Members of a new Interim Executive Board (IEB) for Bicester Community College have been named by Oxfordshire County Council following a damning Ofsted report.
The announcement came after the county’s application for an IEB to replace the governing body was approved by ministers.
Councillor Melinda Tilley, the council’s lead member for education, said: “The recent Ofsted report was one of the worst that I have ever seen and it was obvious that the removal of the previous governing body was required in order to get the school back on the straight and narrow. Mine and the IEB’s priority here is the education of pupils at Bicester Community College and it is quite clear that they have been failed by the previous governing body.”
The IEB will be led by Bob Wintringham, chairman of directors at the Faringdon Academy of Schools. Other members will be Ofsted inspector and former senior police officer Bob Adams, Ofsted inspector and former headteacher Jill Judson, county councillor and former Bicester headteacher Michael Waine and David Dunne, an education lecturer and former police officer.
Jason Clarke, principal of Bicester Community College, said: “I remain fully committed to finishing the job I started and very much welcome the support the local authority is now putting in place.”
He apologised for the college finding itself in this position ‘on his watch’ and said the support of parents, staff and students is now essential for the college to succeed.