Audlem School decision?

Audlem Online understands that a decision has been made in principle by Cheshire East education chiefs to call in an Interim Executive Board to replace the current governing body of local parents and community governors at Audlem St James' school.

An Interim Executive Board is a step that is rarely used and has to be approved by the Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove. It is, we understand, even rarer for this to happen to a school graded as 'Satisfactory' by OfSTED and which, according to reports, appears to have improved significantly in recent months.

Last month, the school's governors submitted a report to Cheshire East detailing how the school should go forward with plans to lift the school's OfSTED assessment to 'Good' or 'Excellent'. That report, we are told, was not enough to impress the education officers at Cheshire East council.

We have asked both the school's governors and Cheshire East for a response to the rumours of an IEB that have come from a number of sources. The governors replied that they had agreed a month ago with the local authority not to say anything publicly while we still await a response from Cheshire East.

SurveyWe understand that there is considerable concern about the way the survey of parents' views was carried out during a school holiday. The reported 'overwhelming' support for an IEB has also been met with some surprise as a good number of parents were against this move.

How the governors will react to the rejection of their proposals is a matter of conjecture. They can, of course, put forward an argument to the Secretary of State that the local authority has acted questionably and has not taken the governors' detailed proposals into enough account and that recent improvements at St James' school have been ignored.

DeterminedThey might also argue that Cheshire East determined this course of action many months ago and whatever they proposed would have little impact. When Audlem Online asked Cheshire East in April why there was no local authority appointed governor, they replied as follows:

"...when the last appointed local authority governor voluntarily stepped down last term, the local authority was in the process of using its intervention powers as it judged the governing body was not operating effectively. As a consequence it was not felt appropriate to make an appointment at this time."

The last local authority appointed governor resigned in mid-December 2010. The statement appears to support the view that the decision to replace the governors may well have been taken as early as last year.

As we have said in previous coverage of the school, the webteam feels it would be inappropriate to publish Chatbox comments on the school and its management.

This article is from our news archive. As a result pictures or videos originally associated with it may have been removed and some of the content may no longer be accurate or relevant.