Wolverhampton governor: My role was made untenable

Peter Mayhew served on the board of governors at Palmers Cross Primary School in Tettenhall, Wolverhampton, for 29 years before relinquishing his post in October.

It was previously reported that the 14-strong board had been sacked, although it has since come to light that Mr Mayhew and seven other governors resigned their positions.

An Interim Executive Board was then put in place.

The move came as part of a major period of transition for the school in Windermere Road. Last year a new headteacher, Shona Ferguson, was appointed, while the school received a critical Ofsted inspection in June when it was told it 'requires improvement'.

The school was subsequently rated as the worst of the city's primaries, with only 36 per cent of pupils achieving the benchmark standard of Level 4 in both reading and maths tests and in writing.

Mr Mayhew said that although he and his fellow governors did everything in their power to help the school improve, no assistance was forthcoming from Wolverhampton City Council.

"We asked the council for help on numerous occasions," said the 64-year-old, who lives in Tettenhall. "They would send out inspectors who told us what we are doing wrong, but they didn't say how we could fix it. The council said their remit wasn't to fix the problems."

Mr Mayhew, who attended the school as a pupil in the 1950s, said the final straw came during a meeting with the local authority when a council officer asked him if he could step down and find a replacement.

"It was a complete insult," he said. "By that point I had had enough, stress wise. I felt that I'd given so many years to the school, always with the best interests of the children at heart, yet the implication was that I wasn't fit for purpose."

Mr Mayhew said he believes the school's problems were exacerbated by a breakdown in communications between the board of governors and the headteacher.

He added: "We should have liaised over changes and plans for the school, but we were kept out of the loop."

In Ofsted's last inspection report on the school, concerns were raised about the quality of teaching and the ability of governors to monitor the school's performance. During a follow up visit inspectors noted that senior leaders and governors had not taken effective action to remedy the school's problems.

Mr Mayhew added: "Yes, there were problems. We knew the teachers needed support, but as governors we were not given a chance to help them improve.

"I love the school and really hope that things start to get better there soon."

Wolverhampton City Council's education chief Councillor Phil Page, said the authority had given Palmers Cross the necessary support to improve.

This included pairing the school with an Ofsted-rated 'good' school and providing guidance via a standards officer who assisted the senior leadership team in an effort to drive through improvements.