A letter to Ms Denise Shepherd the Principal of Rochester Grammar School about concerns over the recent unannounced and aggressive takeover of Chatham Grammar School for Boys - if you have kids at the school or live locally, please share to those that might. The kids and the parents are currently left out of this scheme Denise, I was shocked and astonished by your letter re the turnaround in Chatham Grammar School. In less than two months, you appear to have transformed Ofsteds opinion of the school, gained the approval of students, teachers and parents. I doubt that such incredible performance would have been claimed by even the big management consultancies, especially if they were working part time on the project. Even my friend Sir Ken Robinson would be amazed at the claimed speed and depth of your transformation. And, yet I note that slogans such as Bring Back Marshall have appeared in toilets within the school … I also understand that any teaching flair by those at the top of their game has been replaced by approved Ofsted template lesson plans in a move that mirrors the arrival of The Ministry of Magic in Harry Potter. To be serious, I found your note to parents patronising and offensive. You have made a large number of cosmetic changes, yet left the substantive issues untouched. There has been a lot of one way communication, yet no engagement with stakeholders as you promised. You were brought in to turn the school round, not to conduct an aggressive takeover. Whilst I have nothing against Stuart Gardner, I find it rather odd that you have appointed him and a host of other people from your own business to run the school. To someone that is naïve, it may appear that your main objective is simply to acquire schools to achieve market domination in the same way that Tescos set up subsidiary brands such as Best One but its all Tesco in reality. Can you explain the rationale behind the acquisition? Given the long history of the school, would this not have been something that you would have wished to consult stakeholders about? How was the appointment process conducted and so on? I sense a large degree of mission drift in your approach thus far, which more resembles the behaviour of a merchant bank before the crash. Please explain yourself at a parent consultation event in the next week or so. I have added a short translation of your letter to parents below, as I feel you have made a catalogue of PR errors. Not a good start really. You appear to have put business and organisation development before the children. Go to the back of the class. Peter Cook LETTER TO PARENTS – TRANSLATED Dear etc. etc. As you know, weve been here two wet days - miraculously Ofsted have now told us that the school is transformed, although weve made no substantial changes to the issues that led the school into special measures. The teachers and kids also love us, although we only come to school two days a week. So, we thought wed take over and absorb the school into our Corporate Academy. Since weve taken over, we thought we might as well finish the job by installing our own man in the school. Hes only been here two wet days but everyone agrees hes the man for the job and theres no need to look any further. We know that theres nothing you can do to oppose this so just lay down and pretend to be dead. Ms D K Shepherd Part Time Principal Chief Acquisition Officer
Posted on: Thu, 07 Nov 2013 10:37:18 +0000
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