Cardinal Pole silence and questions about new head

A report into allegations that staff at Cardinal Pole school were asked to manipulate pupil assessments and to follow a 'no going backwards' policy will not be made public.

The only people who will see the report will be the chair of governors, Fr David Evans and the school's 'interim' executive headteacher Geraldine Freear who has taken over after the previous headteacher, Katherine Hartigan, resigned.

A spokesperson for the school said: "We are not releasing the report as it may prejudice the actions that the head may wish to take."

The report made three recommendations: “The first recommendation relates to personnel, the second to the school’s assessment procedures and the third to clarifying leadership roles within the school."

The school said: "Staff and students can rest assured that our new executive headteacher is very clear about the recommendations and will be acting on these as a priority. She is an extremely experienced headteacher and the governors have every confidence in her ability to lead this school towards a bright future.”

However it is believed that Freear had already been working with the school since the spring before the manipulation claims were made. Blood and Property has asked the Learning Trust what Freear's role at the school was in this period and whether she had any input on changes to how the school assessed its pupils.

Freear already runs two other schools in North West London and has an impressive track record. But teachers at Cardinal Pole are aware that an employment tribunal found the treatment of a member of staff at one of these schools as "not just inept but wholly unprofessional"  in 2007. A news report of the case described a member of staff being subjected to "months of torment" by senior staff.

Blood and Property asked whether that incident was of any concern to the Learning Trust, the school, the governors or the diocese, bearing in mind the morale of the schools teaching staff? No reply has been received.

(It is hard to tell what kind of leadership school authorities are looking for in their headteachers. Sir Michael Wilshaw, the Hackney superhead who will take over Ofsted in January told the TES: "If anyone says to you that ‘staff morale is at an all-time low’ you will know you are doing something right". Would he apply that in this case?)


Background:

7 Dec: headteacher resigns

21 Oct: Official investigation reported by Gazette


13 Sept: Cardinal Pole replies to coursework falsification claims


12 Sept: Hackney teachers urged to falsify coursework marks, claim

2 July: Vote of no confidence in Head

NUT: Learning Trust ignored warnings about Haggerston?

Hackney NUT said today that the Learning Trust's support of the former head of Haggerston school was a major cause of its problems.

The Hackney Gazette followed the story last year:
Hackney Gazette - Strike hits school in 24-hour teachers' walkout
Hackney Gazette - Haggerston headteacher in resignation shock
Hackney Gazette - Crisis at Haggerston School deepens

In September the 2009, the Times Education Supplement (TES) also described Haggerston as "a comprehensive hit by strikes, sudden resignations, staff cuts and money worries".

The NUT says its concerns about what was happening at the school were ignored.

"At the time the NUT criticised the restructuring as being unworkable and having a major impact on student’s progress. Now OFSTED has agreed, identified this area as a weakness."

The NUT added: "This dispute could have been avoided last summer if the Learning Trust had refused to back the restructuring. Instead they helped push it through. Now they are very silent over the OFSTED report."

Before his re-election in May, Mayor Jules Pipe said that the Learning Trust was disgusting.

Blood and Property asked the Learning Trust for a comment on these issues this afernoon, and will publish a response if one appears.

Here is the NUT statement in full:

Press Release Monday 28 June 2010

Haggerston Girls School OFSTED Report

The OFSTED report on the recent inspection of Haggerston School has now been published.

It grades the schools as a “3 - satisfactory” which are the second lowest rating a school can be given.

Haggerston School was previously awarded the status of a ‘Beacon School’, meaning that it was one of the most successful schools in England. The current OFSTED Report reflects the decline in the school during the past few years.

The OFSTED report was very supportive of the quality of teaching, student progress and improved behaviour. Parents and students were very supportive of the school.

The areas identified for improvement by OFSTED arise from the previous headteacher’s reorganisation of the staffing structure.

The OFSTED Reported noted: “The school has been through a period of turbulence and instability since its last inspection, but the new leadership team has made a significant impact in a short period of time on raising expectations”

The period of turbulence refers to the strike action members of the NUT took last year over compulsory redundancies.

This improvement in leadership follows the departure of the previous head, chair of Governors, chair of Finance Committee and removal of delegated powers from the Governing body and new link with Mossbourne.

“Despite a growing number of positive features, however, the school is not yet good because its systems for identifying and supporting students with different needs are not yet sufficiently well established across all year groups to ensure that all groups of students achieve consistently well”

“As a result, the most-able students are not always fully challenged, and students with special educational needs and/or disabilities are not always given the support they need to do consistently well”.

Maggie Kalnins the previous headteacher deleted all the posts for Special Needs teachers and restructured the staffing structure so that there was no Heads of Years whose role it is to provide support and identify children who are under achieving.

NUT spokes-person said:
Last summer we had the spectacle of redundancy notes being given to teachers on sports day.

At the time the NUT criticised the restructuring as being unworkable and having a major impact on student’s progress. Now OFSTED has agreed, identified this area as a weakness.

The loss of 5 experienced teachers has had an impact on the school.
NUT took strike action last summer to oppose compulsory redundancies and this action was only called off following the resignation of the headteacher and the Union reaching agreement with the Trust.

This dispute could have been avoided last summer if the Learning Trust had refused to back the restructuring. Instead they helped push it through. Now they are very silent over the OFSTED report.

Students had their education disrupted last summer in what was an unnecessary dispute.

The school, which is an accredited language college, also made its outstanding head of foreign languages redundant last year. So no one is in charge of modern languages at the school.

Not surprisingly following such a disastrous restructuring the school has gone backwards. The blame for this rests on the shoulders of Maggie Kalnins and the Trust”

White British girls cause Ofsted concern at Haggerston

The latest Ofsted report for Haggerston School (girls) gave the school an overall grade 3 or "satisfactory" rating: here's the report

(Hackney Community College seems happy with its latest Ofsted report - at least that's the case according to this governor's blog)

For Haggerston, though, the main problem highlighted by the report was the level of exclusion and absence amongst white British girls. The problem was mentioned several times:

1. "Attendance levels have improved and the number of students who are persistently absent from school has declined significantly, although the rate of attendance of White British girls remains low and exclusion rates, particularly in Key Stage 4, are still high."

2 "Overall, students make good progress from their different starting points in Year 7, although White British and Caribbean students and students from Any Other Mixed backgrounds make less progress than other students. The school is beginning to reduce this gap through its improved mentoring provision, so that individual needs are better catered for."

3. "The school has successfully started to address the low levels of attendance and high levels of persistent absence that existed in the previous academic year. Attendance overall is now average and the number of students persistently absent from school has significantly declined. However, the level of attendance for White British girls remains too low."

4. "Though the school has improved overall levels of attendance, there remain groups of students, such as White British students, whose attendance is low. Better systems to support and improve students' behaviour are beginning to have an impact. However, although the levels of exclusion are showing a slightly declining trend, they remain too high."

Blood and Property reported that the school's head Barry Hersom will be leaving at the end of the summer term. Haggerston is where where murdered 16-year-old Agnes Sina-Inakoju was a pupil - she was shot dead in April.