Agenda item

To hear any deputations requested by members of the public in accordance with Standing Order 32.

Members are asked to note that the following deputation(s) are due to be received at the meeting:

6.1   Provision of parent voice and representation within community schools and school communications (deputation to be made by Save Byron Court Campaign Group)

(Agenda republished to include details of the above deputation on 3 July 2024)

The Mayor advised that he had accepted the request for a deputation to be presented at the meeting.  The request had been received from the Save Byron Court Campaign Group (represented by Tanisha Phoenix & Vina Vekria at the meeting) and related to school communication and the provision of parent representation within community schools.

Unless otherwise indicated by members, the Mayor advised that he intended to allow up to five minutes for presentation of the deputation before then allowing the relevant Lead Cabinet Member up to two minutes to respond.

As no objections were raised on the approach outlined, the Mayor moved on to welcome the deputation.

Save Byron Court Campaign Group – Parent representation within Community Schools.

In thanking the Mayor for the opportunity to address the meeting Vina Vekria & Tanisha Phoenix advised they were presenting the deputation on behalf of the Save Byron Court, campaign who had been established as a collective effort by parents, community members and school staff (who had also been taking strike action in support) to oppose the Government’s forced academisation of Byron Court Primary School by Harris Federation representing.

Referring to the campaign undertaken to date, it was felt this had highlighted many issues including chronic underfunding, a punitive inspection regime, a national rush to privatise education despite widespread opposition and no opportunity for school improvements to be made along with what was felt to be a worrying lack of transparency and impartiality in terms of decision making regarding the future of Byron Court Primary School.

In recognising and acknowledging the support of the campaign by Barry Gardiner (as local MP), Councillor Grahl (as the Council’s Cabinet member for Children, Young People and Schools) amongst other politicians the Campaign Group now hoped the new Labour government would be willing to intervene in order to protect the school and provide a renewed commitment to community schools as a whole.

Addressing the meeting, Vina Vekria advised that one of the issues identified, in relation to Byron Court Primary School had involved membership of the School’s Governing Body, which for the current academic year had only included one parent governor representative compared to five in previous years.  This followed a reduction in their number without, it was claimed, consultation with the parent community.  The Campaign Group had highlighted this as an important issue, given the need for successful Governing Bodies to act as custodians for the school with the necessary links to parents and the wider community.  Whilst recognising the challenges in attracting volunteers, the importance in being able to attract good quality individuals to support the role of the Governing Body outside of the school community was highlighted as necessary to provide a broad range of skills and experience.  As such the Campaign Group were calling on the Council to undertake a review of school governing bodies across the borough to ensure that the voices of parents were sufficiently represented and to encourage a more diverse range of experience and knowledge.

Following on, Tanisha Phoenix then spoke to highlight additional concerns regarding the lack of meaningful communication with parents at Byron Court Primary School and the Campaign Group from the school following publication of the Ofsted report.  Despite assurances regarding more open communication and a meeting with the Council in April 2024, at which further assurances were provided regarding the prioritisation of improvement initiatives at the school over the academisation process, it was not felt this had been delivered with notice provided in July that the focus on communications moving forward would be in relation to the ongoing strike action.  Irrespective of views regarding Ofsted and academisation, the Campaign Group felt there remained a responsibility on the Local Authority and School to ensure that parents and carers were informed about improvement initiatives that were being developed and introduced in response to the schools Ofsted rating as “inadequate”.  Whilst recognising that a majority of schools in Brent were rated as “good” or “outstanding” it was pointed out Byron Court’s inspection had been whilst under local authority control with many of the issues identified involving a lack of engagement, communication and transparency between the parent body, school and Local Authority.

As a result, the Campaign Group (through the deputation) were also keen to explore the lessons that could be learnt from the Primary School’s journey post Ofsted inspection including the benchmarking, developing and sharing of best practice around communications to ensure other schools avoided the same issues.

The Mayor thanked Vina Vekria & Tanisha Phoenix for their contributions then invited Councillor Grahl, as Cabinet Member for Children, Young People & Schools to respond.

In response, Councillor Grahl (as Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Schools) thanked the Save Byron Campaign Group for attending the meeting to present the deputation and for their advocacy to date on behalf of the school community.  In highlighting the support already expressed for the campaign, Councillor Grahl recognised the issues and concerns raised in relation to communication and advised that Shirley Parks, Director Education Partnerships and Strategy had written to all parents at the school about the improvements that it was planned to introduce across a range of areas, linked to the inspection assessment.

In regards to parent representation, Councillor Grahl felt it important to refer to the DfE guidance on Governing Bodies, which included a need for at least two parent governor representatives on each Governing Body.  As such she ended her response by once again thanking the Campaign Group and advising that the Council would continue to work with them and the school to ensure the necessary representation was in place on the governing body and to ensure that parents had a voice.

Having thanked the Save Byron Park Campaign Group for their deputation and Councillor Grahl for her response the Mayor advised that this concluded consideration of the deputation.