School Ignores the Findings of Their Inspection

(The names of the innocent and gullible have been changed to protect them from ongoing harm and having their cards marked by authorities intent on destroying anyone critical of their activities.)

______________________

Argonaut Senior Learning Hub

“Bake in the Excellence. The Future is Now”

Cold Comfort Lane

Lower Cookhill

6th March 2024

Director of Education

Diocesan Education Service

​Ecclesial House

Church Way 

Dear Monseigneur  

Your inspectors left us six days ago. I understand their report will arrive sometime or other in the next few weeks or so.

The timing does not concern us.

Nor, for that matter, will the content cause any anxiety.

Indeed, it will be of little interest to us.

Two paths

We discovered during the inspection that we did not sing from the same hymn sheet as your two inspectors.

We disagreed about what is meant by the school mission. Your team thought the mission was contained in our slogan, “Bake in the excellence. The Future is Now”. It is not.

They had little grasp of how we participate in the diocesan mission.

They were not familiar with the distinction between 'having a mission' and 'being mission'. Our discussions on the topic, quoting Pope Francis and John Henry Newman, didn’t open any pathways to enlightenment.

We were taken aback at their narrow interpretation of the requirement that we should teach Catholic social justice. Whereas we include all seven basic elements in that body of work, they focus only on giving priority to the poor.

Unique RE Programme

They were uneasy with our approach to teaching RE.

We run a bespoke individualised learning program in teaching RE.

The programme covers all the necessary knowledge, understanding and active participation in the rituals and activities of the Catholic Church.

There is built in provision for correction as well as for extension work.

Students are supported by a group of volunteer retirees recruited by and from the local parishes who are delighted to act as coaches, one-to-one tutors, good role models and discussion buddies. We are developing a similar type approach which will track and monitor the spiritual and personal development of our students.

As the name implies, the RE programme does not demand that every student be in the same group, in the same room, at the same time every week. This leads to what outsiders would perceive as disjointed lesson sessions.

In fact, each lesson is part of a holistic interlocking range of personal activities, individual research, joint learning activities, team working with schools in Australia, New Zealand and the UAE and blended learning. Each student is guided, monitored and moderated in tracked supported provision directed by our staff.

Your inspectors, not having seen anything like this before, chose to categorise the activities they saw as chaotic.

Our written records, testimonies from the students, teachers, parents, parishes, volunteer retirees and our outstanding examination results testify to the success of the programme.

This evidence was disregarded because it did not fit with traditional teaching scenarios.

Feedback difficulties

Our biggest disappointment, however, was with the formal feedback of final judgements.

We were told the feedback information was confidential until the final written report was published. I explained we could not agree to such an unreasonable suggestion. Doing so would go against the ethos of our community and undermine our values.

I gave our governors a full account of the inspection judgements as they were reported back to myself and a member of senior staff.

In the Parents’ Newsletter, the editor for last week’s edition wrote a detailed account of the feedback based on the notes taken at the meeting by the senior staff member.

The lead inspector told me such actions violated the confidential nature of the feedback. I thanked her for this astute observation and said I fully realised what I was doing.

As a sign of our goodwill and honest intention, I offered to send her a copy of our rebuttal of the judgements in her private feedback along with a copy of any notes taken by staff or students during the inspection. She declined my offer.

She had already refused to share her notes of the inspection activities and those of her companion that she alleges underpin their unverified, and some would say, off the mark judgments.

As one parent pointed out, even a criminal accused of the vilest of crimes is entitled to hear in open court the evidence behind the charges laid against them. He spoke from experience.

Without those notes we cannot be sure of the validity of the judgments made.

For these reasons we withhold our assent to the conclusions reached by your team. We will not recognise the published report unless it is accompanied by all the written notes the inspectors took.

School Consultative Assemblies

One issue of great concern was the lead inspector’s refusal to give the feedback in front of the assembled community as we requested, with all staff and students together. Openness characterises all our activities with our students.

As a half-way measure we asked that she present their findings to the two School Assemblies who are well versed in hearing evidence and know how to ask questions to ascertain meaning and relevance. Your team declined to appear before the Assemblies.

Our school is the students' place of learning. It is their education and their future we deal with. They are at the centre of all we do. They are our stakeholders and we always bring full transparency to all our dealings with them.

We test everything we do in the congregations of the Student School Assembly and the Staff and Parent School Assembly. We borrowed the idea from the Irish government’s approach to major changes in legislation where they use Citizens Assemblies to hear evidence from experts and present agreed proposals to guide the Irish government’s decisions on legislation.

We suspect Pope Francis was impressed by what the Irish did as he seems to have included the concept in his notion of synodality. Unfortunately, your inspectors’ understanding of the practical implications of synodality did not match the structure set up by Pope Francis.

Nor did they see the role of our Assemblies as valuable contributors to good leadership.  

Evidence based approaches

Posting second-hand, unsubstantiated judgements about us across the internet is unacceptable in this community that values integrity and makes decisions based on clear evidence.

Our evidence-based approach to teaching and learning is yet another example of our approach.

We believe and live by the expectation that each person has the right to hear first-hand the judgments about them and to probe the evidence base of the inspectors.

The lead inspector had already objected to the presence of our young observers who accompanied her and her companion on the activities they visited.

When she told a Year 10 student, “go away, child”, the 'child' replied, “you are inspecting us, so it is valid that we inspect you inspecting us. A form of meta-inspection”.

Your representative seemed confused as to the meaning of “meta-inspection”. She told the young person she was being too smart for her boots.

Calling a fifteen-year-old, “child”, is an issue you might want to raise with your employee.

Assembly responses

An extraordinary meeting of the Student School Assembly two days ago unanimously accepted the motion that we withhold recognition of your written report unless it is accompanied by a full collection of unredacted notes and written observations that underpin the judgments.

At a packed meeting of the Parent and Staff School Assembly yesterday evening, the resolution of the Student School Assembly was adopted and unanimously passed.

They delegated me to officially inform you that your judgements on this inspection are irrelevant, and we will not recognise them unless accompanied by the full written evidence base.

The Parent and Staff Assembly unanimously resolved that any retaliatory action on your part will lead to them appealing directly to the European Court of Human Rights on the grounds that we, and especially the young people, were not properly involved in the inspection process and were presented with judgments without being able to view the evidence on which they were based.

As one parent graphically and vehemently put it, “this shonky Sheila inspector is worse than a dunny rat and has a kangaroo loose in the top paddock.”

He is of antipodean origin and retains his colloquial usage of the English language.

A ‘shonky Sheila’ is what he calls an underhand woman. The other phrases speak for themselves.

We will not make a formal complaint as this will waste your time and ours.

Next step

You may imprison us in some Academy Trust because we don’t accept your unsubstantiated judgements.

In our view, that would be like posting a new fiddler to play a different tune that does not resonate with the tune we believe should be played in our community. Our own tune resonates with our staff, with our parents, with our community, with our local parishes and above all with our young people whom we serve.

Respondent

Mrs Fatima Murphy, our lead caretaker and a qualified and retired aerospace engineer, will deal with any queries you may have.

She plays a key role in our community. As well as being the lead on maintenance, house keeping, hygiene and security, she uses her after-school sessions with younger students on experimental rocket design to contribute significantly to the development of those with dyslexia and milder forms of autism – a fact your inspectors failed to explore.

Fatima volunteered to liaise with you in order to give me more time to be with our young people giving them the best start in life. She still clings to the quaint traditional view that my work as head teacher is more important than hers, which is why she volunteered to be liaison officer with you. She says her years working in the aerospace industries equipped her to deal with the many varieties of inhumanity she has met over the years.

She asks that any contact with her should be between the hours of 1800 and 1900.

You are our inspiration

Your own organisation is regularly vilified and repudiated, often with proof. You can imagine how we feel when there is no proof. 

We draw strength from your frequent refusals to accept judgments, even with evidence, when directed against you and your valuable work.

We will do our best to match your determination.

May the Lord bless you with all the blessing only you know you need.

Yours respectfully

Jonathan Martins

Privileged to be Leader of the Argonaut Learning Hub

© Ted Dunphy

7th March 2024