A SECONDARY school associate governor has stepped down weeks after he made controversial comments about the school’s performance.

Michael Waine resigned from his position on the board of governors at Bicester Community College last week to take on the role of chairman of the Cooper and Glory Farm School Federation.

County councillor Mr Waine, a former council cabinet member for schools, had issued a stark warning earlier this month that BCC could face “external intervention” if results did not improve.

But Mr Waine denied his resignation was linked to the comments and said he was put forward, as a serving Cooper School governor, to be elected to the new federation chairman role only last week.

He said: “I thought long and hard and finally agreed.

“My stepping down from the governorship of the school had nothing to do with what I said, it’s basically the workload.

“The federation is a school of 2,000 children and that’s where I will be putting my work, and time commitment. Also a conflict of interest arises when you are chair of a governing body and member of another.”

Mr Waine is a former headteacher of Glory Farm Primary School.

Following BCC’s GCSE results in August, Mr Waine said the school’s exam results were “extremely disappointing”.

The proportion of pupils achieving A* to Cs, including English and maths, rose by one per cent to 48 per cent. It was also higher than the Government’s new floor target of at least 40 per cent.

At the same time Mr Waine praised Cooper School, which had its best ever results, with 66 per cent of students achieving five or more A* to Cs including English and maths.

Mr Waine said he fully supported BCC’s headteacher Jason Clarke and his leadership team, but said: “The school has a mountain to climb in terms of raising achievement on a sustained basis, and time is very short before external intervention could come into play.”

Mr Clarke responded to the comments by saying he was “confident” the school will improve, and said that since he took over in April 2010 the school had undergone “significant” changes.