At an Emergency Governing Body meeting held on 3rd March 2009, the Head of School Effectiveness and the Lead Officer for Federations explained that Moseley School had to establish a National Challenge Hard Federation with Queensbridge School and that it was fait accompli.
Local Authority officers gave incorrect and misleading advice in respect to the process of establishment and composition of a Hard Federation Governing Body contrary to the 2007 Regulations on School Federations which requires Governing Bodies of schools that intend to federate to be dissolved and elections to take place for both Parent and Staff Governors. They said:
It is the Government’s proposal to leave the ‘successful’ school’s GB intact
… a group of the N[ational] C[hallenge] Governors would transfer to the federative G[overning] B[ody]…. and it is expected that between 4 and 8 Governors would make the transfer…
In advocating that the strong school’s Governing Body would remain intact and handpicked Governors from the weak school would transfer to the strong school, the Local Authority officers intended to disempower Moseley School’s key stakeholders.
However, it was not fait accompli because later in the year, Moseley School's GCSE results for five GCSEs including English and Maths went up 7% to 33% and Queensbrdige fell by 15% to 30%. The Office of the Schools Commissioner expressed consternation at Queensbridge's 2009 GCSE results and so City Council's proposal for a hard federation with Queensbridge School was aborted.
