By Editor,Lettice Bromovsky

Copyright dailymail

Students at Cowes Enterprise College have launched a fierce protest against what they describe as a ‘prison-like’ regime, with hundreds signing a petition demanding immediate changes to strict new school policies that they say are causing widespread anxiety, distress, and humiliation.

The Isle of Wight school, already under fire for controversial rule changes introduced at the start of term, now faces growing pressure from parents and pupils who say the new regime is ‘barbaric,’ ‘authoritarian,’ and causing ‘serious distress’.

Now the students have launched a petition calling for the revision of the rules at their school as it is ‘creating an atmosphere of intimidation’.

The appeal has already has gained more than 600 signatures and says: ‘The measures, which include the use of alarms/music, strict lunchtime and break rules, enforced toilet policies, and being escorted to lessons, have not only been imposed without consultation with students and parents, but also contradict our health and wellbeing.’

The Mail has also been informed that the school has reportedly organised assemblies to show the students why they should be so ‘grateful for their education’.

A student told the Mail: ‘They showed us a video of a girl using a zip wire to get to school in another country. Then the principal told us we should be grateful because some kids have to go through that. We should be lucky we go to the best school on the Isle of Wight.’

They continued: ‘It is disgusting. They are gaslighting us. They told us we should be grateful and that our parents were overreacting.’

Students have reported being denied adequate time to eat, drink or access toilets – with some forced to choose between food and using the bathroom in their limited break windows.

The pupil continued: ‘Then there’s the music. They play this weird slowed-down version of the bake-off theme tune between lessons, and someone I know actually got a detention for not getting into class before it stopped.

‘Literally, the music ended, she walked in, and was given a detention on the spot. And it wasn’t even an after-school detention – it was at lunch, so she lost her lunch break and wasn’t allowed in the canteen. She didn’t get to eat.’

Another student told the Mail she feels like she is in ‘Squid Games’ and that the changes mean she is eating and drinking very little.

‘Every day and every night before school I have had so much anxiety about coming into school. I feel like a dog being walked around constantly.

‘Every day I pack a big lunch hoping I will get time to eat it and every day I have had to throw my lunch away after having just a pack of crisps because you get between 2-10 minutes to eat.

‘When I am not in isolation I don’t go to the toilet once because I feel so embarrassed changing myself on my period or trying to go to the toilet with a teacher waiting right outside the door for me, practically listening in. I’m am so scared of leaking on my period.’

One parent of two students, said the school’s handling of toilet access has been ‘degrading and inhumane.’

‘One little boy wet himself in class because no one came to escort him,’ she said and ‘young girls on their period are expected to ask male teachers for permission and then be chaperoned. There’s no dignity, no flexibility, and no explanation.’

‘I know of at least three kids who queued for the toilet during lunch, then tried to go eat, and were told their time was up. Their lunch was taken away and thrown in the bin.’

She continued: ‘At break, they’re in a walled concrete courtyard. They’re not allowed to run around. They’re not allowed in groups of more than six.

‘If there’s a group of eight, they’re told to split up. They’re basically told to be quiet. It’s like COVID again.

‘My youngest is still in shock. She was so excited after the open evening. She couldn’t wait to start. Now it’s just a completely different school to what we were sold.’

One mother said her daughter is now struggling with ‘anxiety and stress’ after just days back in the classroom.

‘My child and her friend are on the phone talking about their worries about the toilet rules and how they are going to cope,’ she told the Mail.

‘School is suppose to be a place they feel safe, secure, nurtured, encouraged and a place to learn and grow. Instead they feel as though they are in prison like conditions and being treated like cattle in a market.’

A recurring complaint is the lack of transparency. Parents say there was no proper consultation or warning about the sweeping changes.

Some said they only received a generic email after the first few days of chaos: ‘They called complaints ‘teething problems. That’s not what this is. This is systemic. This is serious.’

Several parents suggested the changes are a misguided attempt to crack down on poor behaviour by a small number of pupils – but said the blanket punishments are harming the majority: ‘It’s like collective punishment,’ said one.

‘If a few kids were vaping in the toilets, deal with them. Don’t take toilets away from everyone.’ ‘This isn’t about learning or discipline,’ said another. ‘It’s control.’

Cowes Enterprise College, managed by the Ormiston Academies Trust, previously said the changes were designed to create a ‘calmer, safer environment’ and were based on feedback from parents and staff.

A spokesperson said: ‘We know that new approaches can take time to embed, and we are listening carefully to feedback. Where sensible refinements are needed, we will make them.’

But parents say this statement rings hollow: ‘They say they’re listening but we’ve had no meetings, no replies to letters, no personal responses. They’re not engaging. They’re shutting us out.’

Parents are now calling for an urgent review of the policies and proper consultation with families and students.

Some are even considering pulling their children out of the school: ‘We don’t want to move them. This used to be a brilliant school. But it’s not a healthy learning environment anymore.’

Cowes Enterprise College claims there are many inaccuracies in the allegations being made by parents and pupils.