A PIONEERING Kent school is at the centre of controversy after being subjected to an online attack by some of its own sixth-formers.

Students at Maidstone's Cornwallis School, now rebranded New Line Learning, used Internet encyclopaedia Wikipedia to question decisions taken since it came under new management a year ago, claiming they could have a detrimental effect on academic results.

But head teacher Chris Gerry described the pupils’ outburst as a “silly prank”.

Among the sixth-formers’ complaints were:

* Spending thousands of pounds on computers and re-branding the school was a waste of money

* Huge open plan classrooms with more than 100 pupils affects concentration and damages their education

At the end of the website article the sixth-formers urged fellow students to join an underground resistance with the objective of “discouraging NLL mentality”.

The three sixth-form boys responsible for the website entry were threatened with legal action over the attack on their head teacher Dr Chris Gerry and the culture at the school since it came under new management in Easter 2005. The article has now been removed from Wikipedia.

Describing it as a “silly prank”, Dr Gerry said the threat of legal action was calculated to impress on pupils the severity of publishing defamatory comments, adding: “We had no intention of suing”.

Dr Gerry, who punished the three students with detentions, said: “I asked them why they hadn’t approached me directly. We had a discussion with them and they basically thought it would be a laugh. We took a different point of view and they feel ashamed of what they did.”

He added: “Re-branding the school, including the new logo and signs, cost £2,250, which is very little if you compare it with the annual budget of £15 million. We have put in extra IT and spent more than £1 million. The school is moving towards a model where children are taught more about independent learning.”

Despite asking to speak to the sixth form students, school staff told the Kent Messenger they did not wish to talk to the press because they felt embarrassed.

New Line Learning was the brainchild of Dr Chris Gerry, the chief executive of the South Maidstone Federation, whose enthusiasm for re-branding the three schools initially left many confused.

He admitted in December the title was one he dreamed up himself and that it was “a concept that doesn’t mean very much at the moment”.

However, he said the intention was that “three years down the track, the idea is people will say 'I don’t mind which school I go to as long as it’s an NLL school because they have the same things in them.”

Governors were initially told the aim was “to develop a branded concept that is distinctive and not geographically limited” and that “around this concept we can list our ideas about modern learning and what it is that such schools offer”.

In a response to a request the Kent Messenger made under the Freedom of Information Act, it emerged that governors, while supporting the idea, rejected early designs of the logo because they feared people might read the word nil rather than NLL.

The logo was designed by a Canterbury design firm Big Ant Studio, who described their brief to develop a logo that was “fresh, not traditional, in keeping with current advertising images” and which would find favour with a “brand-literate target audience”.

The following extracts from the online article written by sixth formers on Wikipedia are expressed as the students’ personal views.

*“The Cornwallis School was one of the leading comprehensive schools in Kent.

Now it will probably struggle to get anywhere near its previous level of success.”

*“Chief executive Chris Gerry believes that spending £500,000 on Tablet PC’s for eleven year olds is a fantastic idea. He seems to prioritise the younger children at the school. “

* “One hundred 12 year olds! Could you control them? Well Chris Gerry believes you can. His theory looks like it will be implemented next year.

It will involve having one hundred twelve year olds in a classroom being lectured by up to three teachers!”

* “Another example of “modernisation” and “enhancement” lies in the entire vocational department. It used to be situated in a cluster of classrooms, which were adequate and students and teachers could concentrate.

Now it is a massive open area which regularly contains 3 or even 4 classes, these multiple classes create an environment which is detrimental to students’ work.”

* “A movement known as La Resistance Pour La Stag has been created in honour of the old Cornwallis logo; a stag. Our objective is to discourage NLL mentality and to promote Cornwallis mentality and eventually bring back the stag.