King Edward VII Sheffield: Government states it is 'legal duty' of 'Inadequate' school to become an academy

The staff and community of King Edward VII School are still reeling from the stinging report published on Monday (January 23). Despite an otherwise uncritical write-up by the education watchdog, inspectors handed down a damning indictment of its leadership and management for failures around bullying and safeguarding.

It was enough to drop the school from a rating of ‘Good’ down to ‘Inadequate’ overall. Following the announcement, headteacher Linda Gooden wrote to parents to voice her fears “that King Edward VII School will be forced to convert to an academy and join a multi academy trust”.

Now, a statement by a Department of Education spokesperson has been released.

A spokesperson said: “When schools are judged inadequate by Ofsted, there is a legal duty for them to become an academy and receive the support of a high quality academy trust. The decision we take as to which trust will support the school is always taken to secure rapid and sustainable improvement, ensuring that pupils are receiving the best possible standard of education.”

In the school’s letter to parents, Ms Gooden appears to hope by contesting the judgement and having the ‘Inadequate’ rating withdrawn, the move to become an academy can be halted. She states how the school has contested a ‘number’ of the judgements made by Ofsted but says the education watchdog has refused to reconsider those judgements or re-inspect the school.

The school said inspectors’ concerns around safeguarding primarily involved students being allowed to leave the upper school site at lunchtime. It said this was a decision for individual schools, it was ‘common practice’ in many schools, and it was ‘well recognised that students should be enabled to take age-appropriate and reasonable risks as part of their growth and development’.

Ms Gooden says the school has an “action plan” in place to address the failings in the report.

A number of parents have come forward in support of the school following the publication of the Ofsted report.