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?

“Pupils and students told inspectors that some teachers either ‘do not care’ about their worries or they simply ‘brush them under the carpet’. This is particularly the case for some pupils and students who identify as members of the LGBTQ+ community.”

Id be interested to know if this is merely just a push back from teachers around the current pandemic of children declaring themselves trans / non binary / a bloody cat.

If so, I’d be willing to see that as a positive, personally.

From what I've seen locally that's because their historic Outstanding ratings were largely based on academic results that should have been expected, bearing in mind their intake.

Outstanding schools haven't been inspected for such a long time and have been complacent. They may well (as this school is) still be offering high quality education but they are failing in aspects of the wider inspection, which depending on the date of their last report, might not have been looked at before.

Yes our primary school that was outstanding (but definitely wasn't) hadn't been inspected for years and when it did it was inadequate. It was one of the worst reports anyone had seen. It is so much better now as they have to work harder to get out of that mess.

I think a school that is inadequate will be fine as they have to improve it.

I was wondering what this actually means too.

Is it that the school is needing the Cass Report comments and not socially transitioning students on a whim, which could be seen as positive.

Or is it that the school is a hotbed of homophobia, where "gay" is used as an insult and young people are forced to comply with heteronormativity and gender stereotypes at every turn?

The mention of inappropriate sexual touching going uninvestigated leads me to feel it's more likely the latter.

Ultimately this has come down to safeguarding and poor leadership from SLT. I would be asking whether the leadership will change and if there will be a new, better, DSL. I wouldn't send my DD there - a culture of misogyny (and racism and homophobia) will take a while to eradicate. Where is the care of female students and what PSHE is being taught?

The letter from CoG says head is off long term sick and they're recruiting a new DSL

Have you read the report? It describes sexual harassment such as touching. Why would anyone be keen to minimise sexual harassment? It's a mystery...oh, no, wait, begins with M ends with Y.

"Some told inspectors that they had experienced, and continue to endure,
frequent and unwanted harmful sexual behaviour."

"For instance, school records showed a number of cases related to sexual
harassment, such as inappropriate touching, where leaders had not responded
appropriately to prevent these behaviours from escalating or happening again. In
addition, there were times when pupils and/or staff had reported safeguarding
incidents and leaders had not made referrals to appropriate external agencies,
including the local authority safeguarding hub. During the inspection, inspectors
made a safeguarding referral to the local authority and raised concerns about wider safeguarding issues."

Awww don't worry it's just banter apparently!

This happened at ds old school, rated inadequate by Ofsted with reports including a pupil being raped in the toilets & being told by staff it never happened, the whole SLT & the Head were gone by half term.

This. Absolutely. I might be wrong but I suspect the vast majority of parents with DC there would not recognise this assessment. Genuinely.

Me, too! 😂

But seriously, a pushback against the gender-woo that is blighting the lives of certain vulnerable young people.

OFSTED was among the first 'organisations' to see the direction of travel re 'latest social trends', then run to the front, shouting 'follow meee!'

No longer fit for purpose, having disappeared down that rabbit hole.

Once, for instance, taking clever enough DC at 11, educating them to their satisfaction and their parents' expectations, to 16, was considered a Good outcome. Now failing to have employed Mermaids ranks them 'Inadequate'. It's bollocks and most parents know it.

Im highly suspicious of Ofsted ratings, I think often they are not fit for purpose

I dont know the school but obviously some on the thread do and there have been some worries about safeguarding in the past, I think sometimes Ofsted rate in a way that punishes or make it look like they are picking something up.

So it might be valid but about one area, which may or may not have an impact on the majority of students. Schools seem to go through a lot of process led actions to get the right grade and sometimes those actions are not fit for purpose either

I feel the same about outstanding ratings

This!

WOW.

One mention of LGTQI in the report and people are clamouring to shout about 'gender woo' ignoring the fact that there is obvious evidence of children (probably most of whom will be female) being failed by a school that has been incompetent at following STATUTORY safeguarding processes.

If ever a thread made me ashamed to be a gender critical feminist it was this one.

Minimise the evidence of sexually abusive behaviour in favour of speculating about over mermaid's influence.

Slow. Fucking. Handclap.

LGBTQI

The school failed to help a pupil that committed suicide.
You can all minimise this and the ofstead report as much as you like but the school has been a shit hole , with a bullying ethos for years.
It's non fee paying so it's basically just a grammar school in name .

It's bugger all to do with mermaids etc.

It's inappropriate touching, sexual harassment and abuse and failing to keep children safe. Which the school has failed to deal with on seemingly a massive scale.

I cannot tell you how hot schools are on safeguarding these days so this is an epic fail.

It would be foolish to lay this at the door of Ofsted as several pp have done.

What is much more likely is that there is a culture of poor safeguarding at some grammar schools which Ofsted are now weeding out.

Non selective school have a very broad catchment and have to work extremely hard for their Ofsted "Good" because they can't just rely on academic results.

I send my son to a school which has a lot of very challenging kids and I am confident that the school are well-versed in clamping down on inappropriate behaviour and can keep my child safe.

Everyone knows OFSTED inspections are absolute pants.

The buzzwords they expect you to jump through hoops for yet ignore the bigger picture.

Your children could be the unhappiest and suffering the fullest of teachers and teaching yet if someone mentions the word British Values and County Lines then whoo you've gone up two grades!

I think the response letter from the COG is very lukewarm, and mentioning the HTs absence is trying to shift the blame. Leadership needs a fire lit under their arses, as a parent I would be demanding much more decisive action and communication.

Agree. A child committed suicide. 🙁

Also agree.

My son is sitting the exam too! We are planning to continue as we were and make decisions based on any offer he receives

I know. The minimising and excuses on this thread are appalling.