School head where all governors dismissed is moved

The head of the school has been moved and a new head will lead two schools

The head of a school where all the governors were stood down is to be "moved" to another role in its trust.

Governors at Melksham Oak Community School in Wiltshire said they received an email "out of the blue" on 19 April telling them they were being "stepped down".

The White Horse Federation multi-academy trust, which runs the secondary school, said an interim academy board had been created that can "meet more often and have a focussed approach to the school’s priorities".

Headteacher Haris Hussain "will move to another role within the trust in September", and Devizes School head David Cooper will take over both schools.

A letter from the school to parents explained there would be a shared head.

"Next academic year, Devizes School and Melksham Oak Community School will be led jointly by an executive headteacher who will work across both schools," the letter said.

"Alongside this, we will be making additional appointments to the leadership teams at both schools."

Mr Cooper said, in the letter: “I look forward to leading both schools jointly and to drawing together the collective talents of our staff and students.

"By working together, we can achieve greater than the sum of our parts”.

The school was rated as good by Ofsted, after an inspection in October 2022, though inspectors noted "leaders, staff and pupils need to work together to ensure that there is a positive culture of respect".

More than 1,200 pupils attend the school rated by Ofsted as good in 2022

One of the former governors Jon Hubbard, an independent Melksham Town and Wiltshire councillor, said there was no warning all of the school's governors would be dismissed last week.

"There had been nothing I had seen or heard of, that they were going to make these changes," he said.

The school had not been operating as well as it should be and there was a "very real problem" with behaviour, he continued.

"We've got a significantly increased number of suspensions and indeed, tragically, increased permanent exclusions at the school," he added.

In the dismissal letter to governors, The White Horse Federation (TWHF) said the decision to change the board was not a criticism of their work.

It described the move as short-term and a "positive step to ensure that governance monitoring, support and challenge can be as efficient and rapid as possible to enhance future development at the school".

TWHF told the BBC: "Melksham Oak is on an improvement journey and TWHF recognised that Melksham Oak needed an updated transition plan.

"This is a short-term change to governance which we have put in place to achieve the rapid improvements we feel are necessary.

"Members of ... a smaller, focused group were selected based on the needs identified in the transition plan."