Black Firs is a long established Primary School located in Congleton, Cheshire. For the last 20 years the school has enjoyed the succesful leadership from Mr Martin Casserley and his team. The school became part of the Congleton Multi Academy Trust (CMaT) in 2013, joining a local high school and another primary. The relationship quickly soured, with concerns over the way CMaT has managed many aspects of the Academy, notably with regards to financial and moral governance. This resulted in Blackfirs effectively asking to withdraw from its involvement in the CMaT in 2016.

Rather than accept that, CMaT Directors have chosen (after over 7 months of procrastination) to remove the CMaT nominated Governors from the local (Blackfirs Local Governing Board) (LGB Board). By doing this, they have been able to declare the Blackfirs LGB as not properly constituted and therefore illegal under the terms of the original agreement.

The result? They have today established an 'interim board' for Blackfirs LGB. They've done that by filling the two appointed positions with people rather more in agreement with their position, and making the assumption that the rest would be OK with that.

They aren't. The teacher representative has specifically asked that his name be removed from the draft interim board. One of the parent governors was surprised to find their name in the list of interim governors. Needless to say, there is no confidence in the malformed new, interim LGB.

We, as parents of children at the school, want a consultation on who forms the LGB, first interim but more importantly in the long term.

Sign this petition, let's get our school back.