Letters from Al-Madinah free school head expose chaos

It has been a difficult week for the beleaguered al-Madinah School.

On Monday, Channel 4 News revealed details of a leaked investigation into alleged financial mismanagement. The governors then met with the Department for Education and were apparently told to resign or lose their funding.

No wonder then that parents and staff have been anxious to find out what’s going on.

What was the governors’ response to the meeting? Will the controversial free school be allowed to carry on? What will happen to their children’s education?

With so many questions, it seems perfectly reasonable that they have been turning to the one man they might expect to have answers – the headteacher, Stuart Wilson.

And yet, I’ve been shown an extraordinary letter that Mr Wilson wrote to all staff in which he admits that, although he’s responsible for running the school, he has no idea what’s going on.

‘Lack of information’

“At this point I have no additional information about the current situation what so ever. The first thing I do each morning is look at the latest press reports to see if the school has been mentioned,” he explains.

Mr Wilson acknowledges that parents were “extremely concerned as they have heard nothing about the current situation from the school”. His letter is headed “Lack of Information to Parents”, but is notable for the lack of information it is able to provide.

For, in another bizarre twist that demonstrates the managerial chaos at the school, Mr Wilson was told by governors that he was not allowed to send the letter out because it was “too negative”.

Mr Wilson was brought in on an interim basis after the sudden departure of the previous headteacher, who claimed he had serious concerns about the management and behaviour of the board of governors.

These claims led to an urgent inspection by Ofsted, which produced a damning report labelling the school as chaotic, inadequate and dysfunctional.

It was hoped that the new head would bring some stability to the troubled school. His appointment was approved by the Department for Education.

But in his letter to staff, Mr Wilson explains that when he tried to talk to the DFE about what was going on, he was effectively told that they would only communicate with the governors.

‘To reassure parents’

He wrote: “As Al-Madinah is a free school, it is subject to legislation in relation to Independent Schools and Academies. Consequently, the Department for Education (DfE) communicate directly with the Al-Madinah Trust and not the professionals, such as myself, within the school.

“When I have personally contacted the DfE they have confirmed that it is Trust that they need to work with.”

And so what of the governors? They appear to have gone to ground since their meeting with the DFE. Mr Wilson told staff: “It has not been possible for me to meet with the Trust or Governors for a week now.”

However, although the governors are nowhere to be seen, they have posted a message on the school’s website.

It reads: “Just to reassure parents regarding the rumours circulating today about governors resigning. This is not the case and we would urge parents to talk to the PTA and the governors if they are concerned.

The governors promise to “update parents when we have any further information”. However, they do not state when that may be.

The story behind the letter to parents that was never actually allowed to be sent to parents, gives an insight into what is going on behind the scenes at Al-Madinah. But it will be of little comfort to the parents of the 400 pupils wondering what will happen next.

'No stranger to failing schools' 
Stuart Wilson's appointment as acting head of al Madinah was approved by Ofsted – despite the fact that he had led two other schools into special measures, writes Darshna Soni. 
Mr Wilson is no stranger to dealing with failing schools. He was previously head of a Norfolk secondary school, Costessey High School, when it went into special measures in November 1999. 
He left the following summer. In September 2010, Mr Wilson joined Rawmarsh Community School in Rotherham. 
The following January, he found himself in the news after his teachers started a three day protest over proposed job cuts. Following a subsequent inspection in April, Ofsted judged the school as "inadequate". 
The inspectors found: "The considerable amount of time the headteacher and governors have spent on eradicating a large budget deficit has distracted them from addressing the areas for improvement identified at the last inspection."