Parents meeting this last week was good by all accounts. The all out war that the Governors feared and perhaps some others wanted did not take place. More on this in a minute. It was great to see our Governors put forward some very sensible thoughts following the survey that had taken place. The presentation was very professional and questions handled well. Content was generally good and a lot of work had gone into preparing for this. Thank you Governors.
There was no apology for the previous silence from the Governing Body, which was a shame, although there was some admission it needed to improve. This activity, though, can at last start laying to rest the idea that the Governors are not communicating. Of course, the proof of the pudding will be, as they say, in the eating.
It was, therefore, reassuring to hear that the Governors are proposing to redo the survey at some point in the future so that they can see if things are improving. This will mean, of course, that the questions on the survey will need to remain the same for the time being. Most of us can live with that.
For people reading this blog and wondering about this school it can be happily said that overall this was a job very well done by the Governing body.
As mentioned above, no wars broke out in the meeting. This is because we all observed an undeclared truce on the subject of the head-teacher. I think this was the right thing to do. The lady was there in the room for one thing. Also, it would have been a shame to derail the progress that was being made. Some people were very frustrated that this area was not raised, but I suspect others were very relieved. Anyway, I will pick this up in my next post...
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Teresa Anderson aka Teresa Roscow, parent of 2 children at St V (and two older ones who were at the school)
I was at the Governors Meeting on Thursday. I went because of the fuss re why there had not been one and this was important for the school. The last one I went to was 2004, the first back in 1996, so I am a bit of a veteran, but they are usually v boring, with the Governors outnumbering the parents. I didn't know about the Blog until that daft Governor told us all about it...
I have a few comments which may be useful.
Firstly there were a few misunderstandings/miscommunications cleared up (I thought so anyway) eg the Survey was an Ofsted standard one; data protection prevents the school circulating the names of classmates; reception area signing in is because of security required by law, ditto the 6 ft fence (sic) - that's for the security of our children; the website is locked as is by the web designer - Mr Murphy did not realise this, it can't be amended...etc. I can see how conspiracy theories can be built up because the Head has arrived at a time when new procedures need to be implemented and/or were not in place already. This is a problem of lack of communication...
Also the valiant action of the Governors to allay fears/concerns brought up by the survey - well done Governors.
However, as someone had said in this Blog before, it was like we were all ignoring the "elephant in the room" but the problem is that there is not agreement on the exact nature of that Elephant...if anyone thought that a group of parents were going to stand up and say "this house has no confidence in the head" then that was hoping for too much. Or even less likely that one parent would fall on their sword by standing up...
That is the weird nature of the accusations, some are anonymous (but not any less true for that...) and some are passed on from others, and some are feelings rather than fact. What worries me is that it is getting out of hand with not much evidence that it willl get cleared up in the near future. I fear for parents new to the school and prospective parents who must be forming a very bad view of the school.
What we need to focus on is solving the problem and not endless chatter about it. I suggest two focal points for action:
firstly what is the exact nature of the complaint (ie what can stand up as proper evidence)
secondly who to take this to - is it LEA, diocese, MP etc. I am sure that these authorities have been approached already, but surely if there was a concerted stream of letters from parents then they would take action???
I am (maybe naievely) seeking a meeting with my Parish Priest at Holy Family...
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