Anyone know what's going on at Our Lady's Abingdon??

[HayleyJames78]

Does anyone else have their kids at OLA? We're becoming really worried about staff losses and turnover. We've recently found out that their whole senior ledership team has either left or been sacked and have been replaced by regular teachers who have only been there for a year. Should we be worried?

We were aware that things weren't good but this is becoming alarming.

Really worried about it too , the huge exodus of good staff a year ago, so many teachers left suddenly . We are moving our son elsewhere, too much turmoil and disruption. Very worried, would avoid if honest.

Likewise, really worrying. Huge turnover of staff, lots of very good teachers suddenly “left” once the new management arrived. We’re moving elsewhere, too much turmoil and inconsistency. There are many other very good local schools.

Why are there enough people whose children attend one school on here? Why can't you have this conversation on your class or school WhatsApp Group?

The first two replies also have strangely similar language to each other. Like they were written by the same person.

This is a rather odd comment. People anonymously comment on schools here all the time. I hope they carry on as it's one of the only nurturing small independents around and we will look at for DD when the time comes. Now that Rye has been taken over by Headington there isn't a huge amount of choice. It's Wychwood or OLA for the less academic girls.

Just to raise awareness that there is a member of OLA staff who derails every thread that gets started about the school, often resulting in the thread being deleted. They post under numerous usernames.
I am also very interested in what's going on with the school as we are considering sending our DC there.

Was merely echoing the post above and the very genuine, and “strangely similar”concerns.

So many great staff have 'varnished' overnight!! It was a fabulous school, but a new Head was appointed, a new bursar and a new chair of governors, all equally awful. AVOID THIS SCHOOL, IT PROMISES BUT NEVER DELIVERS!!

I would echo. A disappointingly familiar tactic designed to 'squash'/undermine criticism. Futile and unsustainable.

School has gone downhill since new head and governors are rubbish. Chair of governors now in Australia - check LinkedIn etc. Staff turnover is very concerning.
Probably OK up to GCSE. Big emphasis on SEND now. Sixth form was a disaster for us due to staff turnover and effect on pupils. Look for yourself-2023 results not disclosed (they were not as good as previous years! and careful wording about University “choices” (as opposed to where leavers actually went). Muddy Stiletto’s website mentions this lack of clarity.

This is true - posts get taken down.
Very high staff turnover in any organisation ( not just OLA) is an indicator that something is not right.

I would avoid like the plague. Read this quick as the staff member will have this post taken down. The school was lovely under the old head. Since 21 it has declined so badly. Discipline out the window. 2/3 staff left including deputy head and both assistant heads. Current head is unpleasant and inexperienced and the school is awful. Ask them why they are unable to publish the 23 A level results? Avoid. Avoid. Avoid.

A new raft of leavers, including leadership, again. Something is very, very wrong here.

5 teacher vacancies advertised on their website at present.

Wonder when the current CoG will wake up and let go. Pride before a fall and all that

The school is run by a CEO. A few years ago they appointed a rather uninspiring head teacher and at the same time moved from a department structure to a faculty structure. This meant that a number of departments were grouped together under a faculty and every department head lost their role. They then had a choice of whether to apply to be the faculty head, or a subject leader within that faculty. This meant that very experienced heads of department faced having to apply (and be interviewed) for the lesser role of subject leader. The result was many experienced teachers leaving the school.

FIVE assistant and deputy heads have also suddenly vanished in the last 12 months, and from the look of the recent advert, another, only recently elevated replacement is now also off. I wonder what/who the issue could be?!

I have had one child, and currently have another child, at other fee paying schools locally. Those schools were/are excellent, I cannot fault them. In contrast, it looks as if there has been a haemorrhage of good staff in the last year or so from OLA, and the disruption has been challenging, speaking as a parent of a pupil there.

Also the chair of governors appears to have relocated to Australia, and seems to list OLA as a previous job on at least one platform. Have they actually gone?

I know someone with children who go there and they have been extremely unhappy with things for the last few years.

Teachers leave unexpectedly, there is little continuity and standards leave a lot to be desired!

There are so many serious problems and incidents, which all seem to be brushed under the carpet. It's all very odd!

I noticed that too ...

Why would this not have been communicated to parents in some way?

Well yes. naturally all of this was communicated. Regardless of that, almost all of the staff who replaced those that were disillusioned by the "vision" new management have themselves all become disillusioned by the same "vision" of the same management. I admire those who are still on board with a "vision" that doesn't appear to be aimed at the people of Abingdon.

The accounts reveal a lot. The school was hemeraging pupils for 10 years and needed to cut costs and turn itself around. It succeeded in cutting costs by reducing head of dept positions from over 20 to 7, thus the staff turnover. The latest accounts reported a 10% rise in student numbers so it seems to be turning itself around. Hopefully going forward there will be more sustainability.

Seems to be happening again. New Deputy Head (academic) appears to have gone, having only lasted a few weeks? What is going on?

There is definitely more to it than this, the staff turnover at this school is ridiculous. In the last few years there's been numerous English head faculty, 4 heads of science, 3 heads of mathematics faculty and 3 deputy academic heads. No stability , points towards a huge leadership and culture issue.

So it looks like the head has left …