a list
for “requiring significant improve-
ment” after a visit by the Welsh educa-
tion inspectorate Estyn in 2018. How-A former mining town in Wales has
found itself at the centre of racism
claims after an 11-year-old boy lost his
finger while escaping bullies at school.
The mother of Raheem Bailey, who
had the finger amputated after catch-
ing it on a fence as he fled the grounds
of his school in Abertillery, has now
moved her family back to England.
His mother’s account of the inci-
dent on May 17 was widely shared on
social media, attracting the
support of celebrities such as
the former heavyweight
boxing champion Anthony
Joshua and the former
England footballer Gary
Neville. A GoFundMe
campaign has raised
£105,000 to help him
with his recovery.
Shantal Bailey, 28,
said that she would en-
rol Raheem at a new
school in England. “I
just feel like we’re better
off where we feel more
secure,” she told The Times.
Raheem is now recovering
from his surgery but residents in
Abertillery say that the events
have left their own scars, with
some complaining that the
sudden spotlight has unfairly cast
A school in one of the country’s leading
academy chains has been told it may
lose its funding after an inspection
found pupils were subject to
homophobic bullying and sexual
harassment.
The Department for Education
handed a warning notice to Ark Kings
Academy in Birmingham after an
Ofsted inspection found that second-
ary pupils did not feel safe, while “bully-
ing, derogatory language and homo-
phobic behaviours are commonplace”.
Pupils had “no confidence that staff
will support them when they raise con-
cerns”, and “lesbian, gay, bisexual and
transgender pupils experience repeat-
ed discriminatory behaviour against
them”, Ofsted found.
The DfE said the school’s leaders had
not recognised these issues so they
could not take the “right steps” to pre-
vent incidents.
In the school’s Ofsted report, pupils
said there were “high levels of bullying
and prejudiced behaviour” that went
unrecorded.
“Pupils feel that they have to tolerate
the frequent sexual harassment to-
wards them,” the report said.
Ofsted noted that pupils with special
educational needs and disabilities were
also more likely to receive sanctions
than their peers, with a “high and
increasing” number of suspensions.
The inspection also warned of high
truancy rates, adding: “Leaders in the
secondary phase do not make adequate
checks when pupils are absent from
school. This means that they do not
know whether pupils are safe.”
Andrew Warren, the regional
schools commissioner for the West
Midlands, wrote a warning to the
school that its funding agreement with
the DfE could be terminated and it
could be placed with a different
academy trust.
He wrote: “As regional schools
commissioner, I need to be satisfied
that the trust has capacity to deliver
rapid and sustainable improvement at
the academy.”
An Ark spokesman said: “Whilst very
disappointed with the inspection judg-
ment, we fully accept the findings of the
inspection report.
“We had identified many of the issues
prior to the inspection and had taken
action to begin to address these ahead
of the inspection. That work has gath-
ered pace since, and we are very confi-
dent the school will improve rapidly
over the coming months.
“We have appointed an executive
principal and a new secondary princi-
pal to lead this work and the school will
have the support and resources of our
large, successful network to ensure all
pupils experience a consistently high-
quality education.”
Pupils at the school are often put into
alternative provision due to poor
behaviour, the inspection found, but
the school does not monitor the attend-
ance of any student educated off-site,
meaning that many were absent.
The report went on: “Leaders have
not taken care to make sure that they
mark pupils’ attendance accurately.
“As a result, too many pupils are
missing education, and leaders do not
know this.”
The combination of bullying,
absence and poor behaviour meant
pupils “are not receiving a satisfactory
standard of education and too many
behave badly and are suspended”.School faces
funding cut
over LGBT
harassment
Emma YeomansSmall town where bullied boy lost
a finger struggles under spotlight
The story of a maimed
child has left Abertillery
shaken and sorrowful,
write Lucy Bannerman
and Megan Adams
the whole community as racist.
“I never said anything bad about the
town,” said Bailey, a care worker who
moved to south Wales last year. “When
I shared that post, I didn’t even expect
to raise £10,000. I posted it because I
didn’t like what happened to my son.”
She said the bullying started when
Raheem joined the 1,600-pupil Abertil-
lery Learning Community in Gwent
last September.
She said she was “shocked” and “very
grateful” that her fundraising cam-
paign had raised so much. “I think that’s
also maybe why [some] people are an-
gry with me,” she added. “To be honest,
I haven’t thought about the money. I
wanted to get justice for my son.”
Bailey, who was born in Jamaica
and moved to Britain aged seven,
has previously described how bul-
lies told her son that he “comes
from a poor country” even
though he was born here. He
was also called the n-word,
she said.
The school says it is
working with Gwent
police and the local
authorities to “establish
the full details of the inci-
dent”.
The 11,600-popula-
tion town of Abertillery
once had six deep coal-
mines, a tin works, brick
works, an iron foundry
and light engineering
businesses in the area
until the early 1900s.
Today it has its own
Angel of the North-
style monument, a
66ft-tall steel sculptureever, a further inspection report in Feb-
ruary this year found the school had
made “sufficient progress” to be re-
moved from the list, noting that the
standard of teaching had improved and
that “most pupils behave well in les-
sons, when moving around the school
and during lunch and break times”.
However, Sabina Davies, 37, said her
autistic daughter had also moved
schools after being bullied at Abertil-
lery Learning Community. “My daugh-
ter was targeted by a group of girls from
school, with an even bigger crowd
watching and filming it. She was chased
through Abertillery town all the way
home. There were many witnesses.”
She said she had not heard of racism
in the school but criticised it for its
handling of her daughter’s case. “The
teacher I spoke to simply said they
would keep my daughter in at break
times, ‘to guarantee her safety’. They
were not interested in the slightest.”
The community has been unsettled
by the claims, according to Laura Ev-
ans, 39, a mother of one who lives on the
outskirts of the town. “Everyone is sad-
dened by the whole incident. Staff are
doing their best and trying to take care
of the wellbeing of the pupils but this
has really shaken everyone. It has upset
a lot of families in town who would
never want to be seen as living in a racist
community.”
Mark Drakeford, the first minister of
Wales, described the case as shocking.
He added: “No instances of bullying,
whatever their motivation, are accept-
able in schools in Wales... as well as
thinking about that young person and
their circumstances, it is right we think
about the wider school community as
well.”MARK THOMAS/I-IMAGESRaheem Bailey with his mother and
brother. He has been given support
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