Support our Nation today - please donate here
News

Man behind controversial school uniform crackdown dubbed ‘headteacher from hell’

11 Jun 2024 4 minute read
Caldicot School. Picture LDRS

Twm Owen, local democracy reporter

A head behind a uniform crackdown that has left children in tears and dozens sent home was previously dubbed the “headteacher from hell”.

Alun Ebenezer earned the moniker after it was reported he’d sent 50 children home in one day from a school over uniform violations including wearing the wrong socks.

He has now taken over as acting head at Caldicot School and announced his arrival with a drive on uniform standards which resulted in dozens of children being sent home from school on Monday for reasons including their skirts being too short or shirts untucked.

Parents have complained the disciplinarian headteacher likes to court controversy as a Christian in education columnist and author and his strict approach saw him described as “the headteacher from hell” by The Daily Star in September 2022.

Racism row

In 2017 he was embroiled in a racism row when he told a Rastafarian child he would have to cut off his dreadlocks to attend classes at Fulham Boys School in London.

Mr Ebenezer was still the headteacher when it accepted a Governors’ Complaints Resolution Committee recommendation it should review its uniform and appearance policy against applicable legislation following a complaint by the boy’s mother.

The County Court also ordered the school to pay the child, who left the school rather than cut his hair, and his mother a settlement and cover the litigation costs, following the agreement that he could be readmitted.

David Garrick, a parent of two boys at Caldicot, said he was unhappy at the emphasis on uniform in the acting head’s introductory letter and that he was “uncomfortable” how the long list of rules around the length of skirts and make up was targeted at female students.

Uncomfortable

He said: “It looks as if he likes to court controversy. It’s been reported he sent 50 kids home from one school for wearing the wrong socks and encouraged a Rastafarian child to shave his head. Reading into his background I feel really uncomfortable.”

Kayleigh Moore, who attended the school as her daughter, was refused entry to classes for her skirt, eyelashes and makeup, said she had refused to take the year 10 pupil home “as she is entitled to an education”.

Ms Moore, of Caldicot, said her daughter was handed a new skirt, from the school, and told to wear it. Other parents have also reported their daughters being told to change into school provided skirts.

She said her daughter wears make up to “feel better about herself”

One mum, whose daughter was sent home from school on Monday for wearing false eyelashes, said while she supported a rule on longer skirts she was unhappy that her daughter reported being told to present herself for a male teacher to measure the length of her skirt to her knee. The 14-year-old refused to be measured.

Monmouthshire County Council has said all issues related to girls’ uniforms are being dealt with by female staff.

Friction

The mum said she was concerned the crackdown was causing unnecessary friction: “My daughter is not as good as gold, she absolutely hates school, her attendance is not the best and she truants but she’s had a really good few months and her attendance is better and now she is being penalised for the way she looks.”

She said she was concerned about racism due the previous case of demanding the Rastafarian child shave his head – and said she was aware of Mr Ebenezer’s published writings and said: “He wants men to be men, what does that mean for camp men?”

Christian publishers Reformation Heritage Books published ‘Call to Action – Become the Man God Designed You to Be’ by Mr Ebenezer which is promoted as the world needing “real men” and a basic training guide for “young men to stop being passive” and provides “practical steps for pursuing godly manhood”.

In 2017, while embroiled in dispute over a child’s dreadlocks, Mr Ebenezer told ITV’s This Morning programme his school was “treating this as a cultural matter not a religious matter” and disputed Rastafarianism’s standing as a religion.

In 2022, while interim head at the Deepings School in Lincolnshire it was reported Mr Ebenezer had sent 50 children home in one day over wearing the wrong socks or trousers. He said only those who were “openly defiant” and refused to conform to his new rules were sent home.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service had made repeated attempts to contact Mr Ebenezer, which have all been ignored, and the school has referred queries to Monmouthshire County Council.


Support our Nation today

For the price of a cup of coffee a month you can help us create an independent, not-for-profit, national news service for the people of Wales, by the people of Wales.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest
14 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Mab Meirion
Mab Meirion
4 months ago

Get religion out of schools, it attracts the wrong sort of teachers…

Mr Williams
Mr Williams
4 months ago
Reply to  Mab Meirion

I’m afraid I have to disagree with you on this, as a dedicated teacher and devout Catholic. It is fundamentalism that is a problem, not religion. Most religious people are not fundamentalists. Wales is a free country in which everyone can practice their religion, or have none. I am proud of our freedom.

Mab Meirion
Mab Meirion
4 months ago
Reply to  Mr Williams

Your reply was not unexpected, I considered a caveat for you personally…

Ite missa est was my best bit, can you say the Mass in Latin Mr Williams ?

Mr Williams
Mr Williams
4 months ago
Reply to  Mab Meirion

Dominus vobiscum! 😁

Mab Meirion
Mab Meirion
4 months ago
Reply to  Mr Williams

Et cum spiritu tuo…

Johnny Gamble
Johnny Gamble
4 months ago
Reply to  Mr Williams

You have identified yourself as Catholic which is fine as I respect people of all faith’s.
You have previously supported the state of Israel in previous posts on this forum.
I would like to point out that your fellow Catholics in The North of Ireland would not take to kindly to this as Historically Palestinian people have supported a One Nation Ireland.
A visit to Catholic areas of West Belfast and Derry would illustrate the abundance of Palestinian flags.

Mr Williams
Mr Williams
4 months ago
Reply to  Johnny Gamble

An interesting post. I support a two State solution for both people. I actually lived and worked in Israel in my youth, so I have had the privilege of seeing both sides. I hope you will be able to visit and see the wonderful people there, on both sides, when the awful violence ends. My view is: Israel needs security, Palestine needs a viable state. Terrorists need to leave. Yes. I am actually a descendant of both Irish Catholics and Protestants, as well as Welsh. My family (both sides) and I support a united Ireland, for both people living in… Read more »

Last edited 4 months ago by Mr Williams
Johnny Gamble
Johnny Gamble
4 months ago
Reply to  Mr Williams

I also have family from the North of Ireland and yes I agree whether it be Ireland, Palestine, Ukraine and the less spoken about conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan we all want peace.
I spent time in the North of Ireland and like you said about Israel there were lovely people on Both sides of the sectarian divide as is the case everywhere a minority always ruin things for the majority.

Geraint
Geraint
4 months ago

The Head sounds like he has a pathetic home life so takes his frustrations out on children. Bad teachers like Mr Ebenezer kill the joy of learning for children with their strictness and killjoy attitude.

Eric lowe
Eric lowe
4 months ago
Reply to  Geraint

Got to disagree…glad to see somebody brave enough to make a stand and add some integrity into todays misguided social acceptances

Welsh Patriot
Welsh Patriot
4 months ago

Call me old fashioned, but 13 years old girls should not have short shirts, make up and false eye lashes on.
Well done that Head Teacher!

John Ellis
John Ellis
4 months ago

When, a long time ago, I was in the sixth form of my grammar school, our headmaster left to take up another appointment and, rather unusually at the time at least in our local authority, his deputy was appointed to succeed him.

I recall overhearing one senior teacher in the school – a head of department – describing the new head, in conversation with a colleague, as ‘ruthless, petty-minded and horrible’.

Maybe not that much has changed in certain schools, even sixty years later.

Padi Phillips
Padi Phillips
4 months ago

The whole issue of school uniforms is iffy to say the least, and one wonders why this anachronism is still allowed in the UK’s schools. As far as I’m aware no other European country stipulates school uniforms for any child,

It seems to me that this head teacher with his imposition of his values on the school is entirely unfit to be in such a position. Surely a strictly secular approach is what should be in place rather than a narrow Christian dogma imposed by someone who appears to be something of a bigot.

Evan Aled Bayton
Evan Aled Bayton
4 months ago

This man sounds totally unsuitable to be the head of a very local school which needs to concentrate on outcome rather than appearances. Getting the children to attend with the intention of getting five GCSEs including maths and English whether they wear suitable length grass skirts or dungarees is the point especially in what has been a challenging school for a long time. School uniform has become a fetish in our politically driven education system and should be dispensed with altogether.

Our Supporters

All information provided to Nation.Cymru will be handled sensitively and within the boundaries of the Data Protection Act 2018.