Important information regarding the letter from the BDSC

Dear Parents and Friends of St Nicholas School,

On 21st July 2009 an announcement by Parentmail from the Diocese, Local Authority and Chair of Governors cleared the Governing Body of any poor conduct during the process of appointing a head teacher. It also attempted to address some concerns of parents and tried to answer some procedural questions regarding the appointment of the new head and the ‘non-appointment’ of Mrs McGuire.

This judgement clearing the Governing Body of any poor conduct effectively nullified the scores of complaints that parents recently submitted.

In the view of many parents, however, this judgement is unsatisfactory and flawed in both its procedure and its conclusion for the following reasons.

1. These findings were reached by the Diocese which is not an independent body and cannot oversee complaints about itself, as its own complaints procedure states. This decision to investigate itself completely goes against the Dioceses’ Complaints Procedure and Guidelines which call for an independent hearing in these circumstances.
2. The Diocese has ignored requests from parents and all the governors for an independent inquiry.
3. Many parents feel their specific complaint has not been dealt with. The Diocese’s decision to not treat the complaints individually has left many parents feeling their views have been ignored once again.
4. The statement failed to address or refer to the secret meeting called between the Diocese, the LA and foundation governors, to which staff governors and parent governors were excluded, prior to the second ratification vote,. As a result information was not shared with staff and parent governors at the next Full Governors Body meeting when the second ratification vote took place.
5. The announcement claimed the Governing Body ‘has conducted its business properly’. However, the minutes of the meeting of the Full Governing Body 15th June 2009, when the second ratification vote took place, show the Governing Body has, in fact, not conducted its business properly for the following reason:
According to the Dioceses’ Governing Body Code of Practice,
“The clerk must give each governor, associate member and the headteacher (if not a governor) written notice of a meeting, a copy of the agenda and any papers to be considered at the meeting at least seven days before the meeting.”
According to the minutes this did not happen for just minutes after the meeting had started the Chair circulated a handout from the Diocese which encouraged governors to ratify the new head teacher.
6. The Diocese, Local Authority and Chair of Governors have decided this matter is now closed. Many parents firmly believe it is not closed as there are questions surrounding this process still unanswered.

In fact, there is a consensus of opinion that the statement has raised almost as many questions as it was supposed to answer. These questions include:

1 What happened to an independent investigation into the appointment process the GB unanimously asked for?
2 Which individuals conducted this investigation and who did they interview?
3 In what way did governors “put themselves and the school at risk” by initially not ratifying the new headteacher?
4 Who was responsible for the ‘mismanagement of the procedure’ at the first ratification meeting?
5 What was the ‘misinterpreted and misleading information’ used by some governors at the first ratification meeting?
6 Why were staff and parent governors excluded from the ‘secret meeting’ with the Diocese and the Local Authority?
7 What was said to foundation governors at this ‘secret meeting’?
8 What was on the handout issued by Mrs Platt at the start of the second ratification meeting?
9 Is there a process by which the Diocese simply keeps having ratification meetings until their desired result is achieved?
10 Having unanimously requested an independent investigation how do governors feel about it being refused and are they entirely satisfied with the announcement?


There are still several possible courses of action for parents who are not satisfied with the Dioceses’ announcement or to express your dissatisfaction with the Governing Body. Feedback to these suggestions would be welcome so we can plan our next course of action.

As a parent body we could be seeking and demanding answers from other bodies ie.

1 Complaints forms can be sent to the Secretary of State for Children, Schools
and Families at the following address:

The Rt Hon Ed Balls MP
Department for Children, Schools and Families
Sanctuary Buildings
Great Smith Street
London
SW1P 3BT





2 Another option is to send a complaints form to OFSTED. Their address is:

Ofsted
National Business Unit
Royal Exchange Buildings
St Ann's Square
Manchester
M2 7LA

You have to include in the complaint the following:
The full name of the school.
The local authority in which the school is based.
As much as you can about what concerns you.
Whether you have already raised your concerns with the school.
The governing body and the local authority, how they responded and why you are
not satisfied with their response.
The action you feel might deal with the problem and what you hope that Ofsted will be able to do, and whether or not they can pass your name to the school.

Or you can fill in an online complaints form at
http://live.ofsted.gov.uk/onlinecomplaints

In reporting the Governing Body to Ofsted that department may come in and review their grading - particularly that for Leadership and Management. Ofsted has to be provided with the complaints statistics. Seeing as they will be considerable since the last report this could urge them to downgrade that particular part of the report.


3 A petition with hand written signatures demanding Mrs Platt’s resignation could be planned and submitted.

4 Copies of the original complaints, which are easily accessible, could be sent to, among others, Birmingham’s Acting Archbishop Rev William Kenney, Archbishop Nichols, Birmingham’s Director of Education, Andrew Mitchell Sutton Coldfield MP and Ofsted.
Parents will be asked if they are happy to have all complaints sent en masse with a covering letter and the complaints procedure stating reasons why the response is inadequate.

5 Parents could ask for a personal hearing with Margaret Buck (Diocese) and Patricia Platt (Chair) where the announcement’s comments could be explained more.

6 Another option is to let the Governing Body know that if we don't get satisfactory responses we will have no option but to go to the press with our concerns about the running of the school.

These are some options open to us. We now need to decide where we go from here. To make a decision we need as much feedback as possible. Please email to philyaboots@gmail.com or post here with your thoughts.

Thank you for your interest and support.