An Ofsted report has described a formerly 'outstanding' grammar school as a place where racism, homophobia, and misogyny have flourished. The school, in Lancashire, has been downgraded to 'inadequate' by the inspector as incidents such as 'harmful sexual behaviour went unchallenged’ and said some pupils had ‘lost confidence’ in the ability of staff to protect them from harm.
Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School in Rossendale was inspected in June with the scathing report published this week. One parent speaking to LancsLive after the publication of the report described the school as an "exam factory" where pupils regularly achieved exemplary results, but officials failed to address their needs in return.
A number of parents and carers had expressed their concerns regarding 'children safety and wellbeing' while at school, the report said, and some students felt there was no one they could speak to at the school to address this. This is despite the selective, mixed, grammar school being rated 'outstanding' by Ofsted just six years ago.
The school described itself as having ‘traditional values’ and a ‘strong family ethos,’ as well as ‘a safe, secure environment where students can flourish and excel.’ But, this is not the case according to the report.
It said: "Some pupils and students said that they felt the need to ‘take matters into their own hands to try to resolve issues, particularly in relation to harmful sexual behaviours." Many pupils said bullying was also not dealt with properly, according to the report, while some said they had suffered - and were continuing to suffer.
The report added: "Some told inspectors they had experienced, and continue to endure, frequent and unwanted sexual behaviour." This led to a number of pupils confiding to the inspectors that they felt 'worried, unhappy and unsafe'.
"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," the report said.
Leaders were aware of the scale of problems, but were just not doing enough to tackle them, according to inspectors, who said staff would ‘underestimate the frequency of incidents of harmful sexual behaviour’ in a ‘dismissive culture’ where pupils were reluctant to report things. Meanwhile, governors were not fulfilling legal responsibilities for safeguarding and had not consulted with parents on school policies in line with legal national requirements.
Other faults found by Ofsted were that some leaders had 'failed to foster a culture of safeguarding,' some incomplete records on staff had to be sorted out on the spot and some leaders were not up to speed with safeguarding requirements. Similarly, systems for flagging and managing safeguarding concerns were ‘disjointed,’ they added, with confusion over them among staff, while ‘widespread weaknesses’ in procedures designed to identify vulnerable pupils put some ‘at risk of serious harm.’
Safeguarding concerns were dealt with too slowly, with steps not being taken to prevent harmful sexual behaviour, while records showed a number of cases related to sexual harassment, such as ‘inappropriate touching’ where not enough steps been taken to stop it happening again. Vital referrals had not been made to organisations such as the local authority safeguarding hub, and inspectors actually made one during the inspection, they said.
Pupils were not kept safe from ‘bullying, discriminatory language and harmful sexual behaviour,’ with many pupils simply losing faith in the leaders’ ability to protect them, and a ‘lack of trust’ observed. The report notes that some pupils had been ‘subjected to discriminatory or harmful sexual behaviour for a prolonged period of time,’ left without appropriate help, or given inadequate support.
Meanwhile, the problems got so bad that in the end, pupils had simply ‘given up reporting personal problems and safeguarding concerns,’ as they thought they wouldn’t be taken seriously or protected from future harm, said Ofsted, adding that it found ‘an unsafe and dismissive culture in which racism, homophobia and misogyny appear to be accepted.’
Yet there were some good points noted, such as ‘high expectations,’ good behaviour and progress, a range of extra-curricular activities, career guidance and work experience opportunities.
Issuing an overall verdict of inadequate, with only ‘quality of education’ being judged ‘Good,’ the regulator placed the formerly outstanding school in special measures, meaning that it will be closely monitored for improvements. It urged ‘immediate action’ on safeguarding to ‘ensure that all concerns are dealt with swiftly and appropriately in order to keep pupils safe’ and stipulated that staff be properly trained to promote pupils’ understanding of diversity, respect and tolerance, ‘thereby eradicating a school culture that leaves many pupils feeling unsafe.’
Other areas where improvements were drastically needed were in relationships, sex education and health education, where failings, including at sixth form level, had led to ‘incidents of harmful sexual behaviour becoming the norm and an accepted feature of school life.' Meanwhile, school governors were also told to do their homework to ensure they could challenge leaders properly.
A spokesperson for the school said its current headteacher was expected to remain on sick leave for the foreseeable future, while deputy head James Johnstone was acting as operational head of school with executive strategic support from Endeavour Learning Trust. Malcolm J White, the Chair of Governors of Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School, said the school had taken the Ofsted findings extremely seriously and was implementing an action plan, which included hiring three more non-teaching pastoral managers, another Designated Safeguarding Lead and another acting Deputy Headteacher, extensive additional staff safeguarding training, a review of the personal development curriculum and of the implementation of school’s values.
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