On the rise City school aiming high again after huge turnaround

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.

- Tristan CORK [e-mail]

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 the Post 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.

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.