My DDs very ordinary C of E junior school failed to give her a reference for her new school at 11. She went to a boarding school and the Head was dead against that sort of school. Her new school just laughed. They had done pretty thorough interviews and tests before offering the place though. Ask how important the reference is for her new school. Before DD even started at this school, parents were complaining at the gates of the feeder, and brilliant, infants school. For example, the parents knew there were two poor teachers, that they taught a different style joined up writing from the infant school meaning children had to relearn it, that they never told parents anything, that they did not want parents in school, that children did not learn anything in certain classes. I could add they did not record children's progress because they did not assess it, they did not give the brighter children any differentiated work, and they definitely did not monitor the quality of teaching or learning. Ofsted came along and agreed with everything we knew was wrong. Improvements then were made and the two teachers failed capability. The Head should have tackled this years before. Good teachers leave because issues are not tackled. Heads have to take hard decisions for the sake of the children. Some, especially when appointed out of that school's staff room, will not, or cannot, do it.
There are thousands of pupils being taught in declining schools. A secondary school near me had similar issues and it took a disastrous Ofsted to bring it to its senses. You have to remember that C of E schools have a large cohort of C of E appointed Governors. It is likely that they appointed the Head. They are in the worst position to challenge the school and the Head or SLT and hence they act as cheerleaders for it. The LA probably need to have more places for children so are enlarging it. This is not necessarily any reflection on its success or otherwise,more a reflection on a need for school places in certain localities.
I tried very hard to get parents to get involved and complain about my DDs junior school. The Governors were high handed with parents, (the God Squad were in control) and many of them were not parents. The number of parent governors in C of E schools is often a minimum. I would contact the Diocese as they may have more influence. As your DD is leaving, do you want to make waves or do you have another child going through the school?
I have also been on a Governing Body in a serially disastrous school over decades - appointed as an additional LA Governor.I appeared to be the only one who thought it was a disaster zone! You would be amazed at how people try to avoid facing the cold, hard truth that the Head is useless and so are they. They also will not look critically at the progress of the children and keep making excuses for poor results. In my school the Head never gave any progress information and the Governors were happy with that. It was one of the worst schools in the country. Absolutely the children deserve better, but guess who had to leave the GB for making waves? They became an academy in the end and a new GB took over. I hated every minute of the meetings because they never looked at how to improve the education the children received. It was all finance and minutiae. The Head barely gave a report to us and when he did it was good news only. You could ask to see the GB agendas,minutes and supporting papers to see what they ARE talking about in your school. They are probably sleepwalking to disaster.