The shocking real reason Mr Povey was indefinitely banned from teaching after Educating Manchester
'I take full responsibility'
When people get banned from their places of work, especially teachers, it poses a lot of questions. And, when it comes to Educating Greater Manchester’s Mr Povey, people were literally left floored to learn that he’d never return to the show, or his job, again.
Since the Channel 4 show wrapped, there’s been a lot of talk of the head teacher. Many remember him as a committed educator, someone who took on one of the toughest schools in Salford and reshaped its fortunes on TV.
But in 2024, a disciplinary decision changed everything. And the reasons behind that ban reveal some big ethical and professional failings, not just minor mistakes.
Mr Povey became a beloved reality TV star
Throwing it back to 2017, and we all saw Drew Povey take over Harrop Fold School (now The Lowry Academy) in Little Hulton, Greater Manchester, during the documentary series Educating Greater Manchester.
Under his leadership, there was real improvement in the school’s reputation, behaviour, and performance, especially given some of the challenges the students and community faced.
His public image was kind of heroic. Mr Povey was a leader willing to be transparent, to show what goes on behind the scenes, to work with students who had been let down elsewhere. Parents and pupils reportedly responded to that honesty, and the show seemed to reflect something meaningful, not just glossy reality TV.
But behind the cameras, the school was feeling the heat to boost its stats, from attendance to exam results. In the push to look better on paper, some choices were made that definitely bent the rules, and those same choices later came back to bite when the investigations began.
Mr Povey ended up banned from teaching
So what exactly did the investigation uncover? According to Manchester World, the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) found several serious breaches. One was something called “off-rolling.”
Off-rolling is basically when pupils are removed from the school roll, not via official exclusion, usually because the school thinks their presence will negatively impact statistics.
The panel concluded that some of this was to improve data, not in the best interest of students.
Falsified attendance records were another reported breach. There were occasions where pupils were marked as being in class when they weren’t.
Teachers were apparently pressured to make attendance figures look better. It’s reported that in some cases, around 600 attendance entries between January and April 2018 were amended just before the summer census.
The school had a “no exclusions” policy. And some pupils were sent home during the school day with or without their parents’ knowledge.
Because of these breaches, the TRA ruled that Mr Povey’s conduct “fell significantly short of standards” and that some of his actions “lacked integrity and/or were dishonest.”
The panel found that pupils might have been put at risk of harm by inaccurate records and by not being properly safeguarded when marked as present but absent.
According to The Manchester Evening News, Mr Povey reportedly said:
“As I’ve said countless times, where administrative mistakes were made on my watch, I take full responsibility.”
In the end, it was recommended Mr Povey was banned from teaching “indefinitely.” His brother, Ross Povey, was also issued the same ban. This meant “they cannot teach in any school, sixth form college, youth accommodation or children’s home in England.”
But, the report added: “They can apply for the prohibition order to be lifted in two years’ time.”
For all the latest reality TV cast member news, scandals, gossip and updates – like Reality Shrine on Facebook.