White Horse Federation trusts dismisses Melksham Oak governors

The shocked governors only found out by email last week that their services were no longer needed by the Swindon-based trust, the White Horse Federation, that runs the school.

They included four Trust-appointed governors, one parent governor and two staff governors, who were all dismissed on April 19.

One of the four Trust-appointed governors, Jon Hubbard, a Melksham town and Wiltshire councillor, criticised their dismissal, saying they had received no prior warning.

Cllr Jon Hubbard, a former governor at Melksham Oak Community School, has criticised their dismissal. (Image: Jon Hubbard)

“The first I heard of it was when I received an email dismissing me as a governor telling me that the board had been dissolved and that we were being replaced by the IAB.

“Generally, the board of governors met four or five times a year and in fact I had one in my diaries scheduled for next week.

“There had been nothing that I had seen or heard of that said they were about to make these changes.

“The school is very clearly not operating as well as it should be. There is a very real problem of behaviour within the school.”

Cllr Hubbard said Melksham Oak has got “a significantly increased number of pupil detentions, suspensions, and indeed tragically permanent exclusions, from the school.”

He added: “It is still less than 12 months since the school received a ‘Good’ rating from Ofsted. The conclusions were that student behaviour was very much going in the right direction.

“The purpose of governors is to come along and to bring constructive criticism and challenge to the school and to be that friend who will ask difficult questions but challenging questions.

“But what we’ve actually had is the governors’ attempt to do that and the school and the Trust’s response being oh my goodness we don’t want these questions asked, off you go.”

Cllr Hubbard said the staff at Melksham Oak were very committed and some were “exceptional”. He didn’t want parents to think they should not send their children to the school.

Melksham Oak has more than 1,260 pupils aged 11-16 and a sixth form of 132 students aged 16-18. Led by its principal Haris Hussain, it is one of 31 primary and secondary academy schools run by the White Horse Federation.

The main entrance to Melksham Oak Community School. Photo: Trevor Porter 70422-6 (Image: Trevor Porter)

The White Horse Federation posted a message on the Melksham Oak website saying: “To ensure our school makes rapid progress towards its ambitious aims, an Interim Academy Board (IAB) has been put in place as a short-term change to replace the Local Governing Committee that we would normally have in our Trust schools.

“Our Interim Academy Board has been created so that a smaller group of governors can meet more frequently and focus on supporting rapid school improvement, in line with our school development priorities.

"The IAB comprises a parent representative, a trustee and an external governor for an additional independent view. 

“We are very grateful to our previous governors for their commitment to the school and they will of course be invited to apply to be part of the new governing board when this is established in due course.

“It would be expected the IAB be in place for up to 18 – 24 months, with the Trustees having regular reviews to determine when there would be a transition to a Local Governance Committee (LGC), having established a shadow LGC to support the transition period.”

The three new IAB members have all been appointed for a four-year term in line with other governor appointments within the Trust.