King Edward VII Sheffield: 'Forced' academisation officially paused as school awaits fresh Ofsted rating

It has been six months since King Edward VII School, which has sites in Broomhall and Crosspool, was branded ‘Inadequate’ by the education watchdog and handed a ‘compulsory’ academization order by the Department of Education.

Parents and staff have fought against the decision ever since. A petition to scrap the order and give the school a ‘second chance’ was signed by thousands of households, and hundreds of people attended a protest outside City Hall in April.

Now, the King Ted’s community has been told what it waited months to hear – that the process to absorb the school into a trust had officially been “paused”.

It comes after the school received a second graded inspection from the watchdog on May 24, six months after it was first visited in December that led to the scathing report.

The results of the fresh visit are yet to be published – but in a letter home to parents today (June 12), headteacher Linda Gooden said she had been informed in a meeting with the deputy regional director for the DfE that all movements to place the school in a trust were now on hold.

Ms Gooden said the department has decided to wait for the full report “before considering the next steps”. She added: “I wish to thank you again for your continued support.”

During the visit in December, King Edward VII was rated ‘Inadequate’ over failings in safeguarding, particularly over bullying concerns and how pupils were seemingly allowed to leave school grounds at lunchtime. It was otherwise found to be ‘Good’ or ‘Requires Improvement’ in all other areas.

The news comes on the same day the DfE has announced how it plans to overhaul its inspection process to be more forgiving of schools’ mistakes – specifically, the watchdog will grant a “second chance” to fix issues if a school fails in safeguarding measures when all other areas are either ‘Good’ or ‘Requires Improvement’. It will also mean academy orders can be revoked if rapid improvement is demonstrated.

In fact, several national newspapers today pointed to King Ted’s as a textbook example of where the new proposals would be applied.