The picket line outside the UCL Academy in Swiss Cottage

A FLAGSHIP academy school that has had four different headteachers in the past year has been put on notice about “systemic culture of mismanagement” by teaching staff who walked out on strike.

UCL Academy in Swiss Cottage has been issued with a series of warnings about a “culture of fear, secrecy and shifting blame” from reps at the National Education Union who are fighting a new redundancy plan with four days of pickets outside the school gates.

A list of demands sent to the school include a freeze on the “frequent” pay rises for the senior leadership team, a more effective approach to racism and aggressive behaviour from pupils, an end to an “overwhelming number” of team meetings, and an unmanageable workload.

The school’s management has responded to the demands saying redundancies are required to stop the school being judged “unviable” by the Department for Education.

The NEU said: “Once hailed as the future of education, UCL Academy has been failing to live up to these high expectations for a number of years. Staff are being asked to work in a chaotic and unsafe environment where the leadership hasn’t put in place the basic measures a school needs to function well.”

One school insider said: “It’s insane that a world-leading university is not running a world-leading secondary school.”

“World class sponsor, wild west management” read one of the placards at the picket lines.

Teachers on strike at UCL Academy and, below, the school building at top of Adelaide Road

A list of demands from the union combined with a detailed diary of incidents, seen by the New Journal, said: “These logs are not isolated grievances – they reflect a systemic culture of mismanagement, intimidation, neglect, and hypocrisy. Staff deserve safety, honesty, and a functioning workplace – not a culture of fear, secrecy, and shifting blame.”

Pressure has been mounting at the school since a “requires improvement” Ofsted report in 2022.

A 12-year-old boy was stabbed inside the school with a kitchen knife in March.

Principals Robin Street, Simon McBride and Gary Moore – from Regent High – have left the school in the last year, with Andrea Pomphrey now in charge.

The New Journal reported extensively on the controversy surrounding the opening of UCL Academy in 2013 following a series of delays.

It was part of a drive by the government to create a new raft of schools run independently by “sponsors”, in this case University College London.

Billed as a shining example of the academy system, the schools boasted “superstudios” instead of classrooms.

Critics said a new Camden school should have stuck with the system of being accountable to – and run by – the locally-elected council.

Schools managed by the council can fall back on the Town Hall’s education department during times of difficulty.

But Michael Gove, the education secretary at the time, had argued that the academy system was the way forward and Labour peer Baron Andrew Adonis was a huge supporter of the idea.

Lord Andrew Adonis opens the UCL Academy in 2013

Ms Pomphrey, the school’s current principal, sent a letter to teaching staff in response to the union’s demands.

She said: “In my role as principal – especially as the fourth within a year – I have worked to bring consistency, care, and a long-term vision to our community. I do not expect change to happen overnight, but I believe we are making meaningful progress together.”

Her detailed response reveals that an audit of the school was carried out by the DfE last September that found “higher ratios of teacher to student, support staff to student and admin staff to student than is viable”.

But the audit also said that if cuts were not made this year, then by the year 2026 -2027 the academy would “fall into £1.6million deficit”.

“The DfE would then question whether the academy was viable to continue,” said Ms Pomphrey in her response.

“Addressing overstaffing has become necessary given financial realities, and we deeply regret that redundancies are part of that process.”

The response said that three senior leadership roles had been axed in the last year, and there were seven fewer teachers due to “declining student numbers”.

School funding is based on pupil numbers.

Last month the New Journal reported how Camden was the worst-hit borough in the country from government funding cuts.

On the unmanageable workload for teachers, Ms Pomphrey said: “The current calendar agreed in summer 2024 has not worked as well as previous models. Our new assessment policy that has been reviewed, shared and adapted also addresses workload concerns.”

She rejected claims of a “failure to address instances of discrimination”, arguing “reporting, tracking and sanctioning of any discriminatory language is strong and explicit”.

She said that pupils were being taught about the impact of misogyny.

Sick leave policy was in line with NEU-agreed levels and a policy of “heightened monitoring” of some classrooms was “intended as a supportive measure” rather than interfering surveillance, she said.

In conclusion, Ms Pomphrey said: “I am fully aware that we are on a journey of continuous improvement and consistency by us all is the way to get there. I am accountable to you, to Camden Learning through review and half-termly reports and to our governors. I am also accountable to our students, families and community. There are areas we must improve on and I am the first to always say this.”

Professor Kathy Armour, Chair of Governors at UCL Academy, said: “As governors, we remain committed to high standards of governance, staff wellbeing, and the quality of education our students deserve.

“We are working closely with the senior leadership and union representatives to find constructive solutions that support our teachers and protect the learning environment for all pupils.”