AN improvement plan for Beaulieu School is due to be issued at the end of this month following criticism from parents over the decisions of senior management and staff departures, the Children’s and Education Minister has confirmed.
Deputy Inna Gardiner said that a government report into the school, following an inspection in November, will also be made public and presented to parents at a meeting in the coming weeks.
Earlier this month, a letter was sent to Beaulieu parents notifying them that headteacher Chris Beirne had stepped back from the position and secondary deputy headteacher Paul Robinson would undertake the role of acting head ‘with immediate effect’.
The decision came after the departure of former head of secondary Andrea Firby, which sparked criticism from a number of parents. The school said that Mrs Firby had taken voluntary redundancy.
A petition was started calling for the resignation of the school’s chief executive [also a position held by Mr Beirne], chief operating officer ‘and the remaining trustees’ following Mrs Firby’s departure, and a number of parents formed a committee calling for an independent review of the governance at Beaulieu School.
Deputy Gardiner said: ‘An evaluation report was conducted by my team in November and I am waiting to receive that final report. Once I have received it, we will be putting an improvement plan in place and making recommendations to the school towards the end of the month.
‘The report will also be made public and will be presented to parents at the upcoming meeting on 26 January.’
Deputy Gardiner said she met the board of trustees last week and that they were working together on the ‘best solutions’ for the school. ‘We have a good understanding and we are committed to making improvements. The trustees are also undertaking their own review which will be published in the near future,’ she said.
