Anthem Trust has confirmed it has started the process of transferring its running of Oakbank school.
The news comes following a damning report from Ofsted, in which the Ryeish Green school was rated as being “inadequate” in many aspects.
A statement provided to Wokingham Today said: The board of trustees at Anthem Schools Trust has been evaluating all possible strategies to further improve outcomes for students at Oakbank School in Wokingham..
“Anthem Schools Trust has been in discussion with the Department for Education (DfE) since December, to explore the best way forward for the school.
“After long deliberation, the Trust believes that it is in the best interests of Oakbank School to transfer it to a trust that can offer support at a more local level.
“We have, therefore, asked the DfE to begin the process of transferring Oakbank to another trust.
“A decision on which trust will take over Oakbank school will be made in March.
“In the interim period, we will be working closely with Greenshaw Learning Trust, our assigned school improvement partner, as we seek to bring about rapid change at Oakbank and continue its improvement journey.”
Mohsen Ojja, the CEO of Anthem Schools Trust, said: “At Anthem, our goal will always be to do what is best for the young people we support, and this decision was made with the school’s students first and foremost in our minds.
“A final decision about which multi-academy trust will take over the running of the school will be made in March.
“In the meantime, we look forward to working with our improvement partner Greenshaw Learning Trust, which shares our values and commitment to providing the very best education provision for students.”
The recently-published Ofsted report based on an inspection of November 13 and 14 rated the school as inadequate in quality of education. behaviour and attitudes, personal development, and leadership and management. It had previously been rated as ‘requires improvement’.
The inspection was carried out following a number of complaints made to Ofsted that raised serious concerns.
The damning report noted: “Turbulence in leadership, and high staff turnover, have destabilised this school community. As a result, lots of changes have been introduced. Many systems and procedures are new and not applied consistently well. The school does not have high enough expectations of pupils’ behaviour and achievement.”
It said: “The board of trustees has failed in their statutory duty to keep pupils safe.
“The school and those responsible for governance have not done enough to ensure that pupils behave well and receive an acceptable standard of education.
“The school’s capacity to improve is weak. Recent instability in leadership and the high numbers of staff leaving the school have made this situation even worse.
“Many staff feel that they have too much to do in too little time. This negatively affects their well-being and workload.”
It also noted how the arrangements for safeguarding at the school are “not effective”.
At the recent full council meeting of Wokingham Borough Council, the leader of the council, Cllr Stephen Conway, said: “I am sure that all councillors across the chamber feel very much for the children at the school and their parents and families at this difficult time.
“The council is, of course, going to continue to do all it can to support the school, the children, and the parents.
“We have been trying to do all we can, and we will continue to do all we can, but it is really important to emphasise again that the council has a role it can play in trying to persuade, and encourage, the Trust to do certain things, but the trusts are not answerable to the council.
“The Trusts are only answerable to the regional director of the Department for Education.
“The regional director will decide on the future of the school, not the council.
“It is really important to emphasise that these bodies, these trusts, were set up to be completely independent of local authority control, and I have to say we are now seeing the fruits of that.”
Parents and carers of pupils at Oakbank school receoved a letter this afternoon, in which the CEO of Anthem Trust said : “We appreciate that this has been an unsettling time for the school community, and I would like to stress that we arecommitted to minimising disruption to the students’ education was we natigate the transition period.”
Yuan Yang, MP for Woodley and Earley, welcomed the news.
She said: “Pupils and teachers at the school have been failed by the Anthem Schools Trust, and I hope this is an opportunity for a fresh start.
“The priorities now must be to rapidly improve safeguarding at the school and support those Year 11 pupils approaching their GCSEs.
”I’m absolutely committed to continuing to meet with parents and Greenshaw Learning Trust and supporting Oakbank students.
“Last week, I met Dame Kate Dethridge, regional director for the South East at the DfE, and raised the concerns of parents and carers.
”More than 100 Oakbank parents have contacted my office following the outcome of the school’s Ofsted report, and have shared very worrying experiences.
“While I am pleased that there has been a swift resolution for Oakbank School, it is clear that more accountability is needed for multi-academy trusts when schools are failing.
”I will continue to follow the situation, and my team will continue to speak to parents in the wake of this news.“
Wokingham Today understands a planned protest is still set to go ahead at the school on Wednesday afternoon.
