Oakbank School parents claimed their children ‘have been failed’ during a protest demanding better education.
Dozens of parents and pupils protested outside the Ryeish Green school’s gates on Wednesday afternoon after an Ofsted report found Oakbank to be ‘Inadequate’ in all categories.
The watchdog inspection found a ‘considerable number of pupils do not enjoy coming to school’ and that the Anthem Trust had ‘failed in their statutory duty to keep pupils safe’, with safeguarding arrangements found as ‘not effective’.
The Anthem Trust has since announced it will step down from running the school, with a new academic trust in place by March.
Lisa Powes, who attended the protest, said her children in year 7 and 11 had found the last 12 months ‘really, really difficult’, and an ’emotional rollercoaster’.
Ms Powes said her year 11 daughter – who will sit their GCSE’s in 12 weeks – has not covered some of the criteria in her core subjects.
“My girl wants to go to college, she might not pass her GCSEs to get into A Levels .. we’re worried for them, we don’t know what we can do to help.”
Carly Williams, who has twins in year 11 said: “Our kids have been failed, really. They’ve been failed of their education that they deserve.
“All we can do is pick up the pieces from our kids when they come home and say ‘we’ve got a different English teacher today, we’ve got another teacher for this, another teacher for that – constant supply teachers who don’t know anything about the curriculum that they’re learning.’”
A BBC Investigation last year uncovered a huge number of 29 staff left Oakbank between September 2023 and May 2024.
Ofsted’s report said this turbulence of staffing and leadership had ‘destabilised this school community’.
The mothers said they hoped a new trust would make things better, as in their words, it ‘can’t get any worse, we’re at the bottom’.
When asked if they considered if they would move their children elsewhere, most parents said no, claiming that there were ‘waiting lists everywhere’.
“We like the community of this school,” Lisa explained, “we like the fact that they can walk here, we like this smaller school because we thought they’d be looked after better.”
One parent who has taken her child out of Oakbank School is Annie Lamping.
She said the mass departure of staff last year created a ‘very unsafe environment’ for pupils, and eventually decided to move her year 9 daughter to Emmbrook School.
“I had to take her out in December, we made the decision, because she was struggling, she had been struggling from last year, so we were kind of waiting.
”It took months and months because everywhere is oversubscribed. But [it was] also at a cost to us, because why do I have to send her on a bus and pay a thousand pounds?”
Victoria Ralph said her daughter in year 11 had anxiety because she worried she wouldn’t achieve the grades to get into a media make-up course at Reading College.
Ms Ralph said the change in trust would ‘not be an overnight thing’, but that she was hopeful it would be the start for improvements.
Yuan Yang, MP for Woodley and Earley said the protest showed a ‘big loss in trust’ of the leadership of the school, but that she saw the Ofsted report as a ‘chance for a fresh leaf to be turned’.
Ms Yang said: “We’ve seen things go downhill really quickly, I think there is the potential that things also can turn around quickly – that depends on the motivation of the trust.”
A spokesperson from Anthem Schools Trust said: “We recognise that rapid improvement at Oakbank School is necessary and this is why we believe it is in the best interests of the school to transfer to another trust in the local area.
“Our priority is always to do what is best for the young people we support, and our decision to ask the Department for Education to begin the process for a transfer was made with the school’s students first and foremost in our minds.
“We believe this move will offer the school community the stability and reassurance it needs and, while arrangements for the transfer are made, we will continue to support staff as Oakbank continues on its improvement journey.”
In a statement, Wokingham Borough Council executive member for children’s services, Cllr Prue Bray, said: “We have shared the community’s concern over Anthem Trust’s running of Oakbank School and so see these changes announced on Tuesday as a positive step for pupils, parents and guardians.
“Our powers are very limited over academy trust schools, but we are looking forward to working with the school’s improvement partner, Greenshaw Learning Trust, and any future trust for the benefit of young people in the area.”
