In order to address National Challenge, the Moseley School Governing Body appointed the substantive Head Teacher of Queensbridge School as the Interim Head Teacher of Moseley School for two terms, based on the recommendations of the Head of School Effectiveness, Jackie Hughes. This decision was made at a Governing Body meeting held on 16th December 2008.
Mr Tim Boyes has been nominated by the LA as an appropriate interim Head Teacher for Moseley…Governors ratified the decision to appoint Tiim Boyes for two terms as the Interim Head Teacher of Moseley School. The GB now faces the challenge of working together, with the interim HT and to recruit a new HT in due course.
Governors were alerted to the fact that there was an upcoming course on Recruiting Senior Leadership and hand-outs were given relating to this.
The Interim Head did not start work at Moseley School until 1st January 2009. On 19th January 2009, the Chair of Governors and Interim Head Teacher met with LA officials and were presented with the National Challenge Action Plan which stated that a Soft Federation has been agreed with a LA school to start January 2009 and that there was a Federative Head Teacher in place. This is factually incorrect. It would appear the Local Authority had brokered this arrangement without the consent of the Governing Body or the Governing Body ratifying it.
When the Interim Head Teacher was appointed in December 2008, the Local Authority made no mention of federation. Had it done so, Governors would have pointed out that this may lead to problems resulting from a conflict of interest where the Interim Head Teacher is also the substantive Head of a school with which the Local Authority wanted to establish a federation.
In additon, under the National Challenge Action Plan there was an obligation from Queensbridge to assist with governance.
Attendance at Governing Body meetings in partnership school as observers; Advice, guidance and support from Chair of Governors of partnership school re roles, responsibilities procedures of governing body...
This particular support - quantified as 3 days and costed under the Plan - never materialised during the 2009 academic year.
At a Full Governing Body meeting held on 4th February 2009, the term soft federation was first mentioned. Extracts of minutes:
Visit by Jackie Hughes [Head of School Effectiveness]: Jackie has offered to meet with Governors to explain the meaning of ‘Federation’ and to map out the implications of this. She will bring with her the Lead Officer with the understanding of Federations from a legal perspective, Andrew Dixon. This will be an extra, special meeting. Governors expressed their concern about the speed with which changes had taken place, and the lack of consultation. Tim explained that as a National Challenge School there had been effectively no choice in the matter, but that at least Birmingham was trying to adopt a more gentle approach than central Government. The designation was ‘Soft Federation’, or ‘Learning Partnership’ which meant that the Head Teacher of another local school could, with the agreement of that school, be posted for a limited period. It was agreed that a meeting would instil more clarity into the situation, and that all wanted the best way forward for the school. The date was agreed for Tuesday 3rd March, at 6.00 p.m.
There was an Emergency Governing Body meeting on 3rd March 2009 and instead of explaining soft federation, the Head of School Effectiveness and the Lead Officer for Federations said 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.
On 23rd March 2009 the Governing Body received a Statutory Warning Notice from Tony Howell in which he states:
"However, in the feedback that I have received both from the acting Headteacher and from officers who have attending recent meetings of the Governing Body, suggests that the Governing Body appears incapable of fulfilling its statutory responsibilities and strategic role due to the quality of relationships between members and the impact that this has on meetings."
So within weeks of appointing Tim Boyes as Interim Head Teacher, he - with the support of LA officers (who only ever attended one or two Governing Body meetings) - instigated the removal of the Governing Body - the very Governing Body that had appointed him for two terms to raise standards and attainment! Once a school is issued with a Statutory Warning Notice, it hangs like the Sword of Damocles.
Despite having low expectations of the Moseley School Governing Body, Moseley School GCSE results increased by 7% to 33% whilst Queensbride fell by15% to 30%. Furthermore, there are secondary schools in Birmingham whose 2009 GCSE results were lower than in 2008 or have yet to exceed 30% despite receiving support from National Challenge. No Statutory Warning for these schools and no-one has instigated the removal of their respective Governing Bodies. Double standards.
