De Beauvoir Primary School on the road to recovery after mass resignation shock

The trouble-hit primary school, De Beauvoir, where three members management simultaneously quit last year looks to be finally on the road to recovery, after Ofsted inspectors gave it the thumbs up.

Parents at De Beauvoir Primary School feared for their children’s education last May after the headteacher Vijay Bhanaut, his deputy Tanya Spain and an assistant head teacher Malcolm Shaw all resigned.

They remained in their posts until the end of the summer term, then in September Sarah Bailey, head teacher of the nearby Queensbridge School in Haggerston stepped in as executive head.

Within the space of a few months she has overseen a transformation of the school, and brought the previous two ‘satisfactory’ Ofsted inspection ratings up to a ‘good’ standard.

“Lots of changes were made in a short space of time and it’s credit to the staff they have embraced those changes,” said Ms Bailey.

“There were lots of things which needed to be done immediately.

“We are giving staff support so they are able to take on their roles and responsibilities more fully throughout the school, and the children are happy and thriving.”

She continued: “Ofsted loved our ‘non- negotiable’ approach to taking the learning on, the foot is still firmly on the accelerator but after two satisfactory inspections it would have been awful if it had got another.”

The Hackney branch of the National Union of Teachers claimed last year it had drawn several worrying issues at the school to the attention of the Learning Trust, which ran the borough’s schools.

Amongst the concerns raised was that Ms Spain had not been registered with the General Teaching Council, despite it having been a legal requirement.