OFSTED Downgrade to 'Inadequate' for Queensmill School
Headteacher blames staff shortages for loss of ‘outstanding status
Queensmill School in Shepherd's Bush. Picture: Google Streetview
September 27, 2022
A Shepherd’s Bush headteacher has defended her school after Ofsted downgraded it to the worst possible rating. The co-educational special school for autistic children was previously ranked “outstanding” for 15 years straight.
Autistic children were put at risk of receiving the wrong doses of medication after records were not properly updated or completed in time at Queensmill School in Shepherd’s Bush.
Leaders also didn’t know whether some staff had proper DBS checks and references for new teachers had not been completed when the specialist school for autism was first downgraded in November 2021.
The school had reopened as an academy just five months earlier and the school had not completed full checks on staff due to staff shortages caused by Covid and Brexit, headteacher Aymeline Bel has now revealed.
She told the Local Democracy Reporting Service, “The other option was to not open the school. We should have returned to parents and said we have not been able to pass all these checks.
“We had mitigating checks in place but we did not have full checks. If it was to happen again we would have made the decision to not open the school until we were staffed.
“Parents had not really come into the school for two years. The only interaction or view they had was that we had failed our Ofsted inspection. We needed to do a lot to rebuild and regain the trust of parents.”
For 15 years the school’s predecessor had a perfect Ofsted record and it is still rated Good in every area apart from Leadership and Management. When Ofsted visited the school for a monitoring visit last month they found the school continues to be inadequate, but that it was on track to return to being an excellent school.
The results of their recent inspection were a ‘salutary shock,’ one trustee told Ofsted. The watchdog praised the school for its prompt response to try and better protect children from harm and said that checks were now in place to make sure students are safe.
But checks still need work. The report said, “Leaders do not look at or analyse records of pupil behaviour in enough detail to pick up patterns in sexualised behaviour and abuse or bullying and other discriminatory behaviour.
“They intend to introduce a single electronic system to record safeguarding and all other concerns in order to help them notice these trends more easily. This is particularly important as leaders, staff and governors all agree that sexual safety is a particularly predominant risk factor for pupils attending this school, given their specific special educational needs.”
But overall the actions taken since the school’s first inadequate report has left Aymeline Bel thinking the school can return to its previous rating. She said: “Although we remain inadequate they are pleased with the actions that we have taken. We are feeling very confident with where we are at the moment.”
No pupils have been pulled out of the school since it was rated inadequate and the headteacher has been attending meetings with up to 30 parents to make sure they are happy. Although finding staff is still difficult, the school is now trying to recruit throughout the year to make sure they can properly look after students.
Hannah Neary - Local Democracy Reporter