Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Call for transparency over troubled school
Bid to get private report into grammar published
Demands are intensifying for county council chiefs to release an independent report into events at Simon Langton Girls’ Grammar School.
For the second week running the authority has stonewalled requests for information about the imminent departure of head teacher Jane Robinson in the wake of dozens of complaints about her conduct and following the school’s aborted attempt to become an academy.
Kent County Council commissioned Prof Ian Craig, England’s former chief school’s adjudicator, to produce a report into the Girls’ Langton but is refusing to publish his findings.
Now an opposition candidate in the forthcoming county council elections is calling on Conservative-controlled KCC to honour its pledge last year to act with “openness and transparency” in matters relating to the troubled school.
Lib Dem Mike Sole, who is standing in the Canterbury South division in the May 4 poll, said: “This report should be published.
“Until everyone knows the full facts, accusations and rumours will continue to be made and there is no opportunity to learn lessons for the future.
“Keeping Prof Craig’s report private goes completely against the spirit of openness that was expected and is of no help to pupils, parents, staff or governors as they look to move on under new leadership.”
Mrs Robinson is currently off sick from the school, but will formally leave her post on April 30. Speaking of the pressures of her job as she announced her resignation, she claimed her professionalism had been undermined.
But Anne Booth, who works as a writer and has had three daughters at the school, disputed Mrs Robinson’s version of events.
She said: “I was very dissatisfied with Mrs Robinson’s resignation letter in that she appears to be playing the victim. This leaves a bad taste in the mouth.
“The reality is, that for the sake of the school and the teachers, who were brave enough to lodge complaints, we need to know what happened there. What have the authorities to fear from the truth?
“This was one of the most horrible experiences of I’ve ever had. We were vilified and smeared just for asking legitimate questions about the rushed academisation process.”
The school began to develop plans to form a multi-academy trust with The Spires Academy in late 2015, but abandoned them in the summer of 2016 after questions emerged about the financial case presented to the Department for Education.
Afterwards, the governing body and county council wrote to parents to assure them the school would from now focus “on restoring confidence among parents and staff” and to ensure those “relationships can be restored under a new climate of openness and transparency”.
Yesterday (Wednesday), the Gazette attempted to ask KCC leader Paul Carter why the education authority had taken the decision to suppress Prof Craig’s report.
The Conservative failed to return phone calls and ignored requests for an interview.
Roger Gough, the cabinet member for education, also refused to answer questions about the school and its future.
Asked why the council had thrown a veil of secrecy around the school, he said: “We have made our position very clear and that is the chairman of governors is using the Craig Report to work through the issues and that is the limit of what we’re saying.”
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