Weald of Kent school - Ofsted

[Schoolmum5]

I have a DD in Year 5 and am looking for schools for September 2023 entry. I am very concerned about the recent WOK ofsted which seems to highlight a number of internal concerns. Whilst the education provision itself is good there seem to be a lack of clubs and an internal culture which does not address bullying. The headmistress also appears defensive in her response and I have heard rumours of staff discontent. I would really welcome views on experiences at the school which was previously very well regarded. My worry is the lack of other school choices where I live if DD passes the 11 plus without enough marks for super selective.

If she passes but misses the mark for superselectives, could she travel a bit further afield to schools like Invicta Grammar or Maidstone Girls Grammar?

I think we live too far away for the Maidstone grammars unfortunately.

I was surprised to see the results. I have several friends with girls there and the girls (and parents) seem much happier and are far more positive about the school than my DD and her cohort are at a TW girls grammar...!

If your daughter does go to Weald, she will have a great education. I am a teacher there and the teaching and pastoral staff are committed and passionate. There is a bullying problem at the school, though, and it begins with the head. The Ofsted has noted the leadership as Requires Improvement (teaching and learning are Good) and refuses to acknowledge it. Staff are terrified of crossing her, get suspended at the drop of a hat for falling out of favour and any feedback about problems concerning her go to the trustees - her handpicked friends mostly. There is some bullying, as at all schools, but if the head is bully in chief, and won’t support staff, that’s a problem. Most girls love it there and have a wonderful time. But leadership? Worrying.

My daughter has 3 different teachers there for physics, 2 different teachers for maths and 2 different teachers for home economics. At all 3 of those subjects she isn't doing well. She tells me certain teachers just write on the blackboard and get them to copy the work and its boring.

There are no school trips/holidays - none of this seems to have got back on track since COVID and it was pretty poor beforehand. I had a child at another local school who had the opportunity to go on holidays with the school at least once a year.

However she says she likes school, she has some nice friends and has some awful friends. Seems to be a fair bit of mental health issues amongst her year group.

Now the head has been removed and they are in the position they are in with OFSTED hopefully this means things will get turned around really quickly so new joiners will reap the benefits!

Thank you - this is really helpful. My daughter is due to start in September and we are there tomorrow for our transition day. To be fair, the Ofsted report doesn't give much in the way of detail and is badly written so it is helpful to get your viewpoint. The bullying, if coming from the top, is a huge worry as with a son at TWGSB, they don't deal with bullying very well either.

With regards to @Paddlerbabe comments, this is the same at TWGSB - no holidays or residentials since my son joined 3 years ago. He's had 12 maths teachers (?!!!), no French teacher since February, and an issue with science teachers until this year and finally he's had a GCSE removed from him as they don't have enough students to run it but no spaces in other classes! I think all schools in the area are finding it tough retaining staff or even finding decent staff.

Sadly the reason OFSTED came into the school was due to a pupil committing suicide and the inquest ruling that bullying at the school and covid isolation were the cause. There may be issues in management but for a child to take her own life there are major issues at the school.

My dd has just finished GCSEs at Weald and was hoping to stay for Sixth Form but I am very worried about rumours I have read about underqualified teachers, huge staff turnover and the worry that more staff will jump ship now following this fallout. Do you have any thoughts on this and of the Pyschology and Sociology provision at the school for A level? Thank you

My daughter is in year 12 and has said both Psychology teachers, Mr Welsh (head of Psychology) and Mrs Gillett are leaving at the end of this academic year. Miss Mercer who is a trainee teacher is staying. They have apparently employed two new teachers to start September across the 2 sites. Ms Butler a sociology teacher will also be teaching Psychology.
Year 12's have been told they will be resitting their PPE's late September/ early October as grades are appalling, they've had very little teaching over the year due to cover teachers as main teachers have been called away by Ms Bone to carry out other tasks. Next year won't be any different as the issues are not solely Ms Bone. Read comments on Kent live which are currently at 86 comments.
New head of sixth form this term is a new member of staff, Mr Richardson...the girls are belittled by him and he openly displays his dislike for them.

Good Lord. While I didn't much like the school when we did the tour, I did not expect how bad it was. I feel so sorry for the teachers, who've clearly been doing sterling work to try cover all the gaps and still manage a Good rating on teaching. And I'm sorry, what, is it true the head axed the whole of Student Support Services?? Who did she expect to do all the pastoral work?

As far as I’m aware student services isn’t axed. However despite my daughter is still at the school she has avoided student services this whole year due to previous years where support staff openly gossip about other students private business in front of the students. All the students know that if they attend they will be gossiped about and nothing remains private, this may have change this year.
Previously a KCC officer spoke to the Senior SENCO Ms Hosier, at the school raising this issue on our behalf, Ms Hosier confirmed this was true. The KCC officer then raised it with Ms Bone who naturally denied this. The KCC officer did not purse this any further.
However evidence of this was provided to several KCC departments, the DFE and Ofsted at the time of the incidence’s.

The stock answer from all departments was raise a complaint with the school. Raising a complaint at Weald takes a full time job, as the Chair of Trustee Antonia Rubin will do anything to not accept a complaint.
Even then KCC, DFE and Ofsted said there was nothing they can do but advise me to persist with the complaint. Our complaint took 2 years to be heard for all of 5 minutes.
Had any of these departments acted with the information we and many parents had given them girls like Taliyah Dahdi may have given the support they needed.
In my opinion it’s not just the school and the trustees that have let the students down it is also KCC, DFE and Ofsted.
Ofsted knew and was incredibly slow, taking years to responded. Truth is they didn’t respond it was just that the inspection was well over due.

I'm so sorry, it's really tough to need the support and then have it be worse as a result. Hope your daughter is doing OK. This has definitely blown the lid right off though, so hopefully the leadership will start to improve.

I am assuming this school is an academy. This gives it far more autonomy. KCC isn’t controlling it. It has no remit to do so. It can advise. However poor belligerent leadership often ignores advice. Ditto with Ofsted. The DFE can close schools but that’s hardly likely when it’s a grammar. Therefore the academy trust is expected to improve the school. They are mostly to blame as they make appointments, appoint governors and the buck stops with them. MH services in the NHS are probably appalling too. Therefore it’s a toxic mix of incompetence.

So who holds the school to account? I can't really get to the bottom of this. Is it really just the Trustees now left to act as they see fit? Is no outside agency obliged to step in and check what is going on? Where is the safeguarding here if all the rumours in the comments on Kent Live are true?

Ofsted must look at Safeguarding procedures at the school and comment on them in their report. If there is a recent report, the procedures will have been scrutinized. What you read on a forum, or rumours, are not necessarily a reflection of the exact safeguarding position. People use the word “safeguarding” very loosely. Their policy, which must be published, will explain exactly what safeguarding is and what procedures the school must follow. If safeguarding issues arise that are as described in the policy, the school must act. Bullying and mental health issues might not be seen as safeguarding. I strongly suggest you read the safeguarding policy and the ofsted report on safeguarding. Ofsted would have investigated thoroughly and a school failing on safeguarding automatically fails an ofsted inspection.

So, quickly reading the report, it’s bullying and behaviour which are the big areas of concern. These are not the same as Safeguarding. The schools procedures for Safeguarding are effective. I really would now expect to see significant changes at the school regarding how bullying is dealt with. Schools all have Bullying Policies but they must be carried out to be effective. Therefore I would want to see the Improvement Plan to tackle bullying and poor behaviour. Ofsted will get the plan and come t on it. They will return and expect to see improvements. They have clearly interviewed DC who said they were bullied and not believed. There is a culture in the school that needs to change. And fast. Ofsted do come back fairly quickly and won’t pull any punches. The parents should continue to use the Parent View feedback at Ofsted if there are continuing concerns. Definitely use the schools official complaints procedure. These must be logged. Ofsted look at them.

Ultimately it’s the DofE that closes Trust schools. Even when schools were closed by LAs, the DofE had to agree. Heads can be removed if incompetent. Or a deal struck.

The governors must also performance manage the head. This involves scrutinising performance targets (and the head must produce evidence for success) and then setting new ones. I know what I would have as top priorities. Continued failure to meet agreed targets is a competence issue but Trusts need to have the desire for change and understand the pupils are being let down. It’s not about being kind to the highly paid Head. It’s about being satisfied, with evidence, that the Head is improving the school as required by Ofsted. However this school is RI. It’s not yet a failing school. It will be given some time to improve. But it will be expected to.

@13lucky
Sorry for essays. Hope they bring a big of clarity.,

Yes that is how it is supposed to happen but as a parent of the school for over 8 years it no does happens that way under Bone. The route problem is the trustee were hand picked by the head, her personal friends. The bullying comes from the head herself. She bullies staff, teachers, parents and instructs the support staff to bully the students. The Ofsted report is only the start. Whilst the chair of the trustee Antonia Rubin from Vardags remains, nothing will change.
When you email a complaint you are ignored, until you submit it on the formal form. You are then written to by A Rubin saying your complaint is not up held, in some cases she’ll even write to say you do not have the right to make a complaint. You then will be limited on communication, told you cannot call the school, attend the school and limit number of emails to one per week.
The very few parents that are successful at having a complaint heard are personally attacked via email, outrageous lies are written, all to set the tone against the parent for the panel hearing. What is provided at the panel hearing is hand picked by the Head teacher Ms Bone’s executive personal assistant Georgina Howard who is also the clerk to the trustees.
There is no independence within the trustee s and all share a conflict of interest mainly all friends especially with Ms Bone prior to her becoming Head.
Therefore the trustee do not hear the complaints and the trustees appoint the education people (part of KCC) to hear the complaints, however the trustees again drip feed The education People Chair only providing what documents they want the panel to see and decide what elements of the complaint can be herd.
Like all KCC departments there is an annual contribution to access these services therefore ultimately The Education People Chair ate working for the school. The chair is very dominate throughout the hearing and leads the panel throughout, several of the panel members are retired and have the upmost respect for schools in general and cannot comprehend these complaints. The school is good at putting their case forward, after all the A Rubin is legally trained for High Net Worth Clients and you cannot fault the schools policy’s on paper, however the policies are not followed in practice and do not cover staff bulling of students or welfare concerns when a member of staff is instructed to take a child out of their lesson to be bullied in a open corridor about their mental health issues.
From my experience, twice, the written outcome is not a true reflection of the hearing. Unfortunately it can’t be proven but the outcome letter is most certainly agreed with the schools trustees.
If you read the comments on www.kentlive.news/news/kent-news/weald-kent-grammar-school-ordered-7282604, you’ll get a better understanding.
Hopefully things are going on in the back ground but sadly to late for some students especially year 13.
Year 12 are resitting their mocks again late September early October as the average grade was E/D. This will be too late for any early entries to university.
The Teachers are good but teachers frequently aren’t teaching due to their multiple roles, therefore student are given cover teachers, left to teach themselves. On average each class over a two week period has 3 different teachers per subject some more, plus multiple have left. With their multiple roles they do not have time to liaise with each other therefore they do not know who has taught what.
This year for a couple of months the school employed a Physiology teacher online who lived in Portugal. This was a disaster as she rambled on, over a very poor internet connections at 30 students. She wasn’t even experienced with teaching from the same exam board which caused a huge conflict in what was taught and marked, leaving the student even more confused.

The students that do well are those who have been fortunate enough to find their own tutors outside of school.

The trustees hold the school to account, no one else. Ofsted can go in and write a report but it is for the trustees to decided what happens next. In this instance the Chair Ms Rubin has chosen to save her skin and direct all blame to the head, however they are equally complicit.
The school used to have an excellent PTA for many years under the previous head Ms Johnson, but this was axed as parents became unwelcome on site under Ms Bone.
During the process of the PTA being axed parents of the PTA attempted to move over to the trustee. Those that were successfully elected lasted no time at all.

In my opinion there should be a PTA which many parents are keen to re-establish, that works closely with the Trustees. That way parents can actually be aware of what is going on behind the scenes and makes corrupt behaviour among the trustees and the head more difficult to hide from the parents.

post on Kent live this morning from another teacher. This was not limited to teachers, it parents and students too. It is still ongoing with emails to students in the same tone, so a lot more needs to change/go…
anonteacher46

What a turn around SLG?! “I’m relieved”, “yes, that was because of Liz”, “thankfully she’s gone”, “that was Liz’s decision”
Now, I’m a reasonable person. I know there were probably many times that you were asked doing things that you didn’t want to.
However, you did them. And you did them for years. You trod on the backs of staff, losing them jobs: money, mortgages positions, respect. Respect from parents and most importantly the children that they cared for, because you had it easy. You had job security, it wasn’t happening to you and you were paid well.
We didn’t want praise, we just wanted you all to give us a break and let us do our jobs to help children and our colleagues.
So forgive my cynicism now that you’re scapegoating her - oh don’t mistake me, she was a walking joke and had to go - but please do not think that we have forgotten or that we are easily manipulated as you many of you are embarrassingly trying.
You allowed the Umbridge era to continue and pick up speed for years. You turned a blind eye to her manipulation, illegal practice, violence internal promotions and financial profiteering [with Georgia-executive-best-mate and ‘Jo from finance’ as the kids now refer to her]. But it wasn’t just that was it?
You reported back to her, spied on us, asked us to do things that you knew were wrong, ignored us, looked through us, literally pointed your fingers at us, shouted at us and avoided committing much of your work to email.
This doesn’t apply to all of you, a couple of you are decent. It was obviously that you weren’t in favour with Bone and you weren’t proactively sabotaging us as the others have been. You’ve talked to us, you know the kids and we know that you haven’t been team Liz. Now is your time to step up and shine.

Obviously one cannot unpick everything here as it’s detailed. However just because a school buys services from the LA it doesn’t mean their members are biased towards the school. Retired people can be pretty sharp too. I think the background and personality of the head snd chair of trustees is the issue.

I suggest aggrieved parents continually post on the Ofsted parent view site. In addition speak to your MP.

You should also be aware that a PTA is never going to have any dialogue with the school about operational matters. It’s purely a charity for fundraising. Some schools organise a parent forum but not many at secondary level.

It’s an unfortunate byproduct of the academy system that schools are less accountable. They operate in their own bubble and parents take the brunt of this. Good schools are far more aware of their community snd make every effort to ensure everyone, as far as possible, is listened to. The fact that ofsted will want to see improvement is the log I would cling to in a fast moving River.

Meaning of the word unpick is to carefully analyse the different elements of (something), especially in order to find faults.
can TizerorFizz clarify in what context they mean ‘unpick’ ? Cause I didn’t post for you to unpick what I and my family have experienced first hand.

The LA should not be biased but are. Had they not been biased this matter may well have come to light some time ago.

@Wealdparent
That’s an odd stance to take. To be clear: I meant I couldn’t possibly comment on everything you wrote. Nothing else.

Name changed but long time member. A lovely friend from tonbridge had a really rough time at the hands of this chair at her kid's primary. Apparently she and a cabal ingratiated themselves with the head and kicked out a vulnerable parent who attempted suicide and was run out of the school. Absolutely not the majority but schools need to be really careful about how they screen people who want to do these kinds of voluntary roles.

@digitalisaredangerous
They really are not screened at all. DBS check aside. Many schools struggle to get the roles filled. I’m not sure what can be done about checking personality and competence.Heads should not be choosing trustees or governors. However with numerous vacancies some Governors are tempted to enlist friends. Heads are governors and do the same. It is contrary to good practice but it’s never challenged. The best practice is to choose people with suitable expertise for the various roles. This should not be numerous teachers or numerous lawyers. It should be a cross section of skills and people willing and able to hold the head to account. Friends won’t do this. It gives the whole system a bad rep.