WORKING with the man dubbed “the head from hell” is “never dull” according to a top Gwent education official.

Will McLean was responding to a question over comments made by Caldicot headteacher Alun Ebenezer to the South Wales Argus in which he complained of a “flawed culture” in Welsh schools.

Mr Ebenezer hit the headlines when he took over at Caldicot in summer 2024 and introduced a uniform crackdown that saw girls sent home over make up and the length of their skirts. An Estyn inspection report this year said the school, that was hit by strike action in 2023 over claims of violence and abuse from pupils, is in overall need of improvement but noted an upturn in behaviour and staff moral.

Before taking over at Caldicot Mr Ebenezer had been labelled “the head from hell” by the tabloid press over his strict uniform standards at schools in England.

Monmouthshire council’s director of education, Mr McLean, told county councillors: “I would say it is never dull working with the headteacher at Caldicot School.”

Caldicot Castle councillor Rachel Garrick, who had raised concerns about the uniform crackdown in 2024 impacting female pupils and previous concerns over the school’s management before Mr Ebenezer’s appointment, raised the newspaper article that featured a “Monmouthshire headteacher” when Mr McLean presented his annual director’s report to the full council.

The Labour member said the head had claimed the “Welsh education system is failing not due to a lack of resources but its culture”. With Monmouthshire schools holding a combined £4 million deficit Cllr Garrick said “I infer that to be a resource issue.”

She asked if Mr McLean agreed schools were “failing” and asked when the council had agreed to “divert” from the child centred approach in the Welsh curriculum.

Mr McLean said he had described education as “flourishing” in Monmouthshire as he presented the conclusion of his report and said: “I don’t believe our education system is failing, I believe it a successful education system with areas we need to focus on and improve still further.”

He also defended Mr Ebenezer who had said had made “an immediate impact” at Caldicot.

He said: “He has attracted attention with his thinking about what school discipline looks like and what school culture could be. What we’ve found when we’ve spoken with Alun, Mr Ebenezer, is within his approach is a child centred approach.

“I know looking in it can sometimes seem this is a ‘my way’ approach to school discipline but I know colleagues have really welcomed they way he has reached out to bring changes to the way school works and the treatment, and support, of additional learning needs and develop a culture that supports all learners.”

Mr McLean said he felt it is a “strength” that Monmouthshire’s four secondaries have their own “unique approaches” but said through a partnership of the four schools “we will see greater commonality and we will see shared standards and aspirations across the four schools.”

He added: “I think the work that the headteacher in Caldicot is doing at the moment is galvanising the school staff and providing them with a structure and a basis for which they will hopefully make improvements they need to move from their Estyn categorisation.

“I would say it’s never dull working with the headteacher at Caldicot School.”

The head of the council’s education service also said heads often hog the headlines, and cited Monmouth Comprehensive headteacher Hugo Hutchinson.

“We see attention on heads all the time. The headteacher in Monmouth was in the press and the BBC for his approach to mobile phones.”