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Protesters present school demands to county council

5:54pm Tuesday 26th January 2010 in


FORMER governors and teachers’ representatives at Oxford School have called for the new governing body to be ousted.

Oxfordshire County Council removed the school’s governing body last term to make way for an interim executive board (IEB).

Former governors, Labour, Lib Dem and Green party politicians and teaching unions’ representatives presented an open letter to schools improvement cabinet member Michael Waine, asking for a “representative” governing body to be reconstituted.

The county council is due to start consultation on plans to close the school and reopen it as an academy — despite proposed sponsor United Learning Trust pulling out.

Former community governor Amar Latif, who attended the school, pictured above with other delegates, said: “The school at this stage is in a period of uncertainty.

“Michael Waine has said the interim board is not there for strategic governance and overview — if it’s not there for that it begs the question who is making those decisions?

“There are several key decisions that have to be made about the future of the school and a proper, representative governing body needs to be in place in order for the school to run efficiently and effectively.”

A council spokesman said: “The establishment of an IEB was a proper response to the underlying position of Oxford School. The board’s members were selected for their ability to contribute to better governance and comprise people with great expertise in this area.”

Comments(6)

Petre Mcvey says...
2:34am Wed 27 Jan 10

This school makes the worst inner city london schools look good, I kept my son at home for 6 months (before getting him into an acceptable school) rather than send him there, and in that 6 months off he learnt more than he would have done there in 10 years there. And the blame must lie with Amar Latif and his cronies.

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Jamie Burns says...
6:12am Wed 27 Jan 10

Could not agree more, and we did exactly the same with our child as I know others have done.

The school has been ruined both the governing body and the senior managements inability to manage.

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Ian Bellchambers says...
11:26am Wed 27 Jan 10

My kids started at Oxford School this year and are very happy. It provides a really friendly, diverse and stimulating setting.

Let's not forget too, that Oxford School achieved the highest CVA score in the County this year - the measure of how much the school helps kids progress beyond what's expected of them when they start.

With their academy plans in disarray, the County Council really ought start supporting Oxford School and its teachers and pupils, get the construction of the new science block and sports facilities underway, get a new, permanent Headteacher in place for September, and ensure that parents and the local community are properly represented on the governing body.

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Mr Ahmed says...
1:24pm Wed 27 Jan 10

I couldn't agree more with Ian Bellchamber. I have been a parent governor for 8 years at Oxford School and before it a parent governor at Isis middle school. I have 5 children, all of them at university level. 3 of them joined Oxford school till their A-level and got the best results. The other 2 spent some time and moved to another school ONLY because of change of catchment area. But they think that Oxford school was better than the school they moved to in many respects. All the success they achieved was due to the effort of the teachers, staff and the democratically elected Governing Body. To us it came as no surprise when we heard that Oxford school has achieved the highest CVA score in the county this year.

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Jamie Burns says...
12:17pm Thu 28 Jan 10

What is Contextual Value Added?

Value added measures have been used in the Achievement and Attainment Tables (formerly known as Performance Tables) since 2002. They measure the attainment of pupils in comparison to pupils with similar prior attainment; this is fairer than using raw outcomes since schools can have very different levels of attainment on entry.

But there are many other factors that are related to the progress that pupils make in a school, such as levels of deprivation or special educational needs. Contextual value added aims to take account of these factors when measuring the effectiveness of a school or the progress made by individual pupils. Our 2009 models include the following attainment and contextual factors:

Pupil prior attainment
Gender
Special Educational Needs
First language (for given prior attainment)
Measures of pupil mobility
Age
An “In care” indicator
Ethnicity
Free School Meals (for given Ethnicity)
Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index (IDACI)
Average and range of prior attainment within the school (KS2-3, KS2-4 and KS3-4 only).


So basically you are saying that the school improved because the number of special needs pupils rose, there were more non English speaking pupils, more socially deprived pupils and more pupils receiving free school meals. That is what CVA measures.

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Jeremy Spafford says...
6:30pm Thu 28 Jan 10

I have one daughter who is now studying Maths at University after a successful career at Oxford School and another in Year 10 who loves it there and is doing very well. It's true that, because the school is undersubscribed, a lot of the most vulnerable children who other schools won't or can't take, end up going to Oxford School. It is an absolute credit to the staff there that they help those children settle in and do so well AND that they manage to provide such a good education to those who have fewer problems. Oxford School's biggest problem is its reputation which stops parents choosing the school. Once you are at the school, you discover that it has skilled dedicated staff, a great atmosphere and steadily improving results. We all need to get behind a good school which could be a great school.

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