Vote of No Confidence in the Board of Governors’ at St John the Baptist Primary School

Premature retirement can be taken by anyone regardless of at threat of redundancy or not! Again, I'm pretty sure the teacher mentioned will not thank you for bringing him in to this! Please stop.......no more! It's insensitive and unnecessary!

Dear All Having read the comments, please see examples of the issues raised by a concerned parent. • Most parents at the school are not aware that the Deputy Head Teacher was being made redundant and that is the reason why he took pre-mature retirement. Parents in the playground complaining about the letter written by the governors - quote “who uses that terminology, its early retirement”. What they don’t realize is that premature retirement can only be taken when someone is faced with redundancy. If that is the governor’s attempt at being transparent by using jargon that is not understood by the masses then that is a very poor show. • We do not receive a wealth of information from the governors regarding issues that they are discussing or have discussed. In fact when Chris Haward stepped down as chair of governors a letter written by the governors actually brought about the parents tongues wagging. There may have been a few parents gossiping in the playground but the majority of the parents and teachers had no idea about why Chris Haward stepped down, (most assuming he had served his time and wanted to take a well earned break) and were certainly not talking about it until they received the letter telling everyone to stop gossiping. • A letter we recently received advising of the meeting for the parents so that they could understand the new curriculum stated that for those parent who were not able to attend the meetings a copy of the information would be available on the school website the following week. This information was only sent out today (two weeks later)…… and based on the fact that the school has over 450 children and on the assumption that the majority of children do have 2 parents (co-habiting or not) and that only 100 parents were able to make the meeting then only 1 in 9 parents have had their needs catered for when it comes to understanding. The assumption has been made around attending the meeting and comments made about take persona

I have only just had time to read and digested this and must admit, I am fairly disappointed that there is a need to encourage people to Jump on the bandwagon of their personal views. The governors give their own time and dedication to assist the school in driving forward! I think most parents will have a complaint/ differing opinion, or two, about certain aspects or decisions that the school or governors will make but let's face it, you cannot please everyone all of the time. Key to my considerations on which side of the fence I sit are: 1) do they act in the best interest of my child 2) is student care and learning first and full most 3) are they doing what many of us shy away from......including me! 4) what does my child think of the school and how it operates? My child continues to be challenged and encouraged to achieve her optimum year in year out. Every year her desire and progress has exceeded expectation through the the mechanisms and support that the school offer. I applaud the governors and thank them for supporting my child to have the best opportunity of achieving everything she wants from life. I don't know the circumstances that have developed to this petition, nor do I know who (nor do I wish to know), but I would ask that you work on a one to one with the school and it's governors and avoid leaving a trail of destruction that may cause larger and longer term reputational damage based on just your personal views. I wish you luck in resolving your differences but for the sake of clarity, I think the board of governors do a great job. Peter Ball

12 years ago Featured

Just a note to thank the Governing body for their hard work and generous time giving. It is appreciated and valued by the vast majority of parents and children, and recognised as a sincere effort to support our school in a challenging environment. I hope that the concerned parent can discuss their issues with one of the governors, soon, as they clearly have some deep seated concerns they need to air. I hope, too, that they may be able to offer the school and governing body their own skills and expertise to improve things for all in a constructive way. Mags Lewis

That's interesting..... I mentioned that the current Governing body has lost touch with the needs of the children and their parents and my children's have received a poor education thus far, and you choose to comment on where to find the name of the Chair of Governors'! Have you looked on the school website lately, the last letter you wrote to parent listed on the website was in April. The school website is supposed to be a portal of information for parents, especially parents who work during the day and are unable to attend meetings or any other school function during the day. Furthermore, the office staff doesn’t always reply to email, or they don't pass on information in a timely manner and they close at 5pm. I requested information and it took a week to get it. What makes you think I didn't attend the governor/parent forum?... A hundred or so, hardly! We are parents who take our children's education very seriously and make every effort to be active participants in our children's school life while juggling full time work and various other commitments. I suppose in the end, either parents will stand up and be counted or they won't. Either way whether it's one parents who is unhappy or several, why don't you and all the governors' invite parents to come into the school either tonight or on Wednesday night for a round table?

That's interesting..... I mentioned that the current Governing body has lost touch with the needs of the children and their parents and my children's have received a poor education thus far, and you choose to comment on where to find the name of the Chair of Governors'! Have you looked on the school website lately, the last letter you wrote to parent listed on the website was in April. The school website is supposed to be a portal of information for parents, especially parents who work during the day and are unable to attend meetings or any other school function during the day. Furthermore, the office staff doesn’t always reply to email, or they don't pass on information in a timely manner and they close at 5pm. I requested information and it took a week to get it. What makes you think I didn't attend the governor/parent forum?... A hundred or so, hardly! We are parents who take our children's education very seriously and make every effort to be active participants in our children's school life while juggling full time work and various other commitments. I suppose in the end, either parents will stand up and be counted or they won't. Either way whether it's one parents who is unhappy or several, why don't you and all the governors' invite parents to come into the school either tonight or on Wednesday night for a round table?

Whilst I can appreciate what you are saying, I completely disagree. St John's may have once been a good school, but it certainly is not now! I can speak from my own experience with my children's education and St John's has failed my children in every aspect. I am extremely disappointed in the current Board of Governors' and feel they have lost touch with the needs of the students and their parents, they simply don't represent the majority of parents, nor do I feel they meet the greater needs of its students. Although the governing body is made up of volunteers they have a duty to every single student, to provide them with a necessary resources and tools to enrich all the children's lives. They have an obligation act on behalf of the parents, to provide parents with vital information and inform parents of changes or initiative's within an appropriate time frame. I would love to be able to sit down with the governors' and air all my grievance's with them. Although, that's pretty hard to do when you don't know who they are or what they look like or even what thier function is. Do you know who the Board of Governors’ are? I don't, I can probably name one or two, but other than that, there is no forum or place where we can go to find out who they are, what their function within the Governing body is, or what their views are. The school website still has the governing body from three years ago. I do agree with you, this should be a place where parent's can go to voice their opinions, good or bad.

I have just received this through email and have to express my concern with such a motion - firstly, there is no evidence to back up the claims made in the bullets and secondly I am being asked to add my name to a vote of no confidence where the "proposer" has not had the courtesy nor courage to add their own name to the proposal. It is all to easy to sit outside such groups and make these criticisms of people who give up their time and energy to help run the school which has an excellent record both academically and pastorally. I also don't agree that the proposer is stifling debate by suggesting here that "this is not a forum to air differences of opinion" - what has happened to freedom of speech and democracy. I am very disappointed in this motion and urge those who feel this way to take the matter up directly and in consultation with the governors rather than take this course of action. My experience is that it is hard enough to get parents to stand as governors without them now facing such ridiculous proposals by an anonymous and un-evidenced vote. As a final note - my son finishes this term at St Johns. At the weekend he voluntarily said "I'm going to miss St John's - its been a really good school". My vote is with him! Chris Haward

Dear "Concerned Parents", I am very disappointed to see such a petition for many reasons – this is not a faceless Government department or a Global Corporation with no means of contacting the relevant people, this is our local primary school, which in my experience has a healthy open door policy and is always willing to engage with parents. So why on earth is such a blunt mechanism required?? I also find it incredibly hypocritical that the first allegation is a lack of transparency, yet this is an anonymous petition?! If you have an opinion, have the courage to put your name to it please. This feels to me like a somewhat emotional reaction to the recent decision to shut the school on the last two days of term – whilst I am certain that this has caused some parents significant challenges in terms of childcare, I am also certain this wasn’t an easy decision or one that the Governors will have taken lightly. I am sure the team at St John’s would not claim to be perfect or always get things ‘spot on’, but I do know they work passionately to do the best they can for the children, with the resources they have available – it is impossible to please all of the people all of the time unfortunately. I also know they are receptive to feedback and will take this on board and learn – I have a first hand example of this in the last week! What more can you ask from an organisation than to take feedback in the spirit of learning and improving for the future? In my view, for anyone to be prepared to sign such a petition, it would require significantly more detail and specific examples to substantiate these claims, rather than what feels like a personal ‘attack’ on a very hardworking collection of professionals and volunteers who run the school. I would like to personally give my backing to St John’s - I think it is a great environment, with a caring staff and a very hardworking PTFA, that combine to do the very best they can for the children.

Hear Hear to Mark Harris and my sentiments exactly. In relation to the ANONYMOUS response to my comments: I think you have missed the point - there are forums to go to and get information and Ian Jones has recently held such an event. Did you take any personal responsibility to attend this? Have you contacted Ian directly to discuss your grievance? If you are so unhappy with St John's there are other schools for your children - however, in comparison I think you will find St Johns the school of choice. I still find is staggeringly hypocritical that you complain of transparency but don't identify yourself and I find it even more insulting that you accuse the governors of not acting in the interests of the children - that is the strength of the governing body in that they all have or had children at the school. They have to act within financial constraints and this may curtail everything they want to do - if you think you can do better then join them and then make your mind up about whether they have failed or not. But don't make judgements from an ill informed position. Whilst I don't know all the governors I know most and know how to find out the rest - remember, they are volunteers and not working at the school full time so things may not get through as quickly as a work environment but I believe the flow of information from the school is very good. I do believe the governors do represent the parents as they are parents themselves. I DO NOT believe that you (anonymously) represent my views nor that of other parents and would urge you to reconsider your petition, remove it from this website and take a more mature, reasoned and proportionate response giving the governing body time to respond to you ill founded accusations. Finally - don't ask people to sign a petition if you're not willing to put your own name to it. From a very incensed: Chris Haward

12 years ago Featured

The name of the Chair of Governors is no secret - it appears on every letter sent from the school and is well known to the organiser of this petition. If anyone wanted to find out who the governors are, they could ask the school office, the chair or the head. If the anonymous proposer really wanted to engage with the governors, they could have joined the hundred or so other parents who attended one of the governor/parent forum meetings last week, or could have stood in the recent parent governor elections. Alternatively, you can remain anonymous and stand on the sidelines throwing stones.