School looks forward

A well-attended meeting for parents was held at Audlem school on Monday 16th January.

The meeting started with introductions to Mark Bayley of Cheshire East; Rachel Johnson, the Interim Headteacher and the four members of the Interim Executive Board – Derek Barnes, David Littlewood (also the Diocese representative), Bill Bales and Janet Broadley.

The meeting included a review of developments since the start of the Autumn term including School leadership and governance and gave parents an opportunity to provide feedback to the IEB.

Looking forward, the meeting was told, the initial task is to secure high quality leadership until a permanent head is appointed – a series of interim leaders would not be beneficial.

The meeting considered the schedule for the appointment of a permanent headteacher and moving towards establishing a Parents’ Forum.

There were significant concerns relating to the achievements of pupils and rates of progress and the potential for an Ofsted inspection or monitoring visit this term.

Mark Bayley said: “I, on behalf of the Local Authority, made a commitment that we were in this for the long term. I can now genuinely see.... the time when the school achieves the potential it undoubtedly has as a high achieving learning community.”

Rachel Johnson said: “The key focus is on improving teaching and learning, resulting in teaching that is consistently good.”

She told parents of her vision for the school and plans: “To introduce a new creative curriculum that provides highly positive, memorable experiences and rich opportunities for high quality learning.

"This will have a very positive impact on all pupils’ behaviour and safety and contributes very well to pupils’ achievement and to their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. The new creative curriculum will be introduced following staff training."

The plan is to establish a shadow Governing Body at the latter part of the summer term. A shadow stage has to be undertaken before a new Governing Body can be established to take over from the IEB.

The next priorities include the appointment of the headteacher with an advertisement scheduled for 20th January, a shortlist of candidates by 13th February and the selection by 6th March.

A Parents’ Forum will be established too with six elected parents through self-nomination – see nomination form link below the photo – with a 6th February deadline. This will lead to parent representation on the IEB.

Parents are being encouraged to provide written feedback if they have not yet done so, especially anyone who was unable to ask questions during the group discussions at Monday’s meeting.

All responses will be addressed by the IEB as part of the evaluation of last Monday’s meeting. 

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