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PARENTS of pupils at the Gateway Academy have been left angry after a group of 'troublesome' pupils were taken on a snow boarding trip on Friday while the others were taken to an art gallery.

A parent, who did not want to be named, was outraged after finding out about the Year Seven trip to the Chatham Ski Centre in Gillingham, and says it was shrouded in secrecy so that the well behaved' children in year seven didn't find out.

The parent said: "Those kids who lack in concentration or who are troublesome got to go snowboarding on Friday.

"My son would love this but as he is well behaved was not given the chance.

"Those who misbehave get the cream again.

"Disgraceful treatment."

The trip was for a small group of students called the Golden Group, the rest of the Year Seven students were taken to the Tate Modern Gallery in London as part of the Art curriculum.

The Golden group is made up of Year Seven students who come into the academy as poor learners, or who struggle with their interpersonal skills.

Principal Kevin Sadler has defended the Golden Group's trip and says it was a team building exercise.

He said: "On the last Friday of every fortnight we abandon our timetable to focus on one subject from the curriculum for the day, we offer a rich variety of deep learning experiences."

"What happened this time was that children from year seven were taken to an Art Gallery.

"We have children at the school who have very low scores when entering the academy we put them into a group called the Golden group with the aim of really accelerating them in the first year so that they will have caught up with everybody else by year eight.

"The trip to the Chattam Ski Centre was for those pupils who struggle with their interpersonal skills and have difficulty learning, the idea was to focus on team building for the day."

Speaking about the concerns that the troublesome behaviour of some pupils was being rewarded he added: "Some of the pupils in the Golden group aren't badly behaved at all, they have different key needs."

However, the parent who contacted the Gazette feels that the trip could be sending out the wrong message to pupils, saying: "The message this sends out will unravel all the good work put in in recent years to turn this school around, I am bitterly disappointed."

4:30pm Thursday 8th May 2008

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