The delegation speaks to Full Council and Cllr Gwen Grahl, lead Cabinet member for schools, responds
Transcript of Save Byron Court campaigners' delegation to Brent Council July 8th 2024
We're from Save Byron Court, campaign fighting against the Government driven forced academisation and takeover of Byron Court Primary School by Harris Federation. Ours is a collective effort by parents, community members and school staff, including many who have taken 15 days of strike action so far and are prepared to keep going.
Our campaign has highlighted many injustices baked in to a system that is designed against state schools - chronic underfunding, a punitive inspection regime, a national rush to privatise education despite widespread opposition and no opportunity for school improvements to be made, and a worrying lack of transparancy and impartiality with the decision making regarding the future of Byron Court.
We've received invaluable support by Barry Gardiner MP, Cabinet member Gwen Grahl, and local politicians and candidates across the political spectrum, now it's imperative that the new Govt urgently intervenes in our case if they are indeed serious about both protecting and wanting all state schools to flourish. We need a renewed commitment to our community schools.
It is little coincidence that the recent turbulence and perceived issues in our school have occurred with within the Governing Body. In the current academic year, we've only had 1 parent governor to vocalise and represent our views and interests. Yet only a few years ago there were 5 parent governor posts, these were subsequently cut by the Board without the consent or even consultation with the parent community. Successful governing bodies must act as custodians connected to and not untethered from parents and the wider community. Of course it's important that volunteers are found outside of the school community to ensure a broad range of skills and experience, however for too long there's been an imbalance and to our detriment.
Will the Council agree to undertake a review of school governing bodies across the borough to ensure adequate/sufficient parent voice and share ways of encouraging both more and a diverse range of parents and carers to step forward?
We've also experienced poor level of communications.
This is exemplified by the fact the Ofsted report was published in February
A major concern brought up by the parent body at the time was the lack of meaningful communication from the school.
We were told at the time that more open communication would happen in the form of meetings and emails.
We met with council officers in April along with Cllr Grahl, where we were assured that the improvement initiatives at the school would take precedence and would be prioritised over the academisation process and its related admin.
On multiple occasions we have reached out to Gillian Barnard (CoG) and J. Parry (Interim Executibe Headteacher ) as well as directly to council officers.
We were advised 1st July the focus on communications out of the school were to be around the strike action.
Irrespective of political leanings, views on academiation and even the integrity of the OFSTED inspection and report itself. Byron Court is a school that was rated “inadequate” under the Local Authority. Byron Court is still under local authority remit . The parents and carers deserve to be informed by the LA and the school about any improvements and initiatives that have been introduced and implemented to improve their children's learning journey and schooling experience.
We have been told that Byron Court is an anomaly and that Brent has 96.7% of its primary schools rated as good or outstanding.
Many of the problems at Byron Court have been brought about through lack of engagement, communication and transparency between parents, LA/ school.
What lessons can be learnt from Byron Court’s journey post-inspection that can ensure that other schools won't be met with the same possible fate.
It would be useful for the Council to benchmark, develop & share best practice around communications
Cllr Grahl referred to DfE Guidance on Governing Bodies. This is the Guidance updated in March 2024 (after the publication of the Ofsted Report). My emphasis in bold. LINK
The total membership of a governing body must be no fewer than 7 governors and must include:
- at least 2 parent governors, elected where possible, otherwise appointed
- the headteacher (ex-officio), unless they resign the office of governor
- only one elected staff governor
- only one local authority governor, nominated by the local authority and appointed by the governing body
- foundation governors or partnership governors where appropriate, as specified in the School Governance (Constitution) (England) Regulations 2012
The governing body can also appoint co-opted governors as permitted by their instrument of government and as it considers necessary. The number of co-opted governors who are eligible to be elected or appointed as staff governors must not (when added to the one staff governor and the headteacher) exceed one-third of the total membership of the governing body (Constitution Regulations 2012 – Part 3 regulation 13)
