Why has the popular head of a Catholic school in west London been suspended?
Cardinal Wiseman School in Ealing, west London, is proud of its headteacher. Its website trumpets a “track record of outstanding achievement” beginning in September 1997 when “a new headteacher, Mr Patrick, arrives.” The school’s GCSE results in 1998 and 1999 were the best it had known. In 1999 it was named the second most improved school in London by the Times Educational Supplement and one of the country’s best technology schools by the Technology Colleges Trust. The next year Ofsted called it “outstanding”. And so on, pages of it, right up to another “outstanding” from Ofsted in 2008 and one from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Westminster this year. What the website doesn’t tell you is that Paul Patrick, 53, hasn’t been allowed into the school since March. He is barred from speaking to anyone associated with it, and no one wants to talk about him. Local MP Steve Pound used to visit the school regularly and bathe in Mr Patrick’s reflected glory. Now a written statement from his wife,
