The remarkable turnaround of the worst school in Bristol

How a new broom has transformed Merchants AcademyHeadteacher at Merchants Academy, Guy Swallow, conducts a meeting with pupils(Image: Merchants Academy)

The headteacher of what was almost certainly the worst school in Bristol just over a year ago has outlined how the school is now on its way to achieving a remarkable turnaround.

Guy Swallow said Merchants Academy was a ‘completely transformed’ school since he took over back in March 2024.

The number of children permanently excluded has been cut from 23 last year to zero this year, while the number of suspensions has dropped 42 per cent, and attendance has jumped from one of the worst in the city to around average.

Mr Swallow told Bristol Live the school still has a long way to go, and there is still much to do, but he said he is confident the South Bristol school has now turned a corner.

The headteacher took over in March last year, having been the headteacher of a school in Somerset for four years. It was a return to the large Withywood school, as it was where he undertook his first placement as a trainee teacher, soon after the former Withywood Comprehensive was taken over by the Society of Merchant Venturers, demolished and a new school building reopened as Merchants Academy back in 2008.

The Ofsted inspection

Nine school days after he took over in the head’s office, Ofsted inspectors arrived. “We had a phone call at 11am on the Monday and they were in the car park at 7.30am on the Tuesday,” remembered Mr Swallow.

The report, when it was published a few weeks later, was one of the most damning verdicts on a school in Bristol ever. The school was failing its pupils academically, but even worse, pupils and teachers painted a picture to the Ofsted inspectors of a school that was essentially out of control, with violent incidents commonplace, and many children – and teachers – feeling unsafe.

“I worked here 14 years ago just after the school reopened so I knew the school, the area and the challenges we all have here,” he said. “I’d had two months before I actually started, getting to know the staff, the pupils and the parents, and the community too, so I knew a bit of what the challenges were, but the Ofsted inspection was a difficult experience.

“It showed just how bad things had got. But it was almost a cathartic period, because I was able to get a handle on what the issues were, how serious they were and we were all able to collectively say that we’ve reached our lowest point, and this is the point we got to where things are going to start to improve,” he explained.

“In retrospect, having Ofsted inspectors go through the school and pinpoint the issues was helpful for me as a newly-arrived headteacher, but at the time it was very difficult,” he added. Within just a couple of weeks, things started to change.

“We have introduced a huge number of different strategies, and put them in place. There’s a thousand smaller strategies but probably the most important thing is that we’ve focused on building relationships,” Mr Swallow said. “A year ago, students would not have talked to the teachers about what was going on. It was clear from the Ofsted that they felt wronged, they weren’t going to a good school, and we wanted to rebuild these relationships.

“That was important to do with parents too – we have had 20 to 25 meetings with parents to talk about how we can all work together to improve things,” he added.

A ‘calm environment’

“In school itself, one of the first things we did was to put systems and processes in place around the school buildings. We introduced a one-way system which now means we can move 800 pupils between lessons in three to three and a half minutes. Before, there were no bells, and things felt chaotic.

“Now things felt calm and orderly, and just a lot more relaxed. The percentage of what we describe as serious incidents, when a child has become physical with another, happens far, far less. It’s difficult to have specific numbers on that, because up until I arrived, these incidents weren’t really properly recorded.

Merchants’ Academy

“I have to say that Ofsted painted an accurate picture of the situation on this. It was one of the first things we tackled. We have a much more robust way of, first, recording these incidents, and they are dealt with far more quickly. We put in much more support for the victims of these incidents and also for the perpetrators, as well as far greater sanctions.

It wasn’t overnight, but within a few weeks, you could feel a different atmosphere walking around. It was a lot calmer and felt less on edge. We have far greater awareness of what’s going on. A year ago, there was no data on what was happening, but every time there was a break or lunch time, there was an incident, every time,” he added.

Within months, this calm had a knock-on effect. With fewer serious incidents, there was less need to impose penalties on children, and more reason for the children bearing the brunt of that before, to come into school.

Headteacher at Merchants Academy, Guy Swallow(Image: Merchants Academy)

In the previous school year, the number of pupils permanently excluded was 23, this school year it’s zero. “I’m confident that there won’t be any permanent exclusions in the rest of this year, and I can’t find many students who you fear that could happen to next year either. We are now in the position where we’re the joint lowest in the whole of Bristol for permanent exclusions, which is an amazing turnaround,” said Mr Swallow.

“The number of pupils suspended, which is usually for a few days, has dropped by 42 per cent. It was very high last year, and has gone down a lot. The other thing is that we don’t send suspended children home anymore. We stopped that. It’s no good just sending children who have been suspended out onto the streets all day, it will make their situation worse. No one wants to see children roaming the streets because they’ve been suspended. So if a child is suspended they still have to come into school and serve that suspension here,” he added.

And attendance is up as well. When Ofsted came, one of the red flags for inspectors was the fact that attendance rates were just 68 per cent. This year that has improved a lot – now it’s at around 82 or 83 per cent. “It’s still something to improve,” said Mr Swallow. “Another key stat is the number of children who are persistently absent, so those who really struggle with coming to school. It’s dropped by a quarter this academic year, so for every four children who were classed as ‘persistently absent’, now only three are. It’s still higher than we’d want – we need to at least reach the Bristol average. We really want all children to be in school all the time,” he said.

Merchants’ Academy

Another metric Mr Swallow shows the school’s progress is the number of children who have left. “I’m really pleased that we’ve not lost a single student to another school in the area,” he said. “In recent years that was really high, where parents walk out of the gates and say ‘I’m done with Merchants Academy’, and get their child admitted somewhere else.

“The children who have left in this past academic year have either been families moving away, or a small number who have chosen to educate their child at home. At the same time, we are seeing a growth in the number of parents who are applying in the school year for their child to come to Merchants. We have had 74 applications to join during this year, that’s a ten percent increase in our roll. I’ve got nine meetings with new parents this week, and I think that figure will pass 80 by the end of the term, and that’s mainly parents opting to move their child out of the school they are at and to come to Merchants,” he added.

The new management

The other huge change in the past year at Merchants Academy was in the school’s leadership, above Mr Swallow. In September 2024, the school formally switched from being part of the now-defunct Venturers Trust, a multi-academy trust run by a partnership between the Society of Merchant Venturers and the University of Bristol.

This organisation had been controversial for years, and after the spring 2024 Ofsted report, local politicians said it had let down a generation of young people in South Bristol. Failings at another major Venturers Trust school – the girls’ school Montpelier High – had been a significant trigger for those in charge to look to transfer their schools, and the much bigger E-ACT Academy Trust chain took over in September last year.

In reality, however, E-ACT were heavily involved in what was effectively a transition year or more, and involved in recruiting Mr Swallow to the school back in late 2023. It has made a big difference, said the new head.

“The leadership capacity with E-ACT is considerably bigger, they are one of the five largest multi-academy trusts in the country. There’s greater support services around things like attendance, leadership, and they bring a real understanding around the context of Merchants Academy. They work almost entirely with schools in the same sort of challenging situations,” he added.

“What is important is that we don’t want Merchants to be great for a year, E-ACT are here for the long term and have a long-term strategy to improve the school,” said Mr Swallow. “I was the fifth headteacher at Merchants in two years, but we want 20 years of being a solid and good school. E-ACT have brought that long term commitment, which we didn’t have before, and they are committed to funding the school to achieve that, and bring expertise, but everyone knows there’s still work to do,” he added.

“We are only going to achieve that by bringing the children, parents and carers and the local community along, and we recognise just how important it is that the school is at the heart of the community.

“We’re a huge site right in the middle of Hartcliffe and Withywood and too often, it’s empty with the gates closed after 5pm. We’ve started really involving the community much more, and have begun to build up an adult education provision too.

Guy Swallow, the new headteacher at Merchants Academy in Withywood(Image: Merchants Academy)

“It’s also really important to us to be part of the solution when it comes to things like knife crime. We’re working closely with other schools in South Bristol, developing PHSE resources. We recognise that challenge, and we want to see ourselves as part of the solution, that we can’t just be responsible for the children’s safety while they are on the school grounds between 8.30 and 3.30.

“In terms of knife crime, it’s a challenge for the whole of South Bristol. We’ve developed new strategies around the anonymous ways of reporting concerns children might have, and we are working with youth organisations and in the community. We’ve just really tried to look outwards and not close our gates. I felt that a year ago because of the leadership, we’d lost the community. They were sad and disappointed with the school that wasn’t engaging with them. Now we’ve got a strong community calendar and the feedback we’ve had has been good,” he added.

Bristol Live WhatsApp Breaking News and Top Stories

Join Bristol Live’s WhatsApp community for top stories and breaking news sent directly to your phone

Bristol Live is now on WhatsApp and we want you to join our community.

Through the app, we’ll send the latest breaking news, top stories, exclusives and much more straight to your phone.

To join our community you need to already have WhatsApp. All you need to do is click this link and select ‘Join Community’.

No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Bristol Live team.

We also treat community members to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. If you don’t like our community, you can check out at any time you like.

To leave our community, click on the name at the top of your screen and choose ‘Exit group’.

If you’re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.

Click here to join our WhatsApp community.

The remarkable turnaround of the worst school in Bristol

Tags: