In the summer of 2017 a young, charismatic head teacher became a national TV star in a documentary series.
This week he was banned indefinitely from teaching.
Reporter Neal Keeling has been reporting on the career of Drew Povey for 14 years. Here he takes a look back at his incredible career - and his spectacular downfall.
How it all began
In 2004, one of the most damning Ofsted reports ever published on a Salford school said Harrop Fold High in Little Hulton had "alarmingly poor" teaching standards, below average academic achievement and disruptive pupils who were out of control.
The then 1,300-pupil school had been formed only three years earlier after the controversial merger of Joseph Eastham and Little Hulton community high schools. The move was opposed by many parents.
Ex-headteacher from Educating Greater Manchester Drew Povey speaks out after teaching ban
In league tables published at the time, 25 per cent of pupils obtained five A-C grade GCSEs. The Salford average then was 35.9 per cent. The only positive element in the Ofsted report was praise for head Vicki Devonport, who took over six months prior to the report. The school was put in special measures.
Some parents were so appalled they consulted education law specialist solicitors as they considered taking legal action. The period was an all time low for the school and Salford council did not escape unscathed.
Mary Tate, a governor at Joseph Eastham High before the merger, issued a stinging assessment when she said: "The only reason the school is failing is because the LEA pushed through the merger that so many were against. There has been an exodus of good staff because of the merger and the school has been trying to cope with 17 to 18 supply teachers."
Then came a £20m rebuilding of the school under a private finance scheme - the foundation, it was hoped, for a new dawn at a school existing in dilapidated classrooms. One new head quit after things got worse. Then the LEA decided to headhunt a "superhead" in the shape of 6ft 5in Dr Antony Edkins.
The new school had a top-of-the-range dance and drama studio and a huge sports hall, complete with sprung floor and cricket nets. School wings were named after the famous - Emmeline Pankhurst; Adrian Morley; Christopher Eccleston; LS Lowry; Harold Riley and Charles Halle.
Edkins left in January 2010 after being given credit for a sea-change in the school's fortunes. As the culture and reputation of the school changed (as confirmed by Ofsted who made six inspections in two years after it fell into special measures) he told the M.E.N: "It is not a case of cometh the hour, cometh the man. It is a case of cometh the hour cometh the team."
Introducing Drew Povey
A key member of that team was a young, charismatic teacher, called Drew Povey, who joined the staff in 2006 and eventually became Edkins' deputy. By the time of the official opening of the newly built school he was the new head.
In 2010, then aged 32, he gave his first interview with the M.E.N. as headteacher. He had inherited a £3.2m debt.
This, he said, was a legacy from a decision to recruit a large number of high-earning senior staff in a bid to improve GCSE results, and of the costs incurred when the school was first created, by a merger of two high schools, initially run from two sites.
Mr Povey didn’t shy from laying some of the blame for the school’s financial situation at the door of the council.
“We had a bizarre situation where people being paid various wages were parachuted in (by the authority) – some on £70,000 and £90,000 a year”, he told the M.E.N in his 2010 interview.
“It was an odd state of affairs. I went to one senior team meeting and there were 14 people in the room”, he added.
“It was deemed to be an emergency and everything except the kitchen sink was thrown at the school, but no one knew who was going to pick up the pieces financially.
“Some of the staff were only here for a limited amount of time but they cost a lot of money.”
In the years since, that debt had been cut down to £1.5m. It included the £100,000 which Mr Povey earned from giving talks on leadership to top companies, money which he donated to the school. He has also donated money from the sale of his book, ‘Educating Drew’ to the school.
His candour in the MEN interview led to him getting a rollicking from a senior council education official the day after publication.
He also refused, when Salford council tried, to get the school to join its ill-fated Salford Academy Trust, run with the University of Salford. It was an indication of a tense relationship with the LEA.
The memoir
His book describes how he was a bit of a handful as a child and was written off by teachers. He describes in the memoir how pupils at Harrop Fold were getting the same treatment before he arrived, saying: “I knew how horrible that felt”.
Mr Povey managed to overcome his early difficulties - by the age of 21 he was teaching at William Beaumont School in his native Warrington, where he won an award for his zeal and ability.
Under Mr Povey's leadership, Harrop Fold was graded as 'good' by Ofsted in 2013. When I met him I was struck by his clearly deep-seated and genuine desire to give kids from a tough, deprived area the encouragement, quality teaching, and facilities to succeed.
Fame after Educating Greater Manchester
His spat with the council over the debt was small beer for what was to come. But first the school would achieve national fame through the Channel 4 TV programme Educating Greater Manchester. The documentary series was first screened on August 31, 2017.
The fly-on-the-wall documentary showed the day to day trials, tribulations, tantrums, and humour within the classroom as well as the dedication of staff and how social issues impacted on pupils' behaviour and underachievement at school.
Povey was the undoubted star of the show. Tough but fair, charming, funny, street-wise to the antics of the kids, and clearly admired by the children and parents.
Speaking after the TV show aired Drew told the M.E.N he was pleased that Harrop Fold -now The Lowry Academy - and Little Hulton were finally getting the recognition they deserve.
He said: “The kids are absolutely brilliant and they and the school are getting lots of positive press which is exactly what is deserved.
“It’s great getting all the exposure and people are really seeing the Salford spirit. That’s one of the reasons we decided to do this.
“The impression people have of Salford, it’s all so heavily misaligned and the focus is always on gangs and guns.
“A big part of our decision making process was that we can now shine a spotlight on everything that’s brilliant and show people what an amazing place it is.
“Everywhere has its issues but I love the place and I’m fiercely protective over the school, Little Hulton and Salford and I’m extremely proud of the kids and the staff.”
He won praise for his handling of a tragedy which touched the school. He vowed the spirit of Salford ‘cannot and will not be crushed’ after three children were killed in the Walkden arson attack. Drew, from Warrington, spoke after being told one his pupils, Demi Pearson, 14, was among the victims.
The suspension scandal
The cameras were rolling when on July 13th 2018 the M.E.N. broke the news that Drew had been suspended along with three other staff. He issued a statement saying: “I can confirm I am suspended. It is completely and utterly unfair. I will clear my name and the name of the school. I’m speaking to my legal team.”
The cameras kept rolling as parents and pupils demonstrated outside school demanding Drew Povey be reinstated. But that footage and a planned second series of the documentary was never shown.
In September that year Drew issued his resignation letter. He said he took his decision with "a very heavy heart" and said he believed he was the victim of a "personal vendetta".
By then it had emerged an investigation into allegations that children were removed from the school register - a practice known as 'off-rolling' - in a handful of cases was ongoing at the school.
This could potentially give the impression that the school is performing better than it is, if children expected to do poorly academically are taken off the register.
In his resignation letter he said: "My overall feeling is that Salford City Council are determined to pursue me personally, with the end goal of removing me as executive head."
He again raised the issue of the debt saying: "In my opinion, the biggest barrier to that has been the shocking level of debt that had been allowed to mount up whilst the school was under Salford City Council’s direction (and before I took up my role).
"We have laboured under this debt for nine years, and have been ruthlessly focused on reducing it, so that the school can ensure that despite the often-difficult personal circumstances our pupils face, they have a decent chance of getting the best education possible."
He conceded there had been "administrative errors" saying: "These errors are, I have no doubt, being replicated in secondary schools up and down the country.
"I take full responsibility for these errors, this comes with the territory of being a head, but I do not believe they constitute grounds for me to be pursued in the way that I have been, with what appears to be a complete disregard for the damage caused to the school, its pupils, the local community."
School put in special measures
But in November 2018, 14 years after first being put into special measures, Harrop Fold was again deemed to be a failing school. It was rated "inadequate" in all five areas of inspection by Ofsted.
It meant the school was moved out of local authority control and became an academy.
In 2017, year 11 pupils' rates of progress in English, mathematics, and science were in the lowest five per cent in the country. Pupils were 'poorly prepared for their future lives as successful citizens in modern Britain', the report read.
The gloss of the TV documentary showing a school apparently transformed was stripped bare. Inspectors concluded pupils' poor behaviour had led to disrupted teaching and learning in 'far too many classes'. The progress of students was 'unacceptably weak'.
Salford's deputy mayor, Coun John Merry, said the Ofsted report made 'disturbing reading'.
He said: "The inspectors have identified unsafe historic practices at the school, along with poor performance and achievement," he added.
"Practices include the inappropriate, informal exclusion of pupils, deliberate mis-recording of attendance and weak practice in staff recruitment. This potentially compromised the safeguarding of pupils as leaders and staff have not been in a position to ensure that they are safe."
The result of a hearing into what happened
The upshot, albeit six years later, was that Drew Povey and his brother Ross, an assistant head at the school, were the subject of a Teaching Regulation Agency hearing last month.
It found them both guilty of 'unacceptable professional conduct' and prohibited them from teaching indefinitely. Drew has said he is "deeply disappointed" by the decision which bans him from teaching for at least two years.
The pair were accused of removing three pupils from the school register - a practice called "off-rolling". The panel at the hearing found the removal was likely to have a positive effect on the school's performance data, including GCSE results.
The TRA found all the allegations put to him, including that he failed to ensure accurate records were maintained, and in doing so, failed to protect pupils from the risk of potential harm, to be 'proven'. The panel also concluded his actions were 'deliberate'.
Reacting to the decision, Mr Povey said: "As I’ve said countless times, where administrative mistakes were made on my watch, I take full responsibility. But I will never accept that I was involved in any deliberate plan to off-roll or to change attendance data.
“My whole career in education was about supporting kids from tough backgrounds and helping them develop their self-belief and resilience – it was never about results or how data looked. Nor should it ever be and school leaders have a moral responsibility to guard against being drawn down that path.
“Every leader, every teacher, every single person who works in schools has a duty of care to every child, with all their brilliance and all their complexities – and whilst this has been a painful and drawn out process for me personally - they are the only ones who matter in all of this.”
Ross Povey, who was the assistant headteacher at the school, was not found to have caused, permitted or failed to prevent the amendment of pupil attendance data. However, the panel found that all of the other allegations made against him were 'proven'.
The teaching ban
Both Drew and Ross Povey have been prohibited from teaching indefinitely which means they cannot teach in any school, sixth form college, youth accommodation or children's home in England. They can apply for the prohibition order to be lifted in two years' time.
When making its decision, the panel also had to consider if there was a public interest in retaining Drew Povey in the teaching profession. A former headteacher, one of many who provided a reference said: "The potential loss of Drew from the teaching profession would be a significant detriment not only to his immediate community but to the wider educational landscape…He is an innovative thinker, a compassionate leader and a tireless advocate for student welfare."
But Andrew Faux, the barrister representing Drew, accepted he was a "poor school manager" and the panel found he had "very limited knowledge" of requirements.
Mr Faux said Drew is now considering appealing the decision to the High Court.
Salford council also issued a statement on the TRA's decision. A spokesperson for the council, which no longer runs the school that has since been converted to an academy, said: "We accept the findings of this hearing.
"Salford City Council is committed to creating a fairer, greener, healthier and more inclusive city for all and a key component of that vision is to create a child-friendly city where children and young people can thrive.
"The safeguarding of children and teachers within our schools as well as the provision of quality education facilities is and always has been our priority and when these are drawn into question, then it is only right that an investigation is undertaken to determine any issues which may need to be addressed."
