Thread by @Andrewwood17

The end of Raines secondary school after 300 years actually teaches us a lot about Tower hamlets today, the weaknesses of the Mayoral system & the inability of Overview & Scrutiny to hold the administration to account
Ironically we have not learn't any lessons from the school
1/

Historically Raines had excellent reputation
But from 2010 student no slowly declined, maybe because:
a. Building work disruption
b. School leadership
c. Below average attendance by students of Bangladeshi origin
But not sure as at no point did we try & understand the history
2/

Then in Nov 2015 OFSTED fails school
Governing body kicked out, new governing body appointed by TH Council & Diocese of London
It included Tower Hamlets Council school improvement officers!
Most schools failed by OFSTED recover
This did not, October 2017 OFSTED fail again
3/

NOBODY wants to take responsibility for that period of failure from late 2015
It was also never discussed by O&S C'tee, why did a school under almost direct control of the Council fail OFSTED again?
TH Council do not mention this either unless pushed
Pupil numbers continue ⬇️
4/

No parents on governing body (very unusual) so no way for wider community to understand what was happening inside school
So at C'tee last night you had irony of Cllr Pierce wanting blame to be attached to those who ran the school, TH Council & the Diocese ran the school
5/

OFSTED visit again & say "Since September 2018, however, the quality of education the pupils are receiving has improved quickly and dramatically"
O&S Committee last night were not aware of this, they referred to October 2017 inspection
A number of other errors stated
6

This is the problem, only a handful of people understand what has happened, mostly those involved in campaign to save Raines
Council officers were not there to provide balanced information but to defend Council decisions
I had to attend an important Pensions meeting last night
7/

There are 6 local Labour Councillors representing the 2 wards where school located
Where were they in all of this?
Mayoral system does not work if Councillors do not do their job of holding the administration to account
It should not be up to me to understand their own school
8/

March 2019 Council send out letters to pupils to start September
April rescind this & start process of closing school
Decision was supposed to go to Cabinet for a decision but withdrawn a week before
So by the time there was a proper public debate months had passed
9/

Opponents were always playing catch up
But decision had been made in secret & without parental involvement around April 19 to close the school
It put parents in awful predicament, stay & fight or apply to another school before other parents did (knowing some schools full)
10/

We are now in this awful situation of closing secondary school in 2020 on which huge amounts of £ spent to rebuild 2 school sites
+ from September 2022 opening new secondary school to cost circa £50 million at Wapping Dock!
What a waste of resources
11/

In retrospect period between 2 OFSTED inspections key
Why did Council & Diocese fail to turn around the school?
Why did they not involve wider community & stakeholders until AFTER decision made to close school?
Why did Overview & Scrutiny C'tee not look at until far too late?
12/

Why when they did look at it did they not have full access to the information?
What is the responsibility of Council officers? to defend their decisions or to enable Councillors to understand decisions?
Who is accountable for school governance post 2015?
13/

Lastly does this episode indicate value of schools remaining under local authority control, subject to democratic accountability?
No, local Cllrs showed zero interest
What value has Tower Hamlets added to Raines?
None
We need a different model of school governance
14/