Moseley School Parents & Community Association

Tim Boyes & The Revd John Ray OBE visit a Mosque

to promote Fundamental British Values (FBV) of community cohesion, interfaith dialogue, mutual respect, rule of law, tolerance ...

In the early evening of Monday 19th January 2009, the Chair of Governors and the Chair of Personnel of Moseley School met with the Head of School Effectiveness, Reverend* Jackie Hughes and Tim Boyes. In the previous month the Governing Body of Moseley School appointed Tim Boyes - the substantive Head of Queensbridge School - as Interim Head Teacher of Moseley School to address historical low attainment at Moseley School. At the meeting Jackie Hughes presented and discussed the National Challenge Action Plan for Moseley School.

Key elements of the Action Plan (pages 9 and 10) included: improving school leadership; data analysis; target setting; self evaluation processes; rigorous performance management; teaching and learning; coaching and mentoring; behaviour management; student engagement; access to family learning through extended provision, etc, The last key element was improving community partnership focusing on Governance, parental engagement, raising social and community aspirations, improving attendance and eliminating persistent absence.

After the meeting had ended, Tim Boyes then visited the closest Mosque to Moseley School (at the bottom of College Road / Woodlands Road). Out of courtesy, Tim Boyes could have mentioned he was visiting the local Mosque that evening and that perhaps the Chair of Governors would like to accompany him too. Anyway Tim Boyes arrived with two Anglican priests, Reverend John Ray and Reverend Dr. Toby Howarth.

At the time Reverend John Ray was a serving Governor of Golden Hillock School (also a National Challenge School) and used to be its Chair of Governors in the 1990s. Before becoming the substantive Head of Queensbridge School, Tim Boyes used to be the Deputy Head at Golden Hillock. Reverend John Ray was also a Trustee of an Interfaith organisation called The Feast which aims to promote positive relations between different faith communities in Birmingham by working with young people and schools. At the time Reverend Toby Howarth was serving at St. Christopher's Church and a member of Birmingham Standing Advisory Council for Religious Education (SACRE).

In the meeting, worshipers raised legitimate questions about poor performance and meeting the spiritual, moral and cultural needs of pupils at Moseley School and in particular the statutory daily act of Collective Worship which successive Ofsted reports had pointed out was not taking place at Moseley School. Numerous excuses were made by Tim Boyes - a man of faith who hosts Riverside Church at his secular state school, Queensbridge - as to why the statutory daily act of Collective Worship could not and would not take place at Moseley School. Worshipers were completely stunned by Tim Boyes's stubborn attitude. The Mosque was used to hosting high ranking officials and visitors behaving with utmost respect and dignity such as the Archbishop of Canterbury in November 2008. A visit by Tim Boyes that commenced with optimism ended with disappointment, disagreement and on a sad note.

After the meeting, the Chair of Governors was contacted by several distressed parents and members of the community and learned about the meeting. It was very embarrassing for the Chair of Governors who had to issue his apologies for the conduct of the newly appointed Interim Headteacher of Moseley School. The Chair decided to ignore Tim Boyes's indiscretion and focus on addressing historical low attainment at Moseley School. This strategy paid off because in 2009 Moseley School results went up to 33% whilst Queensbridge School results plummeted from 47% to 30% for five GCSE passes at grades A*-C including English and Maths.

Sadly, Tim Boyes has is own inimical way of promoting community cohesion, interfaith dialogue, mutual respect, rule of law, tolerance and Fundamental British Values (FBV).

* At the time Governors were unaware that Birmingham City Council's Head of School Effectiveness was an Anglican priest. With an Anglican priest in charge of School Effectiveness, there is a reasonable expectation that breaches in the statutory daily act of Collective Worship in Birmingham schools stretching many years would have been addressed through issuing Statutory Warning Notices and withdrawing the delegated school budget or whatever it takes to enforce the writ of the State.

In his report, Sir Bob Kerslake mentioned a culture of organisational disobedience within Birmingham City Council.