Council takes action to improve Kobi Nazrul Primary School

Tower Hamlets Council has applied to the Government for permission to replace the governors at Kobi Nazrul Primary School with immediate effect as part of an effort to improve educational performance, governance and leadership.

Last year’s SATs results at the school were the worst ever recorded in the borough. Following a review, the council declared the school to be a “school of concern” and tried to work with the governors to make the necessary improvements.

When it became clear that most of the governors were not willing to work with the council, senior education officers notified them that they had been left with no option but to apply to the Secretary of State to replace them with an Interim Executive Board (IEB), which would run the school on a temporary basis.

The consultation period with the governors about this process expired  on Thursday, 3rd July. The governors have all agreed to step down but not with immediate effect. In the interests of the school’s pupils, the council wants the IEB introduced with immediate effect – so the Council has now formally applied to the Secretary of State for permission to initiate an IEB.

Four governors who were receptive to the council’s efforts and agreed that an IEB was the correct approach, recently resigned with immediate effect in an attempt to persuade the other governors to do likewise.

Two of these were appointed to the governing body by the council in April 2014 and the remaining two were parent governors elected in February 2014. They are:
Suroth Miah (LA governor)
Shemla Nahar (LA governor)
Asik Miah (parent governor)
Lutfur Rahman (parent governor)
Please note that the last governor in this list should not be confused with the Mayor of Tower Hamlets: they share a name, but are not the same person. The council has placed on record its gratitude for the hard work of these four governors.

Following its inspection of the school last month, Ofsted is expected to publish its report next week. The council expects this report to confirm many of the problems uncovered by its own review last year.

Robert McCulloch-Graham, Tower Hamlets Council’s Director of Education, Social Care and Wellbeing, said: “The council is committed to high standards of education and governance and we have been working with Kobi Nazrul on a number of areas. This council has an excellent track record of transforming underperforming schools and of taking tough action when the school does not co-operate. Tower Hamlets has 100 schools and only in a few circumstances has an IEB been required. However, in all of those cases the result has been very successful and with our support we fully expect Kobi Nazrul to return quickly to the excellent school it was two years ago.”

Residents have expressed concern that Mr McCulloch-Graham should speak so quickly of “taking tough action”. While local residents share the Council’s enthusiasm to improve standards, the emphasis on “tough action” sounds more like the vacuous twaddle spouted by other boroughs than a thoughtful comment.