New LGC Chair resigns

Revs Cathy and Jonny Blair

Since the Good Shepherd Trust have taken over the school, they've managed to lose its well-respected head teacher, promote the chair of the Local Governing Committee into their organisation (despite the serious and credible concerns about his behaviour) and fail to find a replacement headteacher.

On top this, they put the school into special measures [the Notice to Improve], ruined staff morale, lost their long-standing deputy head-teacher and drove a wedge through the parent community, most of whom have publicly called for an independent inquiry into how recent events have been handled.

Now the LGC chair the GST brought in to replace Nigel Stapleton has walked, after a matter of weeks.

In a message sent to parents yesterday our interim head teacher said:

"On Friday, the local governing committee (LGC) chair, Chris Howard, decided not to continue with the role into the next academic year. His experience and skills have been gained in local authority (LA) maintained schools, where governance and responsibilities differ widely. We were, of course, aware of these differences but felt Chris’s varied experience would benefit the Trust. However Chris now feels that he cannot add sufficient value in an academy setting, at least to his own satisfaction. That said, we have benefitted from his knowledge and experience immensely since he joined us in March and I am personally very grateful for all his support, leading our LGC through a very challenging period."

And who has been appointed interim chair after Chris Howard's departure? A conciliatory hands-across-the-water mediator with all the skills required to mend the broken bridges and start the long journey towards fixing the problems? Not quite.

The new LGC chair is the Reverend Cathy Blair. The one who behaved so badly towards Richard Dunne during LGC meetings she was asked to apologise, who (at a staff meeting the morning after Richard Dunne resigned) shouted down teachers who tried to protest, and who has lost significant members of her congregation, disgusted at the way she and the Rev Jonny Blair have handled matters.

A former member of her congregation had already written to Rev Blair after Richard Dunne was completely cleared of all the GST's charges by the Teaching Regulation Agency. I suggest Peter's letter now has more urgency than when it was written.

I liked Chris Howard. I went to meet him at his home in Hurtmore. We sat in the garden with Mrs Howard (a former teacher) and chatted for two hours. He was exactly the right person to start the gradual process of helping the school recover from what the GST has done to it. We left on very good terms. To find the GST has managed to lose him already is gutting, to say the least.

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An open letter to Rev Cathy Blair

This is from Peter and Sara Shaw, who used to attend St Mary's Church in Walton:

15 July 2020

Dear Cathy

In light of the recent decision by the Teaching Regulation Agency that all the allegations made by the Good Shepherd Trust against Richard Dunne have been dismissed. And now that the Disclosure and Barring Service review has also been completed, and Richard has no case to answer, we believe it would be good for you to reach out with a public apology to Richard and his family.

Richard has suffered a great injustice that has put him and his family through 10 months of unimaginable anguish. As Vice Chair of Ashley School’s Local Governing Committee and one of the vicars of Richard’s parish, we think that would be the Christian, and decent, thing to do.

We were, and still are, hugely saddened and disappointed that you and Jonny did not act to defend or support Richard when he was forced to resign from the school. You have stated in the past that you had nothing to do with his absence. But as a senior member of the LGC, and as Christian leaders in the community we believe you should have taken a principled stand against the GST’s actions. We also know that you did not (according to Richard) offer any counselling support to him and his family.

So, now that these allegations have been independently dismissed by the regulatory bodies, it is now your opportunity to make amends and show humility and leadership. You probably know the huge damage this had done to relations between the community in Walton and St Mary’s and St Johns. If you don’t know then let us assure you that many people are horrified and angry at the church as a result. The fact that Richard has now been exonerated will only fuel people’s mistrust of the church and its leadership.

You have the opportunity now to make amends and demonstrate that the message of Jesus is about justice, forgiveness and reconciliation. If you don’t act now then the damage already done will only increase and the church will suffer even more as a result. We know of many current and past members of the church who are saddened and confused by your inaction, ourselves included.

So, do the decent thing and seek forgiveness and reconciliation with Richard Dunne and his family.

Yours in Christ

Peter and Sara Shaw

Exonerated. Vindicated.

Two weeks ago Richard Dunne, former head teacher at Ashley CofE primary school, received a letter from the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS). The letter said that having reviewed the evidence it had been sent by the Good Shepherd Trust (GST) on 10 Dec last year, it saw no need to take any further action.

Mr Dunne is not and will not be barred or limited in any way from working with children in future. Good news.

However the DBS reserved the right to review the decision based on any findings by the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA).

The TRA investigation was a bigger deal than the DBS review as both the GST and Mr Dunne had the opportunity to submit additional evidence beyond whatever the GST had sent to trigger the TRA investigation.

Charlotte and Richard Dunne

Mr Dunne spent many hours putting his case together, and sent it off several weeks ago, along with the 380 letters of support he received from parents, ex-parents, staff, ex-colleagues and former pupils.

Yesterday Mr Dunne received the result of the TRA investigation.

All allegations against him have been thrown out. 

The letter says:

"The Teaching Regulation Authority has completed its investigation. The determination meeting has concluded that your case should be closed with no further action."

The TRA says someone called a Decision Maker looked at everything, and had to ponder whether any of them "even at their highest... amount to potentially serious misconduct" [my italics]

After listing every allegation (including the Chamonix trip safeguarding nonsense, the alleged catering racket and Mr Dunne's alleged failing to book on a safeguarding course) and noting the further representations made by both the GST and Mr Dunne, the TRA says:

"Having considered all the information, the Decision Maker does not consider that this case should proceed to a Professional Conduct Panel. [The] TRA now considers this matter closed."

So the Decision Maker's conclusion was that the GST allegations were so weak, they should be slung out at the first instance.

This is a huge victory for Mr Dunne and indeed all the parents who have been campaigning on his behalf. Let's not forget he was suddenly removed from his job in the first week of this school year and was left completely (and deliberately*) isolated. He and his family have been put through hell with no apology or support from his employer.

Now - ten months on - two independent investigations have found the GST's allegations to be baseless.

I have spoken to Mr Dunne. He told me his over-riding emotion is one of relief. He wrote to me to say:

"We are so pleased that the nightmare of the past year is now over. It has been the most difficult time of our lives and I cannot put into words the pain and the suffering we have gone through after 18 years at the school. We have grieved so much. What the Trust did and the way it went about it was wrong and I hope now that they will be held to account for their actions. I have said all along that if there were any concerns last year, they should have been discussed through a fair and dignified process. That did not happen. Instead, I was put under unreasonable pressure to manage the largest primary school in the Trust with a reduced leadership team and I was told to oversee another Trust school. In addition, because I challenged the way the Trust was working, I was targeted behind my back over several months. The lengths to which the Trust went to find any fault in anything I did was extraordinary. At last, justice has been done. The sadness is, that this should never have happened. It has caused so many people so much upset. I want to thank the amazing Ashley School community for all their incredible support during such a challenging time."

Mr Dunne says he is going to sit down and have a good think with his family about what to do next. He still has a claim in for constructive dismissal, and I suspect the two letters he has recently received don't do his case any harm at all.

* See timeline, 3 October 2019.

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