New dawn for St John Fisher school
The senior school term may finish today, but the hard work at one Peterborough school is just beginning.
The senior school term may finish today, but the hard work at one Peterborough school is just beginning.St John Fisher Roman Catholic School started the day yesterday with a new executive head and an Interim Executive Board (IEB).
Headteacher Sean Hayes, who replaced Mary Mihovilovic, after her resignation for personal reasons yesterday, spent his first day in charge meeting staff and pupils at the Eastfield school.
Acting director of children's services at Peterborough City Council Ben Ticehurst said the new board would bring "rapid improvement" to the school.
Mr Ticehurst said: "A particular role of the IEB is to drive really hard the improvements and outcomes, and to hold the executive head to account to improve thing as quickly as possible.
"At the moment, kids are not getting the education they deserve.
"We already have a very simple and clear framework that they will use.
"Mr Hayes has come from a high performing Catholic school and is also a diocesan inspector, so he is well placed to improve standards."
Mr Ticehurst has no doubt they may find out a lot more about the school's issues once they have access to it and said they were "expecting to find some surprises" and come across issues that had not been planned for.
Related: Ben Ticehurst talks about St John Fisher school, 18 July 2008
Special Report: Damning Ofsted report for St John Fisher School
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City councillor Marion Todd, a member of the IEB, said: "The children are obviously our biggest concern, and the staff have been in limbo for quite some time.
"But this is a new beginning for everyone.
"We are all ready to go."
Ashok Khosla, chairman of the new board, said: "We have a very clear idea of where we want to get.
"We now want input from all the stakeholders, including parents.
"What we want to do now is to listen to people."
A letter has been sent to parents telling them that this is a positive move and that come September there will be an executive head and a new regime at the school.
The city council's head of secondary schools Alison Sunley added: "We want to reassure parents not to worry during the summer holidays.
"The local authority and the diocese have a very clear idea of how to take the school forward."
Problems at the school started in February, when Peterborough City Council handed it a warning after allegations of bullying in the school, high turnover of teachers and poor exam results.
The school appealed to Ofsted, which turned it down and promptly carried out an inspection.
The Eastfield school was placed in special measures by inspectors whose scathing report criticised teaching staff, governors and management.
Continues on next pagePeterborough City Council applied to the Department of Education for leave to sack the governing body and install an IED. Permission was granted on Monday.
Asked why matters where allowed to get to the stage where government was asked to intervene, Julie O'Conner, director of schools' service to the catholic diocese of East Anglia, said the local authority and the diocese had no statutory power to intervene in such instances.
She said: "The governing body is responsible for running of the school.
"The local authority and diocese can only engage with the school with the full co-operation from both sides.
"It's based on cooperation and partnership and if it's not already there, we cannot do much about it."
Special Report: Damning Ofsted report for St John Fisher School
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Friday 19 March 2010
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