Update 28th November: To few people's surprise surely, Mrs Aquilina's actions have led to a proposal for the KCSP to bring St Thomas Catholic Primary School into a cluster of West Kent schools. See below for details.
It was announced today that the Headteacher of St Thomas’ Catholic Primary School in Sevenoaks, Mrs Claudia Aquilina, has been dismissed for gross misconduct by her employers, the Kent Catholic Schools Partnership. This follows her suspension from the post earlier this year on June 17th. The decision to suspend was highly controversial amongst some Catholic parents as she had a loyal following who thought her wonderful. The record 89 comments attached to my initial article, which with its predecessor has now been read over thirty thousand times, indicate the depth of feeling she aroused, both positive and negative.
Over the many years I have been commenting on Kent and Medway education matters, I have seen a number of headteachers removed from their posts, but cannot recall any dismissed as bluntly as this, indicating the seriousness of the case.
That original suspension was certainly due to a serious breach of both safeguarding legislation and of lockdown requirements, although not related to child abuse. I was given a version of the allegations at the time which made sense and were about completely inappropriate behaviour by a professional but, in some very generous lights, could be seen as simply foolish.
By the end of the summer term, the Kent Catholic Schools Partnership (KCSP) considered it appropriate to bring the suspension to a halt and she was to be reinstated in September. However, the whole matter was becoming exceedingly complex with her husband, a Catholic parish priest who became involved with school affairs, standing down ‘voluntarily’ from his post, and supporters campaigning strongly for her return to school. I updated the story at the beginning of September when KCSP changed their view and renewed the suspension, apparently because of further events either discovered or happening.
The Catholic Archbishop of Southwark, the Most Rev John Wilson, has got drawn into the story because of the actions of Father Aquilina. The Diocesan Director of Education & Schools Commissioner, Dr Simon Hughes, was drafted in as a Governor of the school in September, highlighting the seriousness of the case.
Some parents got up a petition sent to the Archbishop, blaming the suspension on to KCSP who they alleged were incompetent and also engaged in a Trust centralising policy damaging to the school. You will find my comments on the inflammatory update here. Certainly, the Trust has had its own problems as explained here, although there appears no obvious link between the two.
Catholic politics became involved in the story because of the Ordinariate, a branch of Catholicism set up around 2010 which allowed married priests to continue to practise, although Father Aquilina complicated matters by leaving the order after being appointed a parish priest.
It does look as if those supporters of Mrs Aquilina have become less vocal in recent months, perhaps indicating an acceptance of the reality. The school is now looking for a new headteacher. I wish it well after the last few traumatic years.
Post Script: On the day this article was written, a small show of defiance against the decision was taken by the distribution of a leaflet via the windscreen wipers of parental cars in a nearby car park. Although it was sprinkled with false claims, the leaflet appeared to refer to information not in the public domain. It is worth remembering the parental view of the school identified by Ofsted in 2019, which strongly challenges the picture of nirvana conjured up by this leaflet.
Proposal to place St Thomas' into a cluster of West Kent Schools
St Thomas' Catholic Primary School under Mrs Aquilina has had a controversial past few years even before the recent events. The shocking outcome of a drive by the school to get parents posting views on its Ofsted Parentview webpage are a strong indicator of this, and yet the school has still been split by a powerful clique of followers of the headteacher and her husband, currently 'on leave' from his own post as vicar of the Catholic parish of Westerham and Biggin Hill. Something had to give and it turned out to be the actions of Mrs Aquilina, that first caused her to be suspended and then dismissed from her post. You can find the latest outcome in a letter to parents dated 28th November, from the Kent Catholic Schools Partnership here, which now proposes to place St Thomas' under the control of a strong and successful school leader. If this small one form entry primary school had been in safe hands it would have been allowed to continue along its own path, as apparently was promised in principle back in 2017, but the Trust does have a greater responsibility to all the children. The Catholic Diocese of Southwark made clear its determination to resolve local problems by first appointing the Diocesan Director of Education & Schools Commissioner to the school's governing body (see above). Then earlier this week Monsignor John O'Toole was appointed to the Governing Body of KCSP. He is Episcopal Vicar for Kent until a new Auxiliary Bishop for the Archdiocese is appointed by the Holy See, and is also Chaplain to His Holiness the Pope. Parents need to stop whistling in the dark and pull together to restore the reputation of the school, although it is clear that much of the furore is created by outsiders amongst the astonishing 42,000 visitors to the three articles I have written on the subject who no doubt feel they are being helpful.
