Although Stantonbury International School is in Buckinghamshire, not Kent or Medway, I have followed its misfortunes for some years, as it is run by the Griffin Schools Trust which had its origins in Medway. My most recent article, posted less than a month ago, explored its continued failures since being placed in Special Measures by Ofsted earlier this year, and expressing the view that the school should be taken away from Griffin Trust because of their long term incompetence, arrogance and downright lies to parents.
Earlier today, the CEO and Chairman of Trustees of Griffin Trust wrote a letter to parents at the school informing them ‘that the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State wrote to us yesterday to communicate her decision to re-broker Stantonbury International School to a new sponsor’. In typical style, there is no hint of an apology for damaging the education of a generation of pupils, indeed they begin with the claim that ‘We have sent documentary evidence of the improvements we have worked so hard together to put in place since 2016’ in spite of the multitude of contrary views, including those expressed by Ofsted and the Regional Schools Commissioner in warning letters. It continues with: ‘The RSC will determine the timing and choice of sponsor, but has given us to understand that she expects the process to be complete by July 2021’, which appears an inordinate time to leave over 1500 children in the care of an organisation that appears incapable of keeping them safe, let alone providing a proper education.
An article in the MK Citizen newspaper published yesterday contains excerpts from the letter from the RSC reproduced here. Mrs Berridge, the Commissioner said that ‘there was little evidence to show how The Griffin Trust would address key issues in the Ofsted report such as the “chaotic behaviour” in the classroom, poor attendance and excessive staff workload’ and then proceeds to show how the Trust’s proposals to improve standards were essentially platitudes rather than evidence based.
The conclusion that ‘the school would improve more quickly with a stronger trust with a track record of secondary school improvement’ should surely act as a death knell for the Trust itself and its management of all the schools it runs, including the three primary schools in Medway.