A faith school in North Manchester which was deemed outstanding by Ofsted until a year ago, is still in special measures following the latest inspection. King David High School in Crumpsall remains inadequate according to inspectors.
The Jewish school, which is the highest performing secondary state school in Manchester, was praised for the progress it has made in addressing concerns regarding safeguarding that were raised in 2021 when it was rated inadequate. However, inspectors identified a 'lack of urgency' in improving governance.
It follows a change in leadership at the school with former chair of governors Joshua Rowe stepping down in October after more than 30 years in the role. It comes around a year after executive headteacher John Dalziel was appointed.
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In a letter to the new headteacher published this week, Ofsted inspector Tim Hill said: "King David High School remains inadequate and requires special measures. Leaders have made progress to improve the school, but more work is necessary for the category of concern to be removed."
Written last months, the letter, which sets out the findings from a monitoring inspection in November, identifies 'a greater sense of urgency' by the senior leadership team to address weaknesses in the school. Appropriate actions to tackle the most pressing issues are now in motion, according to the letter.
Changes to the curriculum were made in September to make it 'equitable' for all pupils and timetables have been adjusted to ensure all pupils can mix with each other and participate in extracurricular activities together, the letter said.
Safeguarding arrangements have also been strengthened, according to the letter which says that staff now understand their responsibilities. And 'swift action' has been taken to stem the decline in pupils' poor behaviour, it added.
However, improvements in governance have been 'slow to materialise due to a lack of urgency', according to the inspector. The letter said: "Governors have not acted on, with sufficient rigour, many of the recommendations from the external review of governance that was carried out six months ago.
"For example, there are still too many governors who have not completed basic governor training. Consequently, some governors do not understand their roles and responsibilities.
"Therefore, they are unable to hold leaders to account effectively. However, there have been some recent improvements. For instance, governors are now far less likely to get involved in the school’s operational matters."
Responding to the letter, Mr Dalziel said: "We recognise that we are not where we need to be yet. But we're delighted with the direction of travel.
"We are very happy with where we are, but we recognise there's still work to be done."
Mr Rowe, who is now the chair of trustees, said he and the new chair of governors Jonathan Dover, are 'generally pleased' about the latest letter. However, he was 'disappointed' about the comments on governance at the school, saying that it is governors who drive much of the improvements noted.
He said: "The judgement of ‘Inadequate’ and ‘special measures’ is somewhat surprising. It is difficult to envisage any reasonable observer ever describing our well-ordered school, where the pupils are polite and well behaved, where pupils are safe and happy, where teachers are all subject specialists, where everything works so well and where academic results place it amongst the top [non-selective] schools in the country, as ‘inadequate’.
"The judgement is unrecognisable to anyone who is familiar with the school."
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