CHEQUERED PAST: HEAD TEACHER’S LEADERSHIP SAW TURBULENT TIMES… PROTESTS, QUESTIONS AND STAFF RESIGNATIONS

2008: Jane Robinson becomes head teacher at the Girls’ Langton. 2013: The school comes under fire for offering bursaries of £1,000 in order to retain its brightest pupils, many of whom were leaving to join the Boys’ Langton. 2014: It loses its “outstanding” Ofsted rating for the first time since 2001. 2015: A senior member of staff is disciplined after she gave GCSE pupils advice during a formal test. The school was forced to hold the test again. The school begins making plans to move to academy status. January 2016: The school applies for permission to become an academy and wins approval in February. April 2016: School leaders discuss academy plans with parents and staff. Questions surface about the way the academy conversion is being presented as a done deal. May 2016: County council education officials announce they will investigate the

school’s attempt to become an academy. There are protests at the school, a walk-out by pupils and a threatened strike by teachers. KCC leader Paul Carter describes Mrs Robinson’s position as “untenable”. June 2016: School announces it will no longer pursue its aim to become a multiacademy trust with the Spires Academy at Hersden. Mrs Robinson faces motions of no confidence from staff. She reports parent Richard Davis to police for the harassment. July 2016: Ash Rehal quits as chairman of governors, the fifth governor in a matter of weeks to leave. July 2016: The school and education authority promise a culture of “openness and transparency” when the new academic year starts. January 2017: A report by education expert Prof Ian Craig into the aborted academy plan and containing details of more than 200 complaints will remain confidential. The only person to see it will be the new governors’ chairman Alisdair Chisholm. January 2017: Mrs Robinson and the governing body enjoy an away day at Eastwell Manor Hotel in Ashford at a cost of £875. Mr Chisholm refuses to say what purpose it had served. Paul Harriman steps down as governor. February 2017: Mrs Robinson is off school, with parents told she is ill. March 2017: KCC announces that the head is resigning and will formally leave the school at the end of April.

May 2016: Students protesting against the attempt to become an academy