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I’ve just finished reading the recent Estyn report for Bedwas High School and as a parent, community councillor and prospective Senedd Member I’m really concerned by their findings.

There are clearly some challenges which need to be addressed, and quickly so that our children get the education that they need. To address these challenges the school leadership team need to be supported – by an effective board ofgovernors and by a proactive local authority. This is where my real concern lies.

The council are not even meeting their basic legal obligations – every year they are required to publish a Section 52 statement showing how schools are funded and to share this with all school governors, yet the last time CCBC published this was in 2013/14. 

The council also have a role to play in supporting leadership teams and governors, a role which until last year was supported by membership of a service called EAS (Education Achievement Service). CCBC have withdrawn from this service to save money – but from the viewpoint of a school governor they haven’t replaced it with anything.

The current ‘support’ for school governors consists of an empty webpage and a form which doesn’t get responded to. I know this as I’m a volunteer governor elsewhere in the county and I’ve not been able to access the information or training I need.

This shows how little care the leaders of CCBC have for our children’s education. This is a failure of the Labour led authority, but also a failure of scrutiny by other elected councillors.

One of the six recommendations for Bedwas High is to “ensure governors fulfil their roles fully and are able to challenge and support senior leaders in improving important aspects of the school’s work”. How can they do this without training, without access to information, or in the case of Bedwas without even meeting – something which should be challenged by the local authority. 

I want all our children to have an excellent education. Schools and school leaders are always going to face challenges, and we know that budgets are currently tight – to overcome those challenges and to provide good education they need support. If the local authorities and governors don’t provide that support then who will?

I’m calling on CCBC to either re-join EAS, or to provide adequate support and training for volunteer governors as well as immediately publishing a Section 52 statement. I’m also calling on them to provide the support needed to make sure that the leadership team at Bedwas are able to address the concerns of the inspectors and ensure that in 12 months the school receives a better inspection report.