Cwmbran High School's governing body could be removed over ‘insufficient progress’

Torfaen council education chiefs are recommending the authority makes an application to Welsh ministers, allowing it to replace the current governing body with an Interim Executive Board (IEB).

The school, placed in special measures last year, has made “insufficient progress” in addressing recommendations from an Estyn inspection back in 2015, the council says.

A council report says the performance of pupils at the school has remained “unacceptably low.”

Governors have themselves raised a number of concerns in a consultation with Torfaen council.

Eleven out of 15 governors who responded to the consultation said they favoured the body being replaced with an IEB.

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“Behaviour at governing body meetings is poor and sometimes bullish,” the consultation found.

One governor said: “Meetings tend to be an excuse for the factions within the governing body to either take shots at each other or to point the finger and blame a different body for the issues at the school.

“I have yet to hear anyone in the SLT/governing body take any responsibility for the problems within the school.”

Another said they “feel ashamed” of the current position.

“I feel as a governing body we have let the school and our learners down,” they added.

A long-standing governor said “meetings have become increasingly fraught” with a “divisive environment” making it difficult to make progress.

Many of those who responded noted the “clear commitment” of governors but said this has not resulted in improved outcomes for learners.

One says individually governors “have the best interest of the school” but that there is “a clear ‘split’ with some seeking to rehearse the issues of the past.”

Torfaen council’s chief officer for education, Dermot McChrystal, has recommended the body is replaced with an IEB, which would result in its dissolution.

“The evidence indicates that the existing governing body has been unable to provide the necessary challenge to the headteacher and provide the leadership to turn around the school within an acceptable timescale,” Mr McChrystal writes.

The recommendation will be considered by the executive member for education, councillor David Yeowell, next Tuesday.

The council has paid for additional staff support at the school following the resignation of the previous headteacher, Mrs Helen Coulson, last month.

This includes the secondment of the headteacher from Hawthorn High School to support the current acting headteacher.