Introduction to the issue the school faces and goal of this petition.

Beckfoot Oakbank School stated new rules regarding toilet usage during class times on Friday the 14th of January, 2022. They listed rules that would be enforced in a few weeks that banned students from using the toilets during class times without a key provided by their teacher along with their signature in the student's planner. They also listed rules that would ban students from being late to class, which resulted in a 2 day exclusion. These rules made students feel that the
school was slowly becoming a prison, and that is why this petition exists. The goal of this petition is to encourage change in the school to the rules stated before and provide new ways for the school to stop students from skipping classes or being late
to class deliberately. The petition will be split into 3 sections to make it seem less daunting to read. 'Evidence + Reviews', 'Ofsted Report' and 'Improvements to the school'. 'Evidence + Reviews' will list evidence that shows that the rules being made make the school more dangerous and the rules are causing more problems than they are solving. 'Ofsted Report' will list reviews on Ofsted which corroborate the claim that the school is not helping children learn. 'Improvements to the school' will list alternatives that the school can use to stop students from skipping classes without damaging the school through all the student's eyes.

Section 1: Evidence + Reviews

Subsection 1: Evidence

Cracking down on students going to the toilet can be harmful for a number of reasons, 3 of which should be addressed here.

#1: Periods
A large amount of students at Beckfoot Oakbank are female, therefore there is a large issue on the topic of periods. If a student urgently needs to leave due to there period this will be a struggle due to the new rules that have been enforced, periods can not be controlled and start spontaneously at anytime of any day. The new rules mean that if you need to use the toilet, due to the toilets being locked, you need to find a teacher with a key who is walking the corridor. This takes time and in an urgent situation is not ideal, it can even lead to embarrassment for the student. This is made worse by the one way system that makes it difficult to find a teacher as your both spiralling each other. Also with one set of toilets accessible at breaks and lunch, about 600 females per month will have to access these toilets, this results in long toilet lines and even not having enough time to have lunch which will effect usual toilet use.

#2: Dangers
Holding in urine can be very dangerous if done regularly as it can increase the risk of UTI, incontinence, kidney stones, stretched bladder or at worst, your bladder bursting (source: https://www.thesun.co.uk/fabulous/9609465/holding-pee-increases-infection-risk/ ). These risks (albeit at low chances of happening) can put students at risk.

#3: Discomfort
The school has banned going to the toilets during classes without the teachers key, but they haven't considered the fact that if a student needs to go to the toilet but can't, they will struggle to focus on their classwork, which could get them into trouble.

Subsection 2: Reviews

Reviews reveal a lot about how the students of Oakbank feel about their school, and that is what will be shown now. The points of interest will be listed above the link of the site showing the reviews.

"I honestly hate that school. I’m not even going to lie to you guys, there a few teachers that are lovely but the rest are horrible to the students. I got out in IEU (isolation) for a day because I had a tiny nose stud in, if you wear trainers and refuse to change into school wear, you get put in IEU(isolation)!! It’s ridiculous that school. I personally would advise not to send your children to this school."

"Worst school I've been to. As others have said, the homophobia, transphobia, racism and sexism is appalling, and the teachers couldn't care less. Me and my friends got literally hate crimed by the same boy in two totally separate incidents, and the school completely ignored it. And I'm autistic, and they refused to give any evidence for my EHCP, and when I finally got one without their help, they immediately admitted they couldn't meet any of my needs outlined in it. The vast majority of the staff are just really horrible people and seem to hate the majority of students, especially the students in minority groups. Do not ever send your children here unless you literally have no other choice."

"This school is literally laid out like a prison and if you don’t learn the way most people do isn’t very supportive of that. There is no way if I had a child I would ever send them here for many reasons.
A. The food is very overpriced for what you get.
B. The school is filled with racism, homophobia and transphobia.
C. The building its self is absolutely shocking it’s too hot in summer and freezing in winter.
DO NOT COME TO THIS SCHOOL."

"Horrible! So many bad things I could say about this school but one of the biggest was when my maths teacher got moved to teach the higher set as they will give the school better exam results as we got given 6 teachers in a space of a matter of months! In addition they should be ashamed of how they handled the situation when the school re-opened because of Covid-19 with stupid shoe checks at the door resulting in students being huddled together (not social distancing) at the entrance. If the students don't have the correct foot wear they are forced to remove them and wear shoes other students have worn. DO NOT GOT TO THIS SCHOOL!"

"This school is really not the best, the horrible head teacher makes her school feel like a prison, it seems like all the school funding goes to Beckfoot and is not shared across the schools, and the racism and sexism is unbelievable. Honestly I’m surprised I left with decent grades, as the teacher always seemed too busy to teach and mark books. However the only good thing was the old catering menu, sadly this was gotten rid of by Beckfoot so that all their schools could have the same rubbish food. Overall this school is too small, is full of horrible senior leadership, and really needs to improve on its welfare for students."

All of these reviews were found on the same website ( https://www.schoolparrot.co.uk/schools/beckfoot-oakbank-108063 )

Section 2: Ofsted Report

Ofsted's report of Beckfoot Oakbank is very telling as to the quality of teaching in the school.

To quote Ofsted directly from their latest report ( https://files.ofsted.gov.uk/v1/file/50084927 ):
"What does the school need to do to improve further?
-- Improve the quality of teaching, learning and assessment by:
– ensuring that teachers’ expectations of pupils are raised so that the quality of
pupils’ work improves, and pupils make better progress
– reducing the variability in the quality of teaching and learning across the school,
particularly in English, mathematics and science, so that the majority is at least
good
– ensuring that the progress of those pupils who are disadvantaged and/or with
SEND improves rapidly
– ensuring that the work set for pupils is challenging and encourages them to make
at least good progress in their lessons.
-- Improve the personal development, behaviour and welfare of pupils by:
– ensuring that the school’s systems to manage pupils’ behaviour effectively are
consistently applied by all staff
– urgently improving the attendance of all pupils, including those pupils who are
disadvantaged, and reducing the number of pupils who are regularly absent.
-- Improve leadership and management by:
– prioritising the actions which will have most impact on the rapid improvement of
pupils’ learning and progress
– developing leaders’ skills in using school information to identify the need for further
actions so that improvements can be made quickly and effectively."

Ofsted themselves say that the school requires improvement in every single area except '16 and 19 study programmes', which is mainly made positive by the behaviour of the sixth form.

Section 3: Improvements to the school

Subsection 1: Issues at hand

This subsection will list the immediate issues the school faces. 3 solutions will be listed below the issue.

Issue #1: Students commonly skip classes without punishment.
Solution 1-1: Begin putting cameras in the sink areas of the toilets to see who goes in and out of the toilets. This could help you see which students are skipping and take further action from there.
Solution 1-2: Ensure teachers send the register to the office on time to see who is skipping classes and when. If a student simply forgets to say their name in the register, check CCTV of the classroom to see if they are in the room at the lesson.
Solution 1-3: Have the staff nearby the toilets monitor them to make sure that the students that go into the toilets leave before their lesson.

Issue #2: Students are deliberately late to classes to get out of doing some of the work.
Solution 2-1: Escort students to their classroom if they are seen outside of class up to 10 minutes after the bell has rung.
Solution 2-2: Ask students where their class is if the bell has already rung and they are still outside of their class and if they are seen again, a staff member will escort them to their class.
Solution 2-3: Escort students to G33 if they are seen outside of class without a note from their teacher after the bell has rung. This is excused if they have a sufficient reason. An example of a sufficient reason would be that they are in a wheelchair or have to use crutches etc.

Subsection 2: Other issues

This subsection will list the issues that could make students feel safer or enjoy the school more. This could lead to less students causing the issues already addressed and as a result making the issues easier to handle.

Issue #3: Students do not feel safe at school because they fear that they could be attacked or targeted by people.
Solution 3-1: Have multiple staff members outside during break and lunch monitoring the students to make sure no one is getting yelled at or attacked.
Solution 3-2: Have staff members in the corridors during students moving to their classes to make sure no one is getting yelled at or attacked.
Solution 3-3: All of the above. This would be good because they can make sure the students feel safe and can go to school without fearing abusive behaviour

Issue #4: Students suffering from mental health issues cannot get the help they need from the school counsellors.
Solution 4-1: Let the students be absent from school for however long they need to be able to recover (talk to their therapist (if they have one) to make 
sure that they get the time they need off).
Solution 4-2: Give them tutoring at home so they don't feel the burden of being in school when they are uncomfortable with it.
Solution 4-3: Give them half days and have them leave early so they have less of an uncomfortable time at school, as they know staff are doing their best to make sure that the person gets the help they need.

Conclusion

Hopefully, this document can shed some light on the more ignored issues Beckfoot Oakbank faces and call for change to the rules. In conclusion, Beckfoot Oakbank School has set up rules that punish the majority for a minority's mistakes. This makes it difficult for the students that have done nothing wrong to speak up and have their voice heard instead of getting punished for the misbehaving students in their years, who they have no control over. 

Summary

In summary, this petition is encouraging the change of the rules enforced on 14th January 2022. It states that the school is unfairly punishing students for the minority of students who skip classes or are intentionally late to classes with the intention of doing less work. This petition has provided solutions to these issues (See 'Improvements to the school') and further issues such as bullying and mental health issues.