This article considers the appointment of a new Headteacher for Fairview Community Primary School, a process that is lasting for just three and a half weeks, from posting the advertisement to concluding the interviews at a school whose status in September is unknown. The only way this is not madness is if Medway Council and the Governing Body already know who they are going to appoint. Why would anyone else apply?
In my previous article about Fairview a month ago, I reported on a letter from the Board, dated 24th February, that ‘Governors will now carry out a ‘period of reflection in which they will take this opportunity to respond to the most frequently raised themes highlighted, including Academic Standards, transparency and the question of why The Westbrook Trust with more regular communication’.
This regular communication amounts to a brief letter from the Chairman of Governors, dated the last day of term, informing parents that a permanent headteacher is to be appointed, without mentioning any of these promised themes. The job advertisement fails to mention the rather important point that the school is planning to academise with the Westbrook Trust and so the successful candidate could be removed if their face doesn’t fit. This is either gross incompetence or alternatively, with interviews set for just three days after the closing date for applications, the whole thing is a disgraceful fix! This article finishes with four important questions to which parents need to know the answers.
The education website Schools Week made the Regional Schools Commissioner decision to reject the application to academise under the Westbrook Trust its education opinion leader the other week, along with a second article setting out the facts. It is difficult to know where to start looking at the new issue described in my introduction, but:
There is an amazingly short turnaround of three and a half weeks for the post, with applications due by noon on Monday 26th April, then interviews to be concluded by 30th April and presumably, the job offered by the end of the week!!!!! Because of the Easter holiday, candidates will have only a week to arrange for a visit to the school, carry it out and then prepare their letter of application if they decide to apply. Is it a coincidence that the last resignation date for current headteachers leaving their schools in the summer is the day that proceedings finish, Friday, April 30th, so this process would rule them out? There is no mention for candidates anywhere that the Governing Body appears intent on proceeding with the application to join Westbrook Trust; indeed the only information supplied about the school is contained in a brief letter from the Chairman of Governors. Apart from some general features which most schools would claim, we are told that ‘Governors are extremely invested in the school and are highly strategic in their role, ensuring that a newly appointed Headteacher will be greatly supported’, whatever that means. The letter finishes with ‘I know how much research and preparation goes in to Headship applications and it is important to make sure that Fairview Community Primary School is right for your next step in your career, as well as for us to find the right candidate. We look forward to hearing from you and showing you our school in action. A pity that governors did not put any such effort in researching and preparing the school profile.
If on the other hand, candidates have done this research they will surely know that the job security of the post is extremely precarious for, if the school is taken on by an academy chain later in the year as planned, their face may not fit. At the present time, Fairview is still a Medway maintained school, so the Local Authority has final responsibility for the appointment and appears to be part of what is looking suspiciously like a conspiracy, taking no account whatever of parental opinion. It appears that the Council may be behaving in an unprincipled way and is now engaged in what appears to be an unlawful job fix. Still, if the school becomes an academy, this sort of thing appears to be no longer a problem.
It remains unfortunate that the wife of the CEO of the Westbrook Trust remains on the Fairview Governing Body as, although she has stepped down as Chairman of Governors there is still an apparent conflict of interest.
- Why the determination to dump Compass at the end of the school year when, as the Chairman of Governors writes,‘Fairview Community Primary School has an excellent reputation in the local area and is oversubscribed. The school has a community spirit unique to a school of this size?' This is a complete turn around by Compass through its two school leaders, after the chaos of 2018 when morale fell to rock bottom.
- Why the obsession to throw in their lot with the underperforming Westbrook Trust? What evidence is there to fulfil the Chairman's belief that they will 'further develop the school in order to reach the outstanding status it deserves'? (on the other hand two of the five Compass Schools have a most recent Ofsted rating of 'Outstanding).
No answer has been provided, in spite of the written promise to share the reasons with parents in a 'period of reflection in which they will take this opportunity to respond to the most frequently raised themes highlighted, including Academic Standards, transparency and the question of why The Westbrook Trust with more regular communication’.
- Why the rush over the appointment of a new headteacher, accompanied by a complete lack of enthusiasm to look wider for candidates? The only logical reason can be that they have someone in mind who will welcome the Westbrook Trust with open arms? If not, what is it?
- Why is Medway Council going along with this? Why are they tolerating the governing body’s actions? The answer may lie in their unwritten policy of trying to persuade all primary schools to become academies and this appeared the simplest solution, but this is certainly not the way to meet their pledge to residents 'Serving You'.
Surely before governors move on this appointment, parents are entitled to the answers to these four questions.