School challenges Ofsted inspection procedures after being rated ‘inadequate’

A college is ready to take Ofsted to courtroom for not following the proper procedures after an inspection discovered that the college was “insufficient” over its safeguarding methods.

Queen Emma Main Faculty in Cambridge was downgraded from “good” to “insufficient”, the bottom attainable score, after an Ofsted report discovered that its little one safety report holding did “not meet statutory necessities”.

Talking to the BBC, Queen Emma head instructor Sarah Jarman mentioned the inspection felt like “a wrecking ball had come by way of our faculty”.

“If any person comes into your college, and, with out basis, says there are widespread safeguarding points in your college, all of the laborious work you’ve strived for pales into insignificance,” she mentioned.

“You start to doubt each single factor you’ve ever accomplished and you start to query whether or not or not in truth you are able to do the job.”

In its report, Ofsted mentioned that whereas safeguarding methods are in place, “swift motion isn’t routinely taken to maintain pupils secure”.

The report provides that “record-keeping associated to little one safety issues isn’t strong”.

“Leaders and governors should not tenacious sufficient in following up, monitoring, and recording incidents of concern,” the report mentioned.

“Leaders should not persistent in following up issues raised or making hyperlinks between danger components comparable to poor attendance, and sharing data appropriately with related workers.

“This hinders leaders’ capacity to establish patterns of concern and share data successfully. It is a danger for pupils, particularly essentially the most weak.”

In a letter to oldsters and carers, the college mentioned “we completely refute the findings of this report”.

“We want to be clear that our objections should not merely a dispute over the interpretation of the proof,” the letter mentioned.

“Our competition is that the inspection staff repeatedly breached Ofsted’s personal procedures and acted unlawfully in a lot of respects.

“We’ve got additionally submitted a Freedom of Info request for Ofsted to make public the proof base for his or her report; to this point they haven’t agreed to reveal this data.”

The letter provides that safeguarding procedures “have been inspected in depth by the Native Authority and located to be exemplary”.

Based on the BBC’s report, a part of the college’s grievance is that inspectors inappropriately dealt with a toddler welfare concern raised to them by investigating it as an alternative of leaving it to social providers.

The grievance provides that Ofsted took away confidential details about youngsters, which breached knowledge safety.

In addition to interesting the inspection, the college’s grievance additionally challenges Ofsted’s coverage of judging the entire college as insufficient if issues are raised about little one welfare.

Ofsted has been contacted for remark.

It comes after the demise of Ruth Perry, headteacher at Caversham Main Faculty in Studying, Berkshire, who took her personal life in January whereas awaiting an Ofsted report which downgraded her college from glorious, the very best score, to “insufficient”.

Ms Perry’s demise sparked an outpouring of anger and grief from head academics across the nation, with many questioning the influence of Ofsted’s inspections on the psychological well being of academics.