Inspectors have laid into the deposed head teacher of Harlaw Academy for his “significant weaknesses” as the Aberdeen secondary continues to languish.
Ross McLaren is no longer in charge at the city school after being replaced in June.
And that followed the latest visit by school inspectors who saw “very few improvements” at Harlaw Academy in the prior six months.
His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education first raised concerns about the “weak” schooling there after a visit in 2019.
The shock report prompted the retirement of Mr McLaren’s predecessor David Innes.
In March 2020, during his second week in the job, Mr McLaren told councillors he was enjoying the challenge of meeting the watchdog’s targets and a plan to do so would be “forthcoming”.
But now a lack of progress in communicating how he and staff would turn things around has led to his replacement too.
Inspectors damning of ex-Harlaw Academy head teacher
In a letter sent to parents last week, HM Inspector Guch Dhillon said the school had made “insufficient progress” since the 2019 visit.
And Mr McLaren’s November report card only got worse from there.
It’s one almost uniquely damning on an Aberdeen head teacher, with Town House insiders telling us they’ve not seen anything like this before.
Staff dissatisfaction was rife in June, as they remained “unclear” and “not fully involved” in discussion on how to improve Harlaw Academy.
Mr Dhillon wrote: “Communication, particularly from the head teacher, requires significant improvement.
“This is having an adverse impact on a number of areas across the school, including staff morale.
“The local authority needs to take prompt and urgent action to address the significant weaknesses in the leadership of the head teacher.”
Council chiefs expose problems with Harlaw Academy’s former head teacher
And it appears that schools bosses at Aberdeen City Council acted quickly to do that.
Yesterday, Mr McLaren’s superiors – who were very involved in his work to bring in the improvements – also piled the blame for the schools continued struggles on him.
Both families and communities executive director Eleanor Sheppard and education chief Shona Milne criticised the former head publicly.
“It’s been a frustration, if I am being really, really honest,” Mrs Sheppard admitted.
“We can have the most intensive supports being made available from the local authority but actually what the research would tell us is – although that can help – the thing that can make the difference is the leadership and community at school level.”
Ms Milne aired her own “frustration” and hinted that Mr McLaren had not been truthful about how things were going.
She told councillors: “Recommendations were made. Officers were going in regularly to check on improvements and progress and were being reassured.
“And then, when they dug deeper into the evidence that was there, they were seeing that things had not moved forward.”
While some progress had been made in the months after Mr McLaren took the helm, Ms Milne said it soon “tailed off”.
She added: “Communication was a particular difficulty, although the head teacher was given support by officers as to how to improve that.
“Those actions were not taken forward in the way we would have expected them to be.”
Staff unhappiness as ‘faith’ in Harlaw Academy improvement plan falters
The extent of the staff morale problem only became “very apparent” just before the visit of school inspectors in June.
“They put their faith in the school and that the small improvements that had happened would continue. However… they didn’t,” the education chief said.
Council quality improvement officials had been in weekly contact with Mr McLaren and visited Harlaw Academy every fortnight from the start of the year.
As the inspectors’ visit grew closer, the trips – by officials including Ms Milne – became weekly, while the head teacher was also hauled into Marischal College for additional time with the bosses.
The shock state of one of Aberdeen’s oldest schools – which is to be improved in an £8.6 million project next summer – drew fierce scrutiny from councillors.
“Why did we not notice, despite the intensive support?” Labour’s Kate Blake asked.
Did Covid put Harlaw Academy head Ross McLaren on a losing start?
Harlaw’s continued troubles come soon after a damning report into Northfield Academy – though the council is now hailing work done there to turn things around.
But Mrs Sheppard presented councillors with a working theory – after both schools welcomed new head teachers in early 2020.
“I think if head teachers were appointed just prior to the Covid pandemic it was very, very difficult to get themselves established.
“We have two examples of that inability to make face-to-face connections with staff and the schools’ community. I think we’re seeing some of the impact of that.
“To me, there’s a common factor here, which is quite interesting, and we continue to think about lessons learned after every inspection to improve our quality improvement framework.”
New head teacher: ‘Parents weren’t getting the transparency they get from me’
The man who took on the acting head teacher job in June, Stuart Craig, claims he’s been quick to change things at the Albyn Place school.
A former depute head at Cults and Hazlehead academies, he was parachuted into Harlaw from the council’s central schools improvement team.
He too gave the impression that Mr McLaren was too tight-lipped.
The acting head said: “The parent council has been really supportive of me in the role.
“I met them initially at an all-staff meeting at the end of June, and since then we have had three further meetings with the parent council and wider parent body to advise them of where the school is at and the progress that had not been made against the HM Inspector’s measures.
“Without being present at previous parent council meetings, but certainly from talking in detail with the chairwoman, there wasn’t that transparency that they are getting from me.
“We’ve a staff body there who are not particularly happy coming to their work.
“And that’s something we have significantly uplifted since June. Certainly, the feedback I’m getting on a daily basis from the young people and the staff is that they’re much happier coming into their work so that’s much more likely to lead to significant improvement.
“Certainly, I’m delighted to be involved in such a proud, historical school, where education has been taking place for more than 100 years.
“And I’m really striving to make sure it’s a school the staff feel proud and happy to work in and young people feel proud to attend and strive to achieve the best they can within the classroom.”
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