School board sacked

THE governing body at Counthill School is to be sacked in an unprecedented step to improve the education of its 929 pupils.

Oldham Council has applied to the secretary of state to intervene in the school’s management amid falling results, high exclusion rates and poor attendance.

In a first for Oldham, the governing body of the once-failing Moorside school will be replaced by an interim executive board made up of the current vice-chairman, Jean Monks, two council officers and an adviser from the Government’s National Challenge programme.

Councillor Kay Knox, Cabinet member for children, young people and families, said it would allow Counthill to build on existing improvements.

She said: “This is not a decision that is taken lightly, however it is something that we felt was necessary.”

Counthill is among five schools which will be replaced by three academies run by sponsors under the borough’s £230 million Building Schools for the Future plans.

The intervention comes two months after David Lack took over as interim head teacher from Margaret Ryan who retired only weeks into the academic year. Trouble-shooter Mrs Ryan was brought in to turn around the school which was classed as failing by Ofsted in November, 2004.

It was taken out of special measurers in December, 2006. However, the number of pupils gaining five A* to C GCSE grades, including English and maths, fell from 27 per cent to 22.4 per cent this year. The Government’s target is 30 per cent. One governor said the governing body was effectively being sacked.

The person, who does not want to be named, claimed the local authority had not given the school enough help to tackle problems such as behaviour while the Government had moved the goalposts with attendance targets.

They added: “We had a letter about two or three weeks before half-term which was a statutory warning letter from the local education authority.

“They cited serious concerns they had in terms of attendance and lack of progress in exam results. I feel the LEA has not played fair with the governors or the school generally. The LEA has not supported the school as it could have.”

l An interim executive board is a short-term measure designed to quickly improve levels of attainment. Although not used in Oldham before, the council has employed similar powers to intervene in schools.