Superhead Dame Mo Brennan steps down from Barr Beacon School
A controversial superhead from the Black Country has stepped down from her school principal role, it has been announced.
Dame Maureen Brennan has left her position as headteacher of Barr Beacon School in Walsall and been replaced by Lynsey Draycott.
But Dame Maureen will still be involved at the school as she has now been appointed as chief executive officer of the Matrix Academy Trust – which runs Barr Beacon, Bloxwich Academy, Etone College in Nuneaton and the Dame Elizabeth Cadbury School in Birmingham.
The move was confirmed in a school newsletter, which featured a statement from the Academy Trust’s chairman of directors. The statement from Jeremy Bench confirming Dame Maureen’s move said: “The directors of the Trust and the school’s Governance Advisory Board are delighted Mrs Draycott has accepted the headship of Barr Beacon School to enable Dame Maureen Brennan to be appointed as chief executive officer of the Trust.
“This change of headship will be seamless to ensure that there is consistency of leadership and maintenance of the ethos and values that have made Barr Beacon such a great school.
“I am sure that the next 10 years will be as successful as the last 10. I know that Barr Beacon School will go from strength to strength.” Dame Maureen is one of the highest profile headteachers in the region.
She was honoured by the Queen for turning around the fortunes of Hillcrest School and Community College in Netherton, where she was in charge from 2002 until 2007. After her arrival the school came out of special measures within a year and by the beginning of 2003, Ofsted inspectors described it as ‘one of the most outstanding schools in the country’.
She was made a Dame in 2005 but a disciplinary tribunal hearing in 2012 ruled she and senior teachers Shelley Derham and Linda Westwood had acted dishonestly when they changed pupil attendance records at Hillcrest. A Teaching Agency professional standards panel heard that “It was fanciful to suppose that this headteacher did not know what was going on in her school.” But despite the ‘serious’ nature of their behaviour, the panel ruled a teaching ban was not necessary. The trio had all moved to Barr Beacon. The school’s new head Mrs Draycott revealed Barr Beacon received 1,145 applications for 252 Year 7 places for next year. She added: “As a result, 60 Year 7 appeals commence on Monday, June 5.”
