THE new chairman of governors at failing Oxford Academy has pledged to treat children and parents as ‘customers’ to drive on improvements.

And businessman and former Cowley resident John Putt warned he would adopt a “take no prisoners” approach.

The academy in Sandy Lane West went into special measures following an inspection in October. Ofsted then said not enough progress was being made at a recent monitoring visit.

A new, smaller governing body, to be called the Sponsors Executive Group, has now been formed toturn the school around. They are headteacher David Brown, Oxford Brookes academic Dr Brian Marshall, Diocese of Oxford education director Anne Davey, Jackie Valin, headteacher at London's Southfields Community College, and Mr Putt.

Mr Putt said: “Here the primary customer is the children and the secondary customer is their parents.

“What I want to do is help build an alliance between the school, the parents and the child to exceed long-term expectations.”

He was approached by education minister Lord Nash to provide managerial support at the academy. Mr Putt has admitted he has no experience in education, but believes his expertise in managing people and making 'processes' efficient would help improve standards.

He added: “I won’t take prisoners, if there is something that needs to be done I shall intervene.”

He pledged a “substantial difference” in how the school is run and added: “I’m absolutely sure things are better now than they were and in a year’s time, we will know whether we have the right plan for the future.”

Mr Brown hoped this year’s results would be the academy’s highest ever.

He said: “The academy has needed to have a clearer sense of what it is trying to achieve for young people and John’s wealth of experience in industry will I am sure prove invaluable, both in terms of the leadership he will bring at governance level as well his links to firms which can provide high quality apprenticeships for our students.”

The previous 10-strong governing body was criticised for meeting too infrequently.

Governors will now meet every two weeks, and have responsibilities they will be expected to work on between meetings.

The logic for having a smaller body is that it will be more decisive and faster to act.

By the end of the next school year, the group will revert to a more traditional governing body with parent and staff representatives.

Mrs Davey said: “Our number one priority will be to ensure both progress and attainment show the right degree of improvement.”

Department for Education spokesman Leigh Dowd said: “We welcome the sponsors’ decision to replace the board of governors to focus on bringing about the rapid and sustainable improvement the school needs.

“School governors can be drawn from a wide range of backgrounds. Decisions to appoint them are rightly made by sponsors.”

Struggling Academy replaced troubled school

Oxford Academy was Oxford’s first and Oxfordshire’s second sponsored academy.

It opened in September 2008 despite a fight by campaigners, including parents and teachers, who opposed the plans.

It replaced the ailing Peers School. In Peers’ last year of existence only 18 per cent of pupils achieved five A* to Cs, including English and maths, at GCSE. The school had originally gone into special measures in October 2005, although it came out of them in January 2007 under headteacher Lorna Caldicott’s successful leadership.

Oxford Academy is sponsored by the Diocese of Oxford, the Beecroft Trust and Oxford Brookes University.

At its first full Ofsted inspection in 2010, it was rated satisfactory.

Results have been dropping by two percentage points each year since then, with just 26 per cent of pupils achieving five A* to C grades at GCSE last summer – making it the 25th worst-performing school in the country. There are 956 pupils on the school roll.

School governors manage finances, agree school policies and act as the direct employers of staff at the school. They are not paid but can claim expenses.

Normally, academies are required to have at least two parent governors.

A ‘sponsors executive group’ is the equivalent of an ‘interim executive board’ in a maintained school, where members are chosen on a case by case basis depending on the need of the school.

The new governors attended the final meeting of the old governing body where the new appointments and structure were agreed and Mr Putt was voted as the new chairman.