Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence and temporary appointments were received as follows:

Councillor Fooks declared a personal interest in Agenda Item 4 on the grounds that she was currently Acting Chair of Iffley Meads School’s Governing Body.

The Chairman agreed to 10 requests to address the meeting from the following members of the public and local members:

Councillor Larry Sanders                    -           Local Member

Jane Gallagher                                    -           Local Resident and parent

Bill McKeith                                         -           Executive Officer of the Oxford & District

                                                                        Trades Union Council

Andy Davice                                        -           Local resident and parent

Jeremy Spafford                                 -           Parent

Tony Brett                                           -           Local resident and parent

Anna Thorne                                       -           Parent

Catherine Goodwin                             -           Parent

Ian Bellchambers                                -           Local resident and local resident

Cllr Nuala Young                                 -           Oxford City Council

The principle points raised by each speaker are briefly summarised as follows:

Councillor Larry Sanders

Spoke in support of reason 3 of the call-in ie. that ‘any feasibility study should include looking at other options, not just the academy’, raising the following points:

• The academy was the only option available – Expression of Interest (EoI)  was effectively sponsored by ULT. Other options such as that of the Co-Operative Trust, which had been heavily ‘flagged’ to the Government, had not been considered;
• Two of the fifteen academies sponsored by ULT  had been named by Ofsted as a failing school;
• If the ULT option was successful then all secondary schools in the catchment area would be of a religious nature. It was unfair to parents not to offer them the choice;
• Any consultation which had been undertaken to date had not proved to be very helpful. It was unfortunate that there were proposals already underway to move certain schools on to the Oxford School site, which appeared to have been put in place without discussion with parents and the community.

Jane Gallagher

• As a local resident living in the catchment area for Oxford School and a parent of two children, one of whom was a pupil of Larkrise Primary, Ms Gallagher was alarmed to hear of the decision by Cabinet to conduct a feasibility study on ULT as sponsor;
• She stressed the importance to her family of having the choice of a secular school within the area;
• She expressed her concern that the parents of children directly affected by the Council’s plans had yet to be consulted. Any consultation should precede a written proposal;
• She urged the Council to withdraw the decision to proceed with the feasibility study until all the options had been considered and discussed with parents and the community;
• Ms Gallagher requested that all of her views expressed above be framed in the light of Oxford School’s ‘excellent’ GCSE results.

Bill MacKeith

• Mr MacKeith explained that the Oxford & District Trade Unions Council was an important representative body which had a remit to represent the interests of trade union members and of the wider community;
• Speaking in support of reason 3, he urged the Committee to advise the Cabinet to continue with the status quo, which was an alternative that had not been considered, on the grounds that Oxford School was a good school, with improved GCSE results and which provided parents with a secular choice. He added that the Council  ...  view the full minutes text for item 34.

In accordance with Rule 16 of the Scrutiny Procedure Rules, the Proper Officer has agreed to a request from the following Councillors for a Call In of the Cabinet’s decision made on 15 September in relation to ‘Oxford School – Feasibility Study into replacing it with an Academy’.

Councillor Mohammed Altaf-Khan

Councillor Alan Armitage

Councillor Jean Fooks

Councillor John Goddard

Councillor Janet Godden

Councillor Jenny Hannaby

Councillor Zoe Patrick

Councillor Larry Sanders

Councillor Ros Smith

Councillor David Turner

The Cabinet decision was to:

(a)                    Note the content of the Expression of Interest;

(b)                    Agree to proceed with the ‘Feasibility Study’; and

(c)                     Request officers to bring a further report on the outcomes of consultations undertaken as part of the ‘Feasibility Study’.

The reasons given for the request are:

1.                        Lack of consultation with parents, the community and local members.

2.                        The Expression of Interest is unclear because it mentions a primary school and a special school being included without identifying them.

3.                        Any feasibility study should include looking at other options, not just the academy.

4.                        The impact on the other schools in the area needs to be considered.

The report considered by Cabinet is attached (CH4)

In accordance with Rule 16 of the Scrutiny Procedure Rules, the Proper Officer had agreed to a request from the following Councillors for a Call In of the Cabinet’s decision made on 15 September in relation to ‘Oxford School – Feasibility Study into replacing it with an Academy’.

Councillor Mohammed Altaf-Khan

Councillor Alan Armitage

Councillor Jean Fooks

Councillor John Goddard

Councillor Janet Godden

Councillor Jenny Hannaby

Councillor Zoe Patrick

Councillor Larry Sanders

Councillor Ros Smith

Councillor David Turner

The Cabinet decision was to:

(a)                    note the content of the Expression of Interest;

(b)                    agree to proceed with the ‘Feasibility Study’; and

(c)                     request officers to bring a further report on the outcomes of consultations undertaken as part of the ‘Feasibility Study’.

The reasons given for the request were:

1.                        Lack of consultation with parents, the community and local members.

2.                        The Expression of Interest is unclear because it mentions a primary school and a special school being included without identifying them.

3.                        Any feasibility study should include looking at other options, not just the academy.

4.                        The impact on the other schools in the area needs to be considered.

The report considered by Cabinet was attached to the Agenda at CH4.

The Chairman indicated that she wanted each reason for the request to call-in to be addressed in turn and the business to be conducted as follows:

-                      a representative from the 10 members who had called the item in to briefly introduce each reason;

-                      the Cabinet member/officers to respond;

-                      the Committee to discuss;

-                      the Cabinet member/officers to respond if it is so wished.

Reason 1 – Lack of consultation with parents, the community and local members

Councillor Godden introduced Reason 1 on behalf of the 10 members pointing out the following:

• The predominant reason was that the Expression of Interest (EoI) had been progressed with much haste, thereby losing the confidence of the parents, who had not been consulted on other options considered up to that point;
• Should the Feasibility Study be proceeded with now, it would not be a productive exercise for the above reason;
• It was important that the parents should feel involved and it was clear from the statements heard from them that they did not; and
• A message should be sent back to Cabinet via this Committee that meetings ought to be held with the parents of pupils at Oxford School and its feeder primary schools prior to proceeding further.

Councillor Waine responded with the following points:

• Oxford School had been designated a ‘National Challenge’ school by the Government, not by the Council. The Council thus had no alternative but to respond to the designation as soon as possible;
• The Cabinet had to consider a range of options for securing improvements to the School not only to rise above the national targets, but also to reach a sustainable level in the future;
• A range of options had been looked at in some detail with officers and with the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 35.