Warren Comprehensive School and Barking and Dagenham Council Fight Academy Order
The Governing Body of Warren Comprehensive School in Dagenham and the local Council have been able to temporarily hold back the imposition of an Interim Executive Board (IEB) by the Secretary of State for Education.
The Council applied for urgent interim relief in the High Court and following consideration of the documents lodged before the Hon Mrs Justice Carr DBE decided that the Academy order made on 6 January 2014 to take effect on the 8 January in respect of Warren Comprehensive School should not take effect until after the court has considered whether or not to grant judicial review. A further hearing is due to take place next week
The governing body at Warren Comprehensive School considered the content of the letter from Lord Nash to make the school an Academy and decided to seek a judicial review of the decision of the Secretary of State and in the first instance to obtain interim relief from the court. The body is concerned that his decision will have a negative impact on children’s education.
Cllr John White, Cabinet Member for Children Services said: “We welcome the decision of the court and agree with the Judge that this is a very significant matter. We are grateful that the concerns of the Council and the Governing Body about sustaining improvements at the school will be examined by the court. The implementation of the IEB by the Secretary of State has been postponed so that the concerns of the Local Authority and the Governing Body regarding the implementation of an Academy Order can be considered.
“Robert Clack School and The Warren Comprehensive have been working together to improve the quality of education at The Warren with recognised success. We feel that the partnership is the right way forward to secure quality education for our children. The results in the summer are testament to the progress being made. Given this progress we feel strongly that now would not be a good time to disrupt the school with further change.”
