Ofsted has been described as being ‘at war’ with the Government regarding the evaluation of ‘British values’ as further school reports in the North East of England in mid-January saw a top school placed into Special Measures and another told to close.
Grindon Hall, a Christian school in Sunderland with some of the best exam results in its area, was given the worst possible grading by Ofsted in a report blasted as ‘defying logic’. The report stated that its performance is inadequate and a draft version of it also included a paragraph attacking the school’s Christian ethos. This paragraph was removed by Ofsted in the report it eventually released.
Formal complaint
The principal of the school, Chris Gray, had recently written a formal complaint to Ofsted because of the inappropriate nature of questions asked by inspectors. These included pupils being asked ‘what do lesbians do’ and whether they felt ‘trapped in the wrong body’.
In a statement on the school website Mr Gray wrote: ‘To issue a report that grades the best performing secondary state-funded school in Sunderland (as the latest published GCSE results show) as the worst, defies all common sense and logic’.
In May last year the school was told that it required improvement in some areas, but in September Ofsted noted that the school had been taking ‘effective action’ to address those issues.
However, the report released in January contradicts these findings. The difference is attributed by Mr Gray to the ‘widely discredited British values’ regulations introduced last year and ‘the aggressive attitude of the inspection team’.
Mr Gray said: ‘Pupils, parents and staff are deeply concerned that, because of the widely reported breakdown of trust between the Department for Education (DfE) and Ofsted, schools like Grindon Hall are being caught in the crossfire’.
Antagonism towards Christian ethos
In his formal complaint to Ofsted, the principal said that inspectors had sought to discredit the school because of its Christian ethos. In the statement, Mr Gray drew attention to the redacted paragraph: ‘The Christian ethos of the school permeates much of the school’s provision. This has restricted the development of a broad and balanced approach to the curriculum.’
Ofsted have issued a firm rebuttal to the allegations regarding the nature of the questions given to the pupils.
Parents meeting
In a packed parents meeting, which was supportive of the school, one lesbian parent shared how it was the first of five schools where her child had not been bullied due to her sexuality, and mixed heritage families shared similar stories of how children from a range of ethnic backgrounds were very much a part of the school and it was the only school they had attended where no bullying had taken place. Some called for Ofsted to be investigated, not the school.
Further to this, the Durham Free School has complained that many of the findings critical of the school’s culture were based upon conversations with one child. Ofsted said they found no evidence to back up the claims, and a wide range of evidence was used to support their finding that the school had problems regarding racist and homophobic language, noting that the management in the school had allowed a culture to develop where these attitudes were not challenged.
Origins?
Guidance to Ofsted inspectors over the past few years has included, up until September 2014, encouragement to ask primary pupils wide-ranging questions about homosexuality and transgender issues. A statement on Stonewall’s website urges schools to subscribe to its materials because: ‘Stonewall has trained Ofsted’s lead inspectors and advised the Government on the Equality Act’.
