Council Leader calls on School Governors to apologise

THE leader of Swansea Council has said he wanted to sack a failing school's governors 18 months ago.

Chris Holley made the comments at a meeting to decide the fate of Daniel James School in Treboeth, Swansea. https://swansea-edunet.gov.uk/EN/SCHOOLS/DANIELJAMES/Pages/Default.aspx

He said he laid the blame for the school's problems is with the school governors, who were responsible for the hiring and firing of teachers and the curriculum.

"Eighteen months ago I asked the director of education (Richard Parry) to sack the governing body," he said. "The school wasn't improving. It wasn't giving the quality of education you would expect and that the authority demands through the Welsh Assembly and Estyn, and that is that all our children have the same standard (of education)."

Mr Holley said he still stood by his comments and called on the school governors to apologise to the school, which could close by August 2012.

Following the meeting, he added: "The director asked if he could work with the governors to make improvements, and to be fair, he worked very hard, but it didn't happen."

"One thing we haven't seen from the governing body is an apology," Mr Holley told the cabinet meeting. "I haven't seen anything from the governing body to say they are sorry that the school has slipped into special measures and that's a disgrace."

Speaking after the meeting, chairwoman of the governors, Councillor Ceinwen Thomas, labelled Mr Holley's comments "slanderous" and said she would take legal action.

Full Story http://www.thisissouthwales.co.uk/news/Holley-wanted-sack-school-governors-18-months-ago/article-2969865-detail/article.html

I think it is interesting that recent research has said it is uncertain whether School Governance plays a vital role in a School's success yet when a School fails it is all the fault of the School Governors. In my opinion, the most important part School governors have to play in the success or failure of a school is in recruiting the right head teacher and senior management team.