The following article may not be of direct interest to families but it identifies the chaos and machinations at the top of Turner Schools and as such I consider it is an important testimony. The consequences for schools operating under this level of leadership cannot be good.
The mystery of the resignation of the Chairman of Directors and Founder of Turner Schools, Professor Carl Lygo, along with Dame Susan John and four other Directors continues to deepen in what appears to have been a meltdown amongst the Board of Directors back in May. Amongst other developments below, the Trust has quietly announced the appointment of Mike Buchanan as the new Board Chairman in the middle of an article about building works, although completely forgetting to mention why another Chairman is needed, or to give any mention or credit anywhere to Professor Lygo, Dame Susan John, or Jenny King amongst others for their important contributions to the Trust.
Since I wrote my previous article, Folkestone Academy has had another set of poor GCSE results. Although it has improved on its record of awarding more than one in seven fixed term exclusions for the whole of Kent in 2017-18, the 2018-19 performance of being the third highest percentage in Kent is nothing to be proud of, nor are the high exclusion rates at Martello Primary and the Turner Free School. 2017-2018 had seen a mass exodus of staff, another large swathe going in July this year. Folkestone Academy has got through five headteachers since Turner Schools took over. Sixth form numbers have slumped, as has intake. The Trust has made multiple false claims about its ‘successes’ over the past two years to cover this record up. There is more to come before Christmas.
The current rot at Folkestone Academy dates back to well before September 2018, by which time the school had completely failed to attract a new Executive Headteacher in spite of extensive advertising by a high profile firm of head-hunters. The Trust then settled instead for an internal promotion in the secondary section of this all through school.
In between these two events, the Board of Directors at Folkestone Academy appeared to go into meltdown. On 1st May, the Secretary of the Trust, Hayley Porter-Aslet resigned after just over a year in office as Chief Operating Officer for the Trust. Her previous post was at John Wallis Academy, Ashford, and a number of staff followed her from there. She was succeeded in post by Jenny Bledge, Trust Governance and Compliance Officer, whom I found very helpful and competent on FOI matters.
The next item on the agenda was: Leadership and Governance Culture. ‘JS (CEO Jo Saxton) informed the Board on her plans to run a training session with all senior colleagues on leadership culture, using the Nolan Principles, as published on the Trust’s website. GC suggested that informal/social contact may also be beneficial. JS noted the latter already took place. Professor Lygo asked JS to consider informal mechanisms for “triangulation” JS agreed to do so. This meeting was conducted as a closed session. There being no further business the meeting was closed’. And that was it. Conclusion: There had been a bust-up amongst Directors, confirmed by the next event.
3rd July. Professor Lygo (Founder Director and Chairman of the Trust) and Dame Susan John resign as Directors, although no indication of this was given in the Minutes of the Emergency Meeting. Even this managed to get fouled up, as the resignations still appear on the Trust Website on a page via a link called: ‘Details of Former Trustees/Directors can be Found Here’ as having happened on 9th July (Companies House describes the revision of the date as ‘Clarification: a second filed TM01 registered on 8/08/2019’). The Minutes of the July Meeting, below, claim that the reasons for these simultaneous mid-meeting resignations was travel difficulties and that the Board wished to thank them for their services, but there still remains no public appreciation or even mention.
A further meeting, planned for 6th September was postponed (presumably as there was nothing pressing!), to seven weeks later on 30th October. The agenda is, as all official documents are, rather bland but notes that resignations are to be received along with Prospective Director Biographies. The latter will have included information on Michael Buchanan and Professor Helen James, details here, and a new Interim Chair, James Booth-Clibborn.
On 5th September, Jenny Bledge resigned as Secretary to the Board, after four months in post and just over a year with the Trust, to take up a post elsewhere. Overall, the rate of turnover amongst the administrative team at Turner Schools is also very large, once again making the point that this is not a happy organisation. On 19th September, Jenny King resigned as a Director, one of eight who had gone since the Trust was set up in 2016, including all six of the original Directors, apart from Dr Saxton.
At the 30th October Meeting Mr Buchanan was appointed Chairman of Directors.