Transparency - Michael Gove we need your help NOW

When Mr Ryles was asked for his and the governors position in the first meeting Mr Ryles said "The governors are behind me" he subsequently corrected himself to "I am behind the governors" but for me it was already too late. Mr Ryles is just too accomplished and practiced a speaker to be making errors like that. I had been prepared to ignore the whisperings from staff and parents about dinner parties, golf and sharing nice bottles of red - the cosy relationship between Mr Ryles and some of his governors but in that one "Freudian Slip" he lost me forever. Don't get me wrong Mr Ryles has been an exceptional headmaster and has built a fantastically strong school from which we have all benefited. My personal distaste for the mechanics of modern education with the head needing to chase money and market his school should not detract from the fact that Mr Ryles has "played the game" very very effectively and in what he has created at Tomlinscote we have benefited. His almost shameless pitch for the merger and what it would bring to Tomlinscote worried me enormously, he has said repeatedly that this was SurreyCC decision and proposal. But when push came to shove, Mr Ryles as the only person with enough people skills and public speaking experience was put centre stage by SurreyCC to argue THEIR case. The mood in the hall was that despite an almost unanimous agreement between Tomlinscote and Kings parents that the merger is a bad idea, parental views were going to be run over roughshod. I got home to a full email inbox of fury and despair, how could the views of the parents of 2000+ children count for nothing? OK I don't know the views of ALL parents but there appears to be a majority No camp, a sizeable "it's a done deal we don't like it but what can you do" camp and with the exception of SurreyCC and Mr Ryles a near silent Yes camp.

OK so we have been told by everyone that this decision is down to the governors. The big question right now is "Do the parents trust the governors to make a decision that is in the best interests of their children?" Lets look at that one and cut the governors some slack. It is my understanding that if the governors had voted to combine with Kings and not take it to "due diligence" that they had to power to have made this decision without ANY consultation with parents - I may be wrong here. If I'm right then rather than tarring all the governors with one brush we need to be thankful that enough governors voted to do the due diligence rather than just rubber stamping it. There seems to be two camps in the governors and it is fairly finely poised.

I covered in a previous blog post that I felt Mr Ryles' position on the restructuring committee at Kings and on the governors at Tomlinscote as being a rather massive "conflict of interest". I was worried it skewed the balance of the governors since his interest was not that of the headteacher of Tomlinscote (the reason he is on the governors) his interest has more of the focus of a community governor. My assertion that Mr Ryles, and the considerable weight he has in the governing body, is not directly focussed on the needs of Tomlinscote but has a wider reach is only enhanced by his apparent closeness to SurreyCC and their proposal. SurreyCC makes the case from one side but in reality SurreyCC also has representation on the governors, so any concerns about Mr Ryles' primary focus are obviously of grave concern. There is a very good reason that the governors list is split to give representation to community, staff, parents etc. They are not just of grave concern to me, I'm sure the governors are jockeying for position too, allegedly a governor in favour of the merger who wished to step down has been asked to stay on to see it through. If true, this is even more concerning, I don't want my childrens future to be decided by some narrowly fought game of political intrigue. Without more information I am broadly supportive of the majority of the governors but I call for significantly more transparency, without it the natural reaction of the majority of parents will certainly be one of "no confidence". That leads in a very ugly direction.

As to Mr Ryles I thank him for the years of excellent service to Tomlinscote school but feel this is the end. Mr Ryles said he was stepping down so that a new head could undertake the restructuring project. I will skip over the fact that this is a "proposed" restructuring project and despite this the new head is to be interviewed for before the outcome is resolved (as early as next week). If Mr Ryles truly believes that the future is for another person to define (as he says) then he has no business being further involved in this decision. I would like to see Mr Ryles step down effective immediately and pass the baton over to Mrs Z Johnson-Walker who would continue to run Tomlinscote as she has been doing successfully in Mr Ryles' absence. The appointment of a new head teacher cannot possibly be accomplished when the job that the candidate would have to perform is so much up in the air.

I call on Michael Gove as our local MP to intervene - not to determine an outcome but to examine the way that this has been handled by all involved parties. NOW Michael - the consultation period is too short for you to drag your feet.

I would like to know how many people agree with me.