Tuesday 5 April 2016

Primary academies - dodgy stuff starting to appear

I received this today. Apparently, it's all in the public domain but not very well known. Why not?

"There's a primary academy in Radstock in Bath and North East Somerset that has had very negative publicity and had a very detrimental effect on the education of over 200 children. The Academy of Trinity was the lead school in the Dove Family Trust. The Headteacher and both her Deputies had to resign in December. Sir David Carter( in his role as South West Regional Schools Commisioner ) had previously held the head in esteem , but later had to ask the Midsomer Norton  Schools Partnership to step in to lead the Dove Family Trust schools.   The Academy of Trinity and Dundry Primary, the two schools in the Dove Family Trust are in chaos. Local schools are propping them up. Families that left Trinity  are now receiving counselling in their new primary schools. In February 2016 the Dove Family Trust were issued with a D of E Pre Warning Notice. All of this has been swept under the carpet. Please see the link below.

As the sorry saga was unravelling, a person very close to the traumatised teaching staff, children and families wrote a blog called Jigsaw Primary (see the link below) . Sadly, this is not a fictitious account. 

These sorry events are a prime example of a school out of control and reflect the inability / unwillingness of the Regional Schools Commissioners to step in.  It's also another sad example of what happens to a school with no "tiresome parent governors"  and a board of directors out of their depth and in the thrall of the headteacher. "