King Edward VII School Ofsted: Sheffield secondary school rated 'inadequate' amid safety and bullying concerns

King Edward VII School, which has sites in Broomhill and Crosspool, was inspected by Ofsted on September 27 last year following what the education watchdog described as a ‘number of complaints…that raised serious concerns’. The report was published today, Monday, January 23, with the school graded ‘inadequate’ for overall effectiveness.

The school was judged to be ‘good’ in three of the five criteria for which it was assessed – behaviour and attitudes, personal development, and sixth-form provision – but inspectors found the quality of education ‘requires improvement’ and the leadership and management was ‘inadequate’. When the school was last inspected in 2018, it was deemed to be ‘good’, which is the second highest of the four grades available.

Inspectors said in the latest report that safeguarding policies at King Edward VII were not consistently applied, which meant children ‘may be at risk of harm’. They highlighted concerns in particular about gaps in the risk assessment concerning pupils’ ‘movement on and off the upper school site at dinner time’.

Inspectors stated: “Leaders at King Edward VII school do not do enough to keep children safe. A significant minority of pupils do not feel that they have an adult to speak to. Some pupils would not pass on concerns about bullying. While school records show that bullying is not frequent, leaders do not encourage pupils effectively to speak to an adult if they are worried about something.”

What did Ofsted inspectors say about bullying, safeguarding and teaching at King Edward VII School?

The report also refers to a ‘serious safeguarding incident’ at the school and says leaders there failed to take appropriate action to learn from mistakes after this happened. It does not give any details about what this incident was or when it occurred.

Inspectors state: “Leaders’ actions around the safeguarding of pupils lack rigour. They do not thoroughly check that staff remember important safeguarding updates. As a result, some staff have a too casual attitude to their responsibilities around safeguarding. Sometimes, staff do not pass on safeguarding concerns to appropriate staff in the school. This puts children at risk.”

Despite the highly disappointing overall rating, several parts of the report do make positive reading for the school. Inspectors found that most pupils were happy, they ‘relate well to each other’ and there is a ‘respectful atmosphere’. They described students’ behaviour as a ‘strength of the school’, called the sixth-form ‘thriving’ and said an ‘ambitious curriculum is planned for all’. Inspectors also said that pupils enjoy their lessons because they are taught by ‘passionate, engaging and expert teachers’, though they labelled as ‘inconsistent’ students’ recall of important information they are taught.

What does an ‘inadequate’ Ofsted rating mean for school?

When a local authority-maintained school in England, like King Edward VII, is rated ‘inadequate’ it is issued by the Education Secretary with an academy order and will then become a sponsored academy, Ofsted’s website states. Ofsted adds: “We will not usually monitor the school unless there are safeguarding concerns or there is a delay in the school becoming a sponsored academy.”

King Edward VII School’s headteacher Linda Gooden had written to parents ahead of the report being published to say that leaders there were in ‘complete shock’ at the findings and that the school ‘does not believe or accept’ a number of the judgements, which she said it would be contesting. The school stated in the letter that there was a very real risk the Department for Education and the local authority would ‘force’ it to become an academy as part of a larger chain of schools. Sheffield Council subsequently said the claim it would force the school to become part of an academy was ‘incorrect’.

On the day of the Ofsted visit on September 27, a King Edward VII pupil was injured in a collision with a bus on Glossop Road. In April last year, the school responded to claims by five parents of year seven pupils who said their children were the victims of a gang of bullies carrying out daily attacks. Ms Gooden said at the time that the school was aware of a ‘series of complex incidents’ and ‘does not tolerate bullying in any form’.

The Star has contacted the school, the Department for Education and Sheffield Council.