As my previous article notes, with copious evidence: ‘Leadership at Turner Schools below the level of CEO has always appeared to present a major problem for this small Academy Trust’. Other senior leaders also change with alarming regularity. You will find a copy of Mr Carroll's letter and a response from Mr Murphy here.
Turner Schools is fond of the term 'Sea Change' to describe its 'mission' in Folkestone. The events described in this article suggest that 'Troubled Waters' may be a better description!
Mr Murphy’s appointment will take the count to five Principals in less than two years under Turner Schools control, suggesting serious failure by those appointing or else a complete lack of strategic thinking. You will find background on the previous four leaders here. Most recently, in September 2018 whilst there was just one Deputy Principal, the number has swollen to three Deputies this September, all with major responsibilities across the school. Mr Carroll, with his responsibility for Year 11, will expand this further to four, along with three Assistant Principals, another having left the school.
Given that Mr Murphy's salary was funded by the Department for Education for a year to carry out a specific role, presumably the school will not be able to claim back the last portion.
During Mr Carroll’s year in charge, he has brought the number of fixed term exclusions at the school down from the astronomical 1211 of 2017-18 to 534 in 2018-19, but which is still likely to see the school with the second highest exclusion rate in the county. He saw the newly appointed Consultant Executive Principal packing his bags after just a month, and 27 other teaching staff leaving the secondary section during the year, down from 54 in 2018, but still giving no indication of stability at the school. The school website boasted its strong interpretation of provisional 2019 GCSE results soon after these were sent to schools, their usual practice, but any mention of GCSE outcomes has now vanished, suggesting more disappointment to come. Instead you will find the following on the website; spot the dates:
For some reason, the Trust sent out a lengthy press release reporting the change to local media and published as news in both the local newspapers and online here and here. It reports Mr Murphy writing about Mr Carroll ‘Wesley has been central to the good work I have seen at Folkestone Academy. He will remain an integral part of the senior leadership team at the school and I look forward to working with him on a daily basis’. Damning with faint praise indeed. Could he have been held responsible for yet another poor set of GCSE results, well down on 2017, contrary to all the Trust's publicity and boasts about improvement? The article also includes yet another extensive biography of Mr Murphy, surely unnecessary for an internal appointment, unless the assurance to readers that he is an experienced headteacher carries a message! The sensitivity of this change is such that the school is arranging 'parent information sessions to answer any questions you may have'. In addition, ‘The two educators have also released a video explaining the changes to parents and pupils, and posted it to social media’! Whilst an explanatory video is a unique approach to an internal change of headteacher, suggesting again that such a change needs justification, all this publicity certainly begs the question yet again of what is going at Turner Schools.
Mr Carroll's new focus on Year 11, may itself lead to a rearrangement of other responsibilities, for only last month Jenny Patchai, who was Head of KS4 in 2018, was promoted to Assistant Principal with responsibility for KS4 Progress. There was also a Head of Year 11 last year, but she appears to have been relegated to simply become a Teacher of English perhaps preparing for Mr Carroll's arrival. Also conveniently, the 2018 Head of Year 11 Progress left over the summer. Publication of the GCSE results may provide some of the rationale for these changes.
I learned from a comment below that Professor Lygo resigned as Chairman of Turner Schools after three years on 9th July this year. Oddly, in contrast to the extensive publicity given to the 'demotion' of Mr Carroll above, his resignation is simply reported by listing him on the page on Former Directors of the Governing Body. Considering the major contribution Professor Lygo has made to the Trust, it is most odd not to acknowledge this anywhere on the Trust website, except on The Founders page or via one of the numerous press releases the Trust sends out. He was of course one of the two founders of the Trust along with Dr Jo Saxton, and the total lack of appreciation of his work in founding and leading the Trust suggests further issues at the top of the top of the Trust. Also departed without acknowledgement on the same date is Dame Susan John, another trophy Trust Director, Outstanding Headteacher, Member of Royal Society, the Sutton Trust and other highly regarded educational bodies, together with Jennie King who left the following week. She was a former headteacher at Willesborough Junior School who left and briefly took up a role as Executive Headteacher at Martello Grove and Morehall Primaries, succeeding Dr Saxton, before becoming Chair of their Local Governing Bodies a year ago along with her Directorship, all of which she has also now left. In her place at the primary schools has come Linda Pickles, fresh from her previous role as Principal Adviser for primary school improvement for Kent County Council.
The resignations of Professor Lygo and Dame Susan John followed soon after an Emergency Directors Board Meeting arranged at very short notice on two days, 7th & 8th May this Year. The importance and urgency of this meeting are highlighted by the decision to hold it on Conference Call, although the very sketchy Minutes do not enable one to draw any conclusions about proceedings with confidence. What we do know is that at the following routine meeting of the Directors Board on July 9th, neither was present and their resignations were formally accepted.
The Trust News (latest) page of the website, where some of this could have been mentioned, merely contains two identical profiles of Dr Saxton, from the TES of 8th October 2018, two copies of an article entitled: 'How Turner Schools is helping Kent meet the growing secondary school population', published in June, which is an argument I demolish in another article here. Then there is a video by Dr Saxton called: Our CEO discussing plans for Folkestone Academy and successes across the Trust from May last year, which I have also analysed previously. Not a single word about Dr Lygo or his work. It is as if he has been airbrushed out, like many before him.
The Trust now has an Interim Chair, James Booth-Clibborn, a book publisher, with Directors Meetings taking place at Phaidon press, London, where he is a Director. Having lost three of its eight Directors in a week, two new ones have been appointed. Michael Buchanan is the Executive Director of HMC, the organisation representing headteachers of the top private schools, and previously Headteacher of the private The Ashford School, in Ashford. Professor Helen James is Deputy Vice-Chancellor Designate of Canterbury Christ Church University.
With all this talent being imported at Director and Local Governing Body levels Turner Schools certainly ought to begin improving! I can't imagine any other small struggling Academy Trust being able to attract such a pool of experience, providing of course that Turner Schools can retain it.
