A strict headmaster dubbed the ‘headteacher from hell’, has said he does not care about being called ‘old-school’ for cracking the whip.
Alun Ebenezer, head of Caldicot School in Caldicot, Monmouthshire, was brought in by the county council as an emergency measure in June last year.
The state secondary school in the south Wales market town had been struggling. The place was run by its more than 1,300 students, teaching unions had suggested.
Teachers were striking over pupil behaviour, with some refusing to teach certain students they saw as especially dangerous to them. Many pupils were terrified too, parents reported.
Though Mr Ebenezer was initially appointed as acting head for six months, he is still in post, having agreed to stay until August 2026 – and the school looks rather different.
With Saturday detentions, parents asked to accompany their child in lessons if they misbehave, girls sent home over skirt length and what Mr Ebenezer thought could be a record number of exclusions, he has well and truly cracked down on misbehaviour.
But the 50-year-old headteacher told WalesOnline he is quite happy to be considered ‘old-school’: ‘There’s no school like the old school. Honestly, I don’t care what people think of me regarding that…
‘There were lots of things that weren’t wrong and we’ve kind of thrown the baby out with the bathwater.’
Alun Ebenezer (pictured), head of Caldicot School in Caldicot, Monmouthshire, was brought in by the county council as an emergency measure in June last year
The 50-year-old headteacher (pictured) said he is quite happy to be considered ‘old-school’: ‘There’s no school like the old school. Honestly, I don’t care what people think of me’
Caldicot School (pictured) had been struggling. The place was run by its more than 1,300 students, teaching unions had suggested
The teacher, who grew up a ‘free school meal boy’ in the village of Beaufort, Blaenau Gwent, explained: ‘You learn from the past. There were things that went on when I was a child which were wrong.’
He remembered particularly a teacher who had been bitten by a child biting the child back as punishment: ‘Really wrong.
‘But there were lots of things that weren’t wrong and we’ve kind of thrown the baby out with the bathwater.
‘Part of the problem, I believe, is that the pendulum has swung too far the other way. Now the children are in charge.’
Mr Ebenezer, also an author and public speaker, has not hesitated to rectify that at Caldicot School.
He said he would not be surprised if he had set a new record for the highest number of exclusions in a year.
But he explained he is not just doing this for its own sake – it can be ‘inclusive’ to include a student causing a lot of disruption.
The headteacher continued: ‘We put people in prison to make everyone else feel included and safe in our society so why not in schools? It’s the same principle.’
The teacher (pictured), who grew up a ‘free school meal boy’ in the village of Beaufort, Blaenau Gwent, explained: ‘You learn from the past. There were things that went on when I was a child which were wrong’
He recently excluded a ‘nice’ boy from a ‘nice’ family – and dubbed it a ‘necessary’ consequence for his actions.
The headmaster said: ‘If you’ve got someone who is disruptive and became of them you’ve got 29 people in that class who feel uncomfortable and can’t get on, then sometimes you exclude to include.’
That is not all – Mr Ebenezer, whose surname could see some compare him to a certain grouchy Dickens character, has introduced Saturday detentions too.
He is not a fan of having to come in on a Saturday as it is a massive nuisance to him too – but he is committed to the idea that students’ poor actions must have consequences.
Last weekend, four of the 15 students expected at Saturday detention did not show up – so they were excluded.
The head also punishes students for bad behaviour by making their parents come into school to sit next to them during lessons.
He had been in post for just weeks when there was uproar among parents, including threats at the school gates, for him sending girls home over skirt length – which he has denied monitoring with a tape measure.
While head of another school, in 2022, he sent 50 children home in one day over uniform violations – including wearing too-short black socks and skirts of the incorrect length.
While head of another school, in 2022, he sent 50 children home in one day over uniform violations – including wearing too-short black socks and skirts of the incorrect length
Furious parents hit out at the school and accused Mr Ebenezer of being ‘heavy-handed’ and running a ‘police state’.
But the head – who previously ran Fulham Boys School in London where a Rastafarian boy was asked to shave off his hair if he wanted to attend lessons – defended the zero-tolerance policy at the time, saying any slips in discipline ‘leads to carnage’.
Mr Ebenezer’s efforts have seen him hit the headlines more than a few times throughout his career.
But he said he has mainly had a positive reaction to these stories: ‘That tells me this has captured the mood of the nation.’
Indeed, he said at his more than 1,300-student school, he has fewer than a dozen parents complaining to him about his disciplinary endeavours – which he thinks is telling.
But though Mr Ebenezer is known for cracking the whip, Caldicot School’s walls are also covered with reminders to, ‘Be kind to yourself’, and, ‘Speak to yourself like you’d speak to your friend’.
Perhaps such words are needed, when young people’s lives are made chaotic and stressful by social media.
The headteacher said: ‘They’re having to navigate things now that we never had to think about.’
Previously, at Caldicot School (pictured), teachers were striking over pupil behaviour, with some refusing to teach certain students they saw as especially dangerous to them. Many pupils were terrified too, parents reported
Particularly, social media apps, he said, encourages ‘obsession with, “Me, me, me”‘: ‘If we stop being so obsessed with ourselves, maybe we’d be a bit happier…
But perhaps the disproportionate focus on happiness, too, is unhelpful, he said: ‘We tell young people, “Be whatever you want to be that makes you happy”.
‘And, “The most important thing is that you’re happy”. We’ve rammed this down their throats, this obsession with being really happy.
‘And yet, they’ve never been more entertained but they’re bored and they’ve never been more indulged but they’re unhappy. It’s not working.
‘Equally, I don’t believe in beating this generation up for that. We created this generation.’
One in five children aged eight to 16 have a ‘probable’ mental health disorder – up from one in eight in 2017, according to the Centre for Social Justice.
It is predicted it could be one in four children by 2030, if we keep moving in the same direction, the thinktank said.
Young people in the UK have higher mental health needs than ever, charity Mind has said.
But though Mr Ebenezer is known for cracking the whip, Caldicot School’s (pictured) walls are also covered with reminders to, ‘Be kind to yourself’, and, ‘Speak to yourself like you’d speak to your friend’.
But Mr Ebenezer said we might be ‘over-labelling’ people as having mental health issues – when actually, it could just be that they are experiencing life’s everyday difficulties.
He said: ‘At the moment, as soon as people feel anxious, it’s anxiety and as soon as people feel sad, it’s depression. Sometimes, maybe, it’s just life.’
Though he was quick to emphasise: ‘That doesn’t mean if young people are struggling, they shouldn’t ask for help. Of course they should. Asking for help is a great thing and is about taking responsibility.’
Mr Ebenezer also touched on the issue of violent crime in schools, saying it will be a ‘very sad day’ if schools are asked to conduct security checks on pupils.
When working in London, his school only had one CCTV camera on the deliveries area and never used metal detectors or locked classrooms.
He said: ‘We’re trying to create a culture. It’s an approach. It’s about creating a culture where knife crime isn’t even on the agenda.’
The issue of violent and gender-based crime in schools has faced greater scrutiny in recent times following smash hit Netflix series Adolescence, about a boy who stabs a female classmate to death after being exposed to online misogyny.
The issue of violent and gender-based crime in schools has faced greater scrutiny in recent times following smash hit Netflix series Adolescence (pictured)
The show’s (pictured) themes are a matter of fact, not just fiction. The number of violent crimes in UK schools has risen by nearly 25 per cent from 2021 to 2024
The show’s themes are a matter of fact, not just fiction. The number of violent crimes in UK schools has risen by nearly 25 per cent from 2021 to 2024, according to a Freedom of Information request sent to police by ITV.
Almost 100,000 offences were reported, including allegations of stalking and 4,500 instances of students having weapons on them.
The National Crime Agency warned earlier this week that ‘sadistic and violent’ teen boys are committing extreme crimes – like that portrayed in Adolescence – after seeing graphic content online and becoming ‘desensitised’ to it.
Mr Ebenezer said schools need to be ‘no-nonsense’ about their approach to student violence – with any students involved permanently excluded as a matter of course.
But he added: ‘At the same time, you have to find out why on Earth a kid feels they have to take a knife into school.’
He explained why he thinks young men are being radicalised by online misogyny and violence.
He said: ‘Young boys are being told masculinity is toxic. I don’t believe masculinity is toxic. I believe it can be. But that is the message being fed to these young boys, that it’s toxic. And they don’t know where to turn.’
Mr Ebenezer said we might be ‘over-labelling’ people as having mental health issues – when actually, it could just be that they are experiencing life’s everyday difficulties. Pictured: Caldicot School
The head added: ‘Boys don’t know how to be now. It’s an identity issue. Why has Andrew Tate had so many hits on his website? Because society is pushing boys to extremes and it’s so dangerous.’
Mr Ebenezer is, to a fault, ambitious. Next year’s co-curriculum, currently being developed, will include trips to South Africa and Brazil.
With 14 per cent of Caldicot students on free school meals – while others are ‘pretty affluent’, he said – any children who cannot afford the trips will be sponsored or crowdfunded for.
By the time he leaves in August, he hopes to have made Caldicot School one of Wales’ best comprehensives.
His approach is heavily informed by a colleague’s advice from when he was assistant head at a school in the town of Treorchy, the best school in Wales at the time.
The head there told him: ‘”Alun, if you’re not part of the solution in six months, you’re part of the problem”. That’s always stuck with me.’
