Spalding school’s governors ‘not scapegoats’

The trust responsible for a struggling secondary school has denied making former governors “scapegoats” for its problems.

The Voice reported last week how the entire board of Spalding’s Sir John Gleed School had been replaced by a Rapid Improvement Board after another damning report by Ofsted suggested not enough was being done to overcome “serious weaknesses”.
A spokesman for CfBT, the trust which oversees the academy, said: “It is not, and never has been, our intention to make the former governing body ‘scapegoats’ for the continuing problems at the school.
“Sir John Gleed remains in an Ofsted category of concern, so of course the trust accepts there are things that could have been done, and can be done, better.
“We know we are not there yet, but are committed to getting Sir John Gleed to ‘Good’ as quickly as possible.
“Our school improvement team are working with the senior leadership; going back to first principles with the statement of action in light of Ofsted’s judgement that it is not fit for purpose.
“We are confident the inspectors will see the positive impact of these changes at their next monitoring visit.”
The governors’ replacement prompted an anonymous call to The Voice by someone claiming to be a “friend” of the school, who said CfBT was failing the school and the pupils “who deserve better”.
He also cited a large sum of money which the Sir John Gleed had handed over to CfBT when it joined the trust, saying governors had asked for a slice of the money to pay for an all-weather pitch at the school, but had been told the money was not available.
The CfBT spokesman said: “As part of an ongoing financial review, we asked the school leadership to pause new capital projects, such as an all-weather pitch.
“We felt this was a reasonable request at a time when improving teaching and learning is the school’s most pressing concern.
“We hope to be able to authorise the refurbishment of the all-weather pitch later this academic year, but much depends on how the school progresses and whether it has capacity to take on such a project.”
The trust also denied rumours that it is “running the school into the ground” so it can dispose of assets, saying: “Any suggestions that the trust plans to ‘sell off’ school land are categorically untrue.”