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?

Spoken to a couple of other parents in the same position as yourself thanks for sharing your thoughts . it’s really helpful for us prospective parents

I would take that report with a huge pinch of salt.

Having read the report and the previous report I’d be highly concerned. For me a school is made through great, inspiring leadership which draws down into the staff. What makes one school outstanding one day can be taken away with a few staff changes occurring at one time: promotions, new jobs. retirements and maternity leaves. The current HT was there at the time of the first report and the letter from the governors states he is absent. Was he absent at the time of inspection? Has he been off for a long period allowing such drastic change to take place? If yes, if I were him I’d be ensuring they ended their report. Here if an HT is absent it states that clearly in the HMIe report. Unfortunately when a school scores so highly the only way is down. A lot will have changed in 6 years never mind 2 of those featuring covid restrictions. Everyone’s attitudes have changed and some people are still struggling from the impact of lockdown, staff and children. Despite this I personally would be concerned at such a dramatic change in that timeline and at the nature of the complaints. It sounds very much like sexual harassment is commonplace there.

I didn't say it was just banter amd doesn't matter. I said it's what would have been considered banter until quite recently. I said absolutely it was about time it's dealt with, but it wasn't on schools (or OFSTED's) radar as a concern and wouldn't have been considered a safeguarding failure until quite recently. Obviously it should have been, but it wasn't.

I also said there's a lot else wrong with this school.

I agree OFSTED reports do need to be taken with a pinch of salt, often the good ones just mean the leadership are good at getting the boxes ticked, but this one is dreadful.

The problems have almost certainly always been there, but weren't things that would get such a poor OFSTED until quite recently.

I’d run fast and not look back . Safeguarding failings is just not acceptable on this day and age . No excuse .

Unfortunately, this is going to be very common. As "outstanding" schools were exempt from inspection, they've basically just done what they like and there will be so many that are inadequate when they are re inspected.

The last Ofsted Inspection was in 2016 which was outstanding. My Child started attending the School just before this. He has just started University after leaving their Sixth form in July. He along with myself are shocked to see this report. I asked my Son if he agreed with the report findings as do not recall him ever mentioning anything ( Son is a person who likes to tell me about his day and which Teacher or friend said or did this or that). The only thing he said he noticed is that the Teachers are of the mindset that bullying and racism is not happening. He said he felt safe whilst at the School.

@Fourcandleforkhandle
The only thing he said he noticed is that the Teachers are of the mindset that bullying and racism is not happening.

If that comment is accurate, then I'd say that's quite revealing in itself. Bullying unfortunately happens in every school at some point. Does he mean continuous bullying that is not dealt with doesn't happen? I guess if a school has a 'mindset' that bullying never happens then there's nothing to deal with.

This is the start of their equality statement.

At Bacup & Rawtenstall Grammar School (BRGS) we believe equality means treating everyone with equal dignity and worth, valuing their characteristics such as their age, disability, gender, ethnicity, religion or belief, sexual orientation and socio-economic circumstances.

No woman or girl should feel safe when the criteria 'sex' is removed.

The Head wasn’t on sick leave when the inspection took place however, he is due to leave the school at Christmas anyway so doubt he will be back.
Anyone know why the report specifically says not to recruit ECT (Early Career Teachers) ? Asking as my DD’s newly appointed Science teacher is age 22.

Not recruiting ECTs is fairly standard in special measures reports. It's somewhere between "this is not a good place for ECTs to learn their craft" and "the school will be far too busy dealing with the Ofsted fallout to support them".

Thanks Magninamouse. That makes sense

@managementplan I can assure you that sexual abuse was on the radar in 2016 at the time of the last inspection.

You seem very keen to minimise it, though.

Would someone be able to summarise the key safeguarding concerns?
Many thanks.

Maybe they need assertive and experienced staff that have the confidence and experience to challenge the rotten status quo? I'm assuming it's rotten due to this thread. Those teachers and governors should be deeply ashamed.

Exactly, thankfully things are changing, some of the old school 'educators' are authoritarian and self satisfied, untouchable and seemingly answerable to no-one, especially at traditionally high achieving state schools. Thankfully that nasty breed of teaching staff are on their way out.

Independent school governor here.

Due to budget constraints some schools have favoured recruiting ECTs because they are cheaper. Like any organisation if you have all ‘juniors’ there is an insufficient blend of skills and experience. This will become more of a problem with the lacking of school funding.

I’m aghast at some of the myths around OFSTED, particularly missing a single piece of paper will result in a rating of inadequate. Fascinating. Well imagining that is true let’s go with that for a second. Ask yourself why school couldn’t provide that ‘single piece of paper’? Ask yourself what are the consequences if it relates to a failure to report a serious safeguarding incident - like sexual touching. Now imaging the person involved is your child. Still feeling that’s ok?

Then we have the ‘OFSTED are woke brigade’ and sexual harassment just means a bit of rude chat. Here’s an article for you, it’s not cherry picked and you‘ll find hundreds similar.

inews.co.uk/news/uk/sexual-harassment-rife-schools-girls-dont-point-reporting-ofsted-finds-1044140

It’s absolutely appropriate OFSTED focus on safeguarding just as much curriculum. If a child doesn’t feel safe in school that will hugely impede their learning. I can’t believe any of you would be happy for your child to be educated in an environment described in this report. These are not single incidents, it describes an endemic culture. And to the whole ‘many parents won’t recognise this’. Maybe not - until it’s your child then you might feel differently.

Safeguarding is a statutory duty. It is an agenda item at every meeting of our Board and the link Governor responsible frequently visits school to review record keeping, process and safeguarding officer protocols etc.

This school’s entire SLT and Governing Board have failed at numerous times and I echo a previous Governor comments they should all be removed.

Make a decision based on your child, if I was sending my 5 foot at 9 year old boy who can stand up to for himself to a school that has excellent academics and a good culture of attainment but issues like this I don't know if I would be concerned. If I was sending a shy little girl with body issues it might not be an ideal school.

It also depends on what education you want for your child we are in the church system which has a different out look on certain issue than a more mainstream system.

It will also be interesting to see what the actual issues are as that will affect peoples views when I was at school if someone had felt my bum my mam would have told me to take it as a complement or deck the lad depending on whether it was flirty. That wouldn't be tolerated now.

With respect @Grumpybutfunny we don’t live in a perfect world but we can aspire to be better.

Parents shouldn’t have to make a choice based on how assertive and physically dominant their child is.

Having young people in an environment where this is tolerated because they get good academic attainment is not ok as it becomes normalised.

You're reading something that not there. I am very pleased it's now being dealt with properly.

I'm involved in head's meetings locally and almost everyone of the long held outstanding ratings has been down graded significantly at recent inspections, for similar reasons. A complete shock to the heads who genuinely believed there was no issue in their school. It's shocking but not surprising.

The OFSTED format was completely different in 2016 and favoured schools who achieved good behaviour (in class) and got good academic results primarily because of their intake.

@ManagementPlan

Genuinely very interested how stuff like this is a “complete shock to the Heads”.

Did they not see a trend in reported incidents via safeguarding software? Even if not reported does the Head not frequently chat with teachers who might observe this, pupils who are experiencing it, and also survey parents? This is good practice at any school but perhaps the issue.

As you will know part of OFSTED is parental surveys and feedback so the knowledge and information is there if people have their eyes and ears open to hearing it.

Ofsted has downgraded a lot of grammar schools since its return and seems to be on a mission to do so.

^ there is no factual basis to this opinion at all. Ofsted is on a mission to do thorough inspections.

It is shocking, but if you have a culture where staff believe these things don't happen and children are dismissed, most of the incidents won't make it to the reporting software. If the head believes it's not happening, he won't be asking about it.

As you said parental surveys are part of the OFSTED so that's when it comes to light. At my (not outstanding) school we are constantly preparing for OFSTED and regularly survey staff, parents and students, but outstanding schools often haven't felt the need because they weren't expecting to be inspected.

And there is still that attitude among some more old fashioned (experienced?) staff that it's just boys being boys/ all a bit of banter.

Long serving heads at schools that have "always" been outstanding and sought after are a unique breed. They have an untouchable smugness, of course their perfect school doesn't have these issues. Maybe it's not all, but it definitely applies to most I've met.

Younger/newer Heads are much more focused on safeguarding and very aware of the personal fall out for them if it goes wrong, but the long established ones at outstanding schools got used to the idea that they'd never be inspected again as long as their results remained good.

What's happened here, at every single school that went from Outstanding to RI is that the long standing head went on long term (paid) sick leave and then took early retirement. When they know the worst that can happen is they leave on a nice package..

Far from wanting to minimise it, as I've been accused here, I'm delighted that this is all coming out at schools like the one in OP.

👏👏👏