Primary school issue

[Cazzie1979]

My daughter is in year 2 at a small one form entry primary in our village. It’s not our nearest school but we loved it when we looked around and were lucky enough to get in. Since a new head teacher took over when she started year 1, the school has completely changed. 26 staff members have left, we’ve been hearing of a stricter regime for our children, the head teacher’s reaction to parents’ concerns has been to get defensive, dismiss them and to even shout at parents. Quite a few parents have spoken to former staff outside of the school and they have all spoken about the toxic environment she has created and cited that for the reasons they left. Many of us agree that she is just not the right fit for a small village school where community was at the heart of how it was run. It feels like the heart has now been ripped out. A group of parents from year 2 (almost half the class) drafted a letter to the chair of governors but our concerns have been completely dismissed, he thinks it’s a better school than it was 3 years ago and that it needed to change. He has no concerns about staff turnover or retaining high quality staff.

My question is - is there anywhere else we can go with this, can we take it higher? The school is part of an academy and we copied in the head of the academy but no reply as yet. Would local councillors, MP, ofsted or anyone else be able to get involved?

Some of you may think it’s easier to just move schools (which some parents have already started doing), but I have a son starting reception in September and we made the decision to apply to the same school because ultimately my daughter is happy, settled and doing well. It just feels like it’s going even more downhill in the two months since and we don’t know how complicated it would be to move her and ensure he gets a place at a different school from the one we applied for. We also feel strongly that we’d be abandoning the school if we didn’t at least try everything possible to change this situation first.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Hi OP. I moved my son in similar circumstances at a similar age, and a few years down the line I am hugely glad I did. Zero qualms here about 'abandoning' the school. Pragmatically, I just don't think the governors (or MAT) will listen unless/until they see families voting with their feet anyway.

Different context here though - I'm in London, so lots of movement in schools is normal and there's no one 'local school'. Also, DS was unhappy. Different to uproot a child who is happy, I imagine.

Someone else will have a more informed view on whether/when ofsted (or others) would get involved. I think ofsted do inspect if someone alleges safeguarding failures, but I'm sure they won't inspect just on the basis of a 'toxic environment', depressing as that sounds.

Ps - I think community is at the heart of every good school. City children don't need to have punitive headteachers shouting at their parents either.

We had a similar situation where a school our daughter attended for years had a staff turn over and the standards dropped, ethos totally changed. We had so many meetings with the school, in the long term nothing changed
I think if you've exhausted all routes with them, sometimes it's best to just start looking somewhere else and find a new school.

Ofsted definitely! Also Board of Governors.

As mentioned in my post, I sent a letter to the chair of the governors on behalf of 25 parents who want these concerns investigated - and he completely dismissed them. Does anyone know if the Head of the academy is higher than the chair of governors, who has more power.

If I just had my daughter then I’d definitely consider moving her. But as mentioned, I have a son who’s due to join the reception class in September and I’m worried if I move her and he doesn’t get a place at the new school (due to us having the current school as our first choice), that I’ll be forced to do 2 drop offs which just isn’t possible.

Ah that’s really useful to know, thank you @Ionlydomassiveones I’ve looked on the website before and found details of the MAT CEO and the trustees, I will send our letter to them
and encourage others to do the same. Apparently the head has been threatening staff with bad references if they put in a complaint against her. Would exit interviews still be with governors or the MAT?

Whilst there is always two sides to any issue like this, when I hear comments like the headteacher threatening staff with bad references if they put in a complaint then that is the point where you as a parent do have to be thinking more about your children than anything else.
It will not be easy to move schools if you are relatively in a rural area, especially as you have another child due to start in September. You should not try and ask for a move before you get notification of school places for September on April 16th as the LA will take that as a late application and you will only be considered for a place after all on-time applications.
After 16th April you can start to ask for a place at another school for reception child as that will be the more difficult place to obtain.

I think you need to think about what it is you’re actually complaining about, and what it is you want to happen. If you have concerns about your child, then you should make a formal complaint. The complaints procedure must be in the school website. The fact that somebody has spoken to somebody else who worked there and left, is not really relevant as it’s here-say. There may have been good reason for the changes that have been made, that you’re not party to? If staff have an issue with the head, or any colleague, then they need to follow the correct procedures too. As I said, think carefully about what you’re complaining about in relation to what’s happened to your child, and what outcome you’re hoping for, as you will need to put this on your complaint.

@admission Thanks for that advice, really helpful

Our primary was royally screwed up by a MAT it was heartbreaking. The machine was so big, nothing we did even got listened to. Moved mine to a council maintained. Best decision we made, they're flying.

As hard as it is, I would suggest you move. I'm in an "outstanding" school that got a new head after our inspection 4 years ago. I have no doubts we would get RI if we were to be inspected tomorrow. Our parents aren't happy and we've had high turnover, union involvement and multiple members of staff off with stress. I plan to leave the second i get indefinite leave.

Our head has basically placed her own friends as governors or pushed others out, so contacting them doesn't go anywhere. That could be the case for you as well.
It doesn't appear to be impacting your child's learning now, but it could. We don't have enough staff to run interventions, don't employ long term supply for extended sickness and lack the most basic resources. My head tried to force me to come in with covid in January, and my class was supplied by a different teacher each day of my absence. I have so much piled on me, that I'm absolutely certain stress has prevented me from healing and I am once again off sick, this time with a chest infection so my class is suffering once again.

@inthewest Thanks for your advice. Since posting my original thread, we’ve had responses from the chair of governors and Head of the Academy basically shutting down all of our concerns. A friend who had a safeguarding complaint about the head sent it to the chair of governors and he’s told her to follow the complaints process and he won’t engage with her at all on the matter (the complaints process states to send any complaints about the head to the chair of governors!!)

So I made the decision last Tuesday to apply to transfer my daughter to another school which I know has places and two of her friends have already moved there. It’s a bit more complicated with my son starting reception in September but the admissions team have talked me through the process of how to change our 1st choice school after my daughter has transferred so hopefully that should be fine. I’m just feeling relief now that soon I can stop stressing about this school situation and the potential disruption/dissatisfaction for the next 7 years.