AROUND 50 parents attended an important meeting to hear how senior leaders at Dean Academy plan to lift the school out of special measures.

A parent of a student at the Lydney school, who didn’t wish to be named, said the meeting was ‘disappointing’.

Tim Gilson, chief executive of the Athelstan Academies Trust, which took over sponsorship of the Dean Academy in March, said there were several ‘positive outcomes’ from the meeting.

The parent said: “I am very concerned for the future of the school. The meeting was disappointing and I couldn’t believe only 51 parents attended.

“I also noted that only the Chair of governors attended but no governors, and there were no teachers from the academy present apart from those at the Althestan Academies Trust in Malmesbury.

“I was also shocked to hear the acting headteacher (Mr John Barrett) will not be applying for the Dean Academy headteacher position when it is advertised next year. From what he said, his 50-minute commute to and from Wiltshire appears to be too much.

“I am concerned about how committed the staff at my child’s school are.”

Mr Gilson said: “Although the turnout was smaller than we expected with about 55 parents (we have around 750 students), the parents who attended asked a lot of questions and raised their quite understandable concerns about the inspection report.

“The tone was in no way hostile or antagonistic and one of the positive outcomes was a number of parents volunteering to be governors or to support the school in other ways.

“John explained next year he will continue to work at the Dean Academy, along with our finance director and me, on a part-time basis supporting the newly-appointed headteacher.

“This is a clear example of how our leadership structure within The Athelstan Trust can add capacity to the Dean Academy.

“The point of the meeting was to give the strategic overview of the current situation and, therefore, we had five representatives present from both schools who we felt were the right people who are accountable.”

In a letter to parents last Wedneday, Mr Gilson said: “I would like to thank all the parents who attended the meeting about the Ofsted report and our action plan last night. I would like to remind parents that they can read through the report and plan on the school website, which will be updated as we go through the year.”