Gable Hall School

Ortu Gable Hall School (formerly Gable Hall School) is an oversubscribed coeducational secondary school academy and sixth form located in Corringham (near Stanford-Le-Hope) in Thurrock, Essex, England. Previously a foundation school administered by Thurrock Council, the school academized on 1 July 2011 and became a multi-academy trust in 2013. In 2017 the school was rebranded as Ortu Gable Hall, ortu being Latin for "rising", alongside the trust's rebrand under the same moniker. The trust is now called the Ortu Federation and the school is sponsored by it. Ortu Gable Hall School offers GCSEs and BTECs as programmes of study for pupils, while students in the sixth form have the option to study from a range of A Levels and further BTECs. Since 2002 the school has been a specialist arts college (performing arts) and was previously an applied learning college from 2007. Controversies In April 2013, Peter Goldsmith, a former teacher at Gable Hall and Westcliff High School for Boys, admitted to downloading child abuse images. He pled guilty to three charges in exchange for avoiding jail time. Principal Sophina Asong made a statement in response in which it was reassured that the school knew there were "no direct links to any of our students" and that it had been "working closely with the Local Authority Safeguarding Officer for Thurrock to ensure that provision is available to support our students and parents should any specific safeguarding concerns regarding this individual emerge at this point." In September 2021 a social media post about a teacher at the school allegedly calling Year 11 students "retards", "cowards" and "chicken sh**s" in an assembly went viral. Principal Ceril Evans stated that "It has come to my attention that a member of my teaching staff has made derogatory comments to the cohort of Year 11 students. As a school, we do not tolerate or accept such behaviour." The teacher was then suspended, pending an investigation. In response, some parents and ex-pupils came to the teacher's defence and campaigned for his reinstatement. The students who reported him were called "snowflakes" and "push buttons" and the teacher's suspension was lifted later that week.