REPLACING Cwmbran High School’s governing body with an interim executive board (IEB) could have ‘catastrophic’ consequences, it has been claimed.

Torfaen council has already agreed to the move after governors were unable to provide ‘necessary challenge’ to the head teacher – who has since resigned – as the school was placed into special measures.

Most of the school’s governors are in favour of the IEB, with a consultation revealing that behaviour at governing body meetings was ‘poor and sometimes bullish’.

But one consultation response, which was not put before the council’s executive member for education Cllr David Yeowell, alleges important information was not shared between the council and the governing body.

A letter to Dermot McChrystal, Torfaen’s chief education officer, says governors were unable to scrutinise expert evidence from the authority and the Education Achievement Service (EAS).

The letter also says governors did not receive minutes of local authority intervention meetings held over the last two years and were unable to review or scrutinise their content or accuracy.

“While the governing body members are all professionals in their own field, they are not all education professionals,” says the letter.

“These documents are written by educational experts who should be advising the governing body of their professional findings.

“The governing body, on behalf of the community, scrutinises the evidence and ask questions of the various documentation and discussions it receives.

“That information has been very mixed and conflicting.”

Concerns were also raised about discrepancies between inspection visits to Cwmbran High School in 2017 by the EAS and education watchdog Estyn.

The EAS reported strong and satisfactory progress had been made while Estyn, a month later, reported only limited and satisfactory progress.

The letter says: “With the ongoing evidence from the EAS, it had appeared that the school was moving in the right direction.

“From other documentation, that has now been declared by the local authority, there appears to be a difference of opinion, based on documents seen at the time and those now declared.”

The author of the letter has called for the board of governors to be retained to allow “as much continuity as possible”.

“Further destabilisation could be catastrophic,” says the letter.

“My view is the current governing body should remain as is for the sake of the pupils, staff and local community.”

The consultee’s response was omitted from the original bundle of documents presented to Cllr Yeowell to inform his decision to approve the IEB on July 23.

Cllr Yeowell will be asked to reconfirm his decision on August 13.