Grammar School goes from Outstanding to Inadequate. What next?

[Harrysutton]

My dd attends a grammar school in the north west which has just gone from outstanding to inadequate. The report is a terrible read, the report is on the school website with a letter from the Chair of Governors but no other comms. Would you expect a meeting for parents to allow an open discussion and would you be pushing for more communication?

Id love to know which school so I could nosey at the report!

Following. Thought there would be a thread here. My eldest is sitting the 11+ for this school on Saturday and my head is all over the place with it.

www.brgs.org.uk/about-us/general-information/ofsted

OP I think what you’ve suggested re open communication is very reasonable to suggest. I know someone with kids there and she says the communication is terrible. What’s your experience of the school?

This is one of the grammars we are looking at for our daughter. This is a really shocking ofsted and I would expect more communication from the school. There will likely be a clear out of senior staff and governors and they may become part of a larger trust. They should also be now getting support for the LAs quality assurance team.
Is your child happy at the school? Have they experienced any of the behaviour reported in the OFSTED visit.
This is not the only secondary that was high achieving that has recently had an inadequate ofsted because they are failing to safeguarding. While I am sorry for all those children affected by the lack of protection I am relieved that this is now firmly on the agenda for OFSTED as it seemed for a long time that so long as schools turned out good results then the other issues don't matter

It’s probably the best time to send a child to the school. The only way is up. And rapidly too.

It is safeguarding
Others that were inspected as inadequate for safeguarding last year were re-inspected by the end of the year and achieved good, example being St Aidans in Harrogate

I was shocked to see the school rapidly decline, so to speak (also in the NW but DS attends a different grammar).

It did get me thinking re:safeguarding and how schools have been overlooking certain issues.

I would definitely push for more communication.

However, did you ever hear anything? I saw some of the comments on the news article pointing the finger at certain students and their families causing issues 🤷🏽‍♀️

It is already an academy. The DFE will try and move it into a MAT, the school will try and get an early re-inspection to stop that happening.

Glad to see that Ofsted took that thread of harmful sexual behaviours so seriously that they were willing to judge the school inadequate in several areas on that basis.

I suspect that the child protection focus around the Everyone's Invited website uproar passed the school by.

It appears that the school is still providing a good education in terms of the academics, they just need a massive change of culture.

The school has always dealt with any safeguarding or bullying issues appallingly IMO

Wow I’d be reconsidering sending my child here. The letter from the head is very disappointing and doesn’t go half as far as it should in what they are doing to make actionable changes. No child should go to school scared. Especially of dangerous sexual behaviour!

The OFSTED is appalling. I’m a governor at three schools and if we received that grade and specifically those comments around safeguarding I would hope that the entire FGB and SLT would resign. Keeping children safe is the most important part of education and if you can’t do that then you can’t do anything IMO

I WOULD NOT SEND MY CHILD THERE

My child is at the school and the picture painted of the school isn't one we recognise. A safeguarding issue we had was dealt with well and promptly. Good provision for SEN. Teaching standard is excellent and child very happy at school. Communication with school is awful I agree and I'd like them to set out what they are doing to tackle matters so that parents can be onboard. Very sad and upset by the Ofsted.

A child committed suicide from there last year. He was suffering from depression and anxiety related to bullying issues which his parents said weren't being taken seriously. The inquest didn't make the school take any ownership as at that time the school seemed to be doing everything it could but clearly these safeguarding failings have happened for years. The school had failed to communicate with the correct authorities in this child's case. Very sad and I can't imagine how the parents are feeling now this Ofsted report has come out.

I went to a state school so have no idea about these things and can’t find info on their website, is it a fee-payable school?

I would sat these issues have always been there, the only difference is now ofsted prioritises safeguarding and wellbeing.

I would also say the school will have to focus on this now and not just academic performance

I would want reassurance about how exactly they are doing that.

My kids school just got downgraded. I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt, she's happy there.

It's the same school as it was yesterday. Were you happy with it before?

We're seeing it a lot locally. Schools that had "easy" outstanding ratings years ago, largely because of their intake/catchment haven't been reinspected for years.

The criteria is different now and often the leadership has become smug complacent because they're famously leading the best/most sought after school in the area.

IMO very few of the old outstanding schools would get outstanding of they were inspected today.

Quality of teaching is good and lessons are seldom
disrupted? Sounds like Shangri-La compared to some of the schools round here. I'd send my child there, in the knowledge they'll now be going all out on safeguarding.

I wouldn't go anywhere near a school with such inadequate safeguarding in place.

The inspectors had to refer an incident (incidents) to the MASH team themselves? That's a gross safeguarding failure.

The harmful sexual behaviours sounds awful and it is, but it's not what people are thinking. It's things like sexualised language not being challenged, what would previously have been called banter and is now sexual harassment among the childen. It probably wasn't on anyone's radar last time the school was inspected. It's about time it was dealt with, but lots of schools are getting caught out by it in this round of inspections.

The rest of the report is pretty damning through, although I suspect most parents pushing for a grammar school education would still prefer high academic standards to lots of high quality pastoral work.

My DD attends this school. There is a meeting taking place next week. Power or Mumsnet strikes again!

Do you recognise the school in the report. I.e. is this DD's experience?

Which school as my daughter left a school that was outstanding in the north west and they had an ofsted before they left ?

Be careful around judging this is all I will say. I don’t know the school but i do know Ofsted has downgraded a lot of grammar schools since its return and seems to be on a mission to do so.