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Howden School and Technology College put in special measures
PARENTS have been left reeling after Howden School and Technology College has been placed in special measures following an Ofsted inspection which rated the school's overall effectiveness as "inadequate".
PARENTS have been left reeling after Howden School and Technology College has been placed in special measures following an Ofsted inspection which rated the school's overall effectiveness as "inadequate".
They received a copy of the report last night, which details a catalogue of failings and also classes the quality of education, its leadership and management and its safeguarding policies as level four - inadequate.
Headteacher Andrew Williams, who has been at the school since September 2006, has decided to leave the 826-pupil site with immediate effect and East Riding Council has installed an executive headteacher, Mr Dave McCready, who is head at Wolfreton School, in Kirk Ella and who will now work with both schools.
Mr McCready's deputy, Garry Garghan, has been seconded, as of yesterday, from his post at Wolfreton to become come Acting Head teacher at Howden and will be responsible for the day-to-day running of the school.
A meeting for parents has been called for Monday in three sessions - at 5.30, 6.15 and 7pm - at which Mr McCready says he will outline a recovery plan for the school and give an opportunity for parents to voice concerns and ask questions.
He said the Ofsted report was a shock for all concerned and it was important now to regain the confidence of teachers and parents.
"It is understandable that parents, staff and pupils will all be nervous and we want to reassure them that we have every confidence in the staff and that we can move the school out of special measures.
"Howden needs a good school and we need the support of the whole community to make sure it gets one.
"The most important people in all this are the students."
One parent who has two children at the school said the report only confirmed what she and other parents had been thinking for the past few years.
"Both my children said the school had gone downhill since they started.
"We initially chose the school for our eldest child on the strength of Roger Burman being the headteacher. He left just before my child started and, for a while, his policies were still in place and it was OK but then things started to change."
"A lot of decent teachers seem to have left and there are a lot of supply teachers, who struggle to control the classes."
Mike Furbank, head of improvement and learning at ERYC, said: "We have a high level of confidence that the school will rapidly move forward with its new leadership team backed by a revised local authority support package and that the school will be out of special measures in the shortest possible time."
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Thursday 09 February 2012
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