Six Staff Dismissed at IES Breckland Free School

IES Breckland Staff at opening

The Government’s free school programme is in further trouble tonight as sources close to IES Breckland Free School in Brandon Suffolk reported that six staff had been dismissed over the last two days. The staff believed to include Heads of Department were apparently invited to meetings and then left the school.

IES Breckland have posted a letter on their website that implies the staff have been sacked due to competence or performance issues. The letter has been signed by no less than four senior representatives of the school, SABRES trust and IES Breckland company.

Readers of this Blog may remember that this school did not hire any of the former Breckland Middle School staff but appointed completely new staff much to the anger of many Brandon people. Now just over a year later six of these staff have been dismissed in circumstances that look highly unusual to say the least.

Back in June last year I wrote a Blog post entitled IES Breckland Staff Best of the Best or cheap and easy to manage? I quoted one parent who commented that:

The ICT and drama subject leader was a most charming and enthusiastic chap. I was however somewhat suprised that he was still at University and had no actual class-room experience of teaching, let alone as a subject leader with strategic input into the development of a core part of the curriculm

Seems to me surprising that Ofsted did not pay a visit to IES Breckland when it swooped down on Suffolk recently. Perhaps this is another school where the DfE’s eye is off the ball.

Clearly something has gone badly wrong at this school which as readers may well remember is the first free school to be run by a profit making company. Let us hope it is the last.