- estimate that a staggering 84% of families completed the survey, over 300 comments
- Governing Body fully committed to listening to the voice of all parents, as reflected in the survey and taking the school positively forward (OK, listening, but doing WHAT precisely?)
- pretty good scores for the 4 questions re Catholic Ethos, yet Action Plan had a huge 10 suggestions in this area (orchestra playing while Titanic goes down??)
- Curriculum questions - generally positive responses but some criticism of provision for minorities eg SEN, under achievers, over achievers. However, no indication of widespread panic re educational standards such as we would expect after receiving Bishop Stack's letter in May...
- So, the main focus was on...surprise... "welcome and welfare". Alarmingly high scores for "not very much" for approachability of staff and Head, do you feel welcome (31% not very much., so that has to be more than the 3 nutter parents they think are the total number of complainants...)
- Finally our own dear Governors...not surprisingly poor results for whether they are discharging their Governance responsibility properly - this is as much about us being ignorant of who and what they are...action here was...photos of Governing Body and staff in Reception (not there when I last went in on Monday - they can borrow my camera if they want, or are they waiting to see who is still around in September?) Then followed by, and excuse me while I laugh at this one, information made available to parents mostly through the website - which one? The one that Mrs Cleugh closed down? Well, if Governors want to post info on THIS website they are most welcome
A tragi-comedy if ever there was one
Over to you parents, you filled in the survey, what do you think?
2 comments:
Over the years at St Vincents I have seen several elections of parent governors. Without fail, they have all parroted similar aspirations to be 'a listening ear in the playground''a voice for parents concerns' all the usual grassroots bla bla. What I have learned is that it is meaningless. These people have their reasons for being governors, but they are not the same as their stated manifesto. That, by their actions over the past year, is MANIFESTLY obvious. There are also those governors who were not elected by the parents ( foundation governors) who didn't even need to bother to blether about their noble intentions. Whether elected or not, what they all evidently share, is a high handed 'we know best' attitude.
Judging by the way in which they have dealt with a slew of complaints and concerns over the past year, their only real concern is for themselves keeping on the right side of the diocese. To that end they have betrayed the very spirit of ALL that school governance purports to stand for.
Their arrogant response to our concern is, for me, a lesson for life. Never again will I underestimate the human capacity for pious hypocrisy and cant.
The peasants were revolting and the questionnaire was something rustled up as a sop to throw at the villeins.It was never going to be taken seriously, if that wasn't glaringly obvious before, it certainly is now.
The diocese are in a spot of bother at the moment over the treatment of a teacher from Cardinal Hinsley by the head teacher there. She ( the head), of course, had George Stacks full support.
This no longer surprises me. I have come to believe that we are being led by a cabal of smooth tongued,artful and utterly self interested pharisees, skilled at cloaking their real motivations beneath a veneer of religiose speak and faux sincerity.
They're fooling some, they may even be fooling themselves, but they are not fooling me.
Are they fooling you?
Well the Governors did follow through on one action - they have used the school newsletter to communicate to us parents. But what have the actually said? One was to pat themselves on the back and ask us to show our support for them, and the other was to complain about this blog. You would have thought that a schedule of their meetings would be easy enough to produce. Perhaps they have not actually done anything worth reporting...
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