An all-girls' secondary school in Salford has been placed into special measures after an inspection revealed governors had 'failed in their statutory duties to safeguard pupils'. Ofsted officials visited Beis Yaakov High School in Higher Broughton in September and their reports says 'over time, leaders have prioritised the needs of staff to the detriment of pupils' education'.
They rated the school's overall effectiveness as 'inadequate' and reached the same conclusion in all other areas of assessment - quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development and leadership. "There is a deeply entrenched culture among staff of apathy and lack of routine," the report said.
"Staff do not take their roles as educators seriously enough. They have low expectations for how pupils should behave and what pupils should achieve. Leaders and staff have failed pupils."
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Despite the 'acute weaknesses' in their education, children at the 335-pupil establishment for 11 to 16-year-olds reported that they 'enjoy school'. "Pupils were not concerned about bullying," the report said. "They believe that staff deal with any incidents of bullying appropriately.
"Pupils said that they feel safe, happy and value the time that they get to socialise with their peers. However, pupils are not safe at this school. Staff attendance and punctuality are erratic. Pupils are poorly supervised and frequently left to their own devices."
It said that, for many pupils, socialising has taken precedence over their learning. "Pupils are habitually late to lessons," it said. "They are slow to settle and some display negative attitudes towards their teachers. This impedes how well pupils learn."
The inspectors said that leaders and governors had failed to tackle the weaknesses identified at the last inspection in 2019, when it was graded as 'requires improvement'. "Governors and leaders have not succeeded in acting quickly enough to arrest the significant decline in the standard of education that pupils receive," they said.
"Although governors have recently appointed new leaders to run the school, the work that they have done is too little and too late to improve the quality of education for the majority of pupils." The report said leaders' efforts to increase the breadth and depth of the key stage 3 curriculum have been 'in vain'.
It went on: "Many decisions that leaders have made about the curriculum are not in the best educational interests of pupils." The report said the school's systems for identifying pupils' additional needs, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are ineffective.
"Until recently, pupils with SEND were withdrawn from lessons and taught separately from their peers," it said. "This has had a considerable and detrimental effect on the education that these pupils have experienced.
"While this practice has now ceased, pupils with SEND have substantial gaps in their knowledge and wider personal development. Teachers are ill-equipped to educate pupils with SEND or to help them catch up with their peers."
Meanwhile, the inspectors said that 'arrangements for safeguarding are not effective'. "Governors have failed in their statutory duties to safeguard pupils," the report said.
"Leaders and staff have a laissez-faire approach to safeguarding. They have not assured themselves that pupils are safe.
"Their systems and arrangements for safeguarding pupils are not fit for purpose. Pupils do not know who to go to if they have concerns. This increases pupils' vulnerability.
"Staff are not suitably trained to recognise when a pupil may be at risk of harm. The procedures for reporting concerns are unclear and ineffective.
"For example, staff report safeguarding concerns on a slip of papers that is left at the reception desk." Leaders do not have appropriate systems in place to follow up on the safety of those pupils who are frequently absent from school, the report said. This includes vulnerable pupils with SEND.
"Pupils are not taught about risks or how to stay safe in the wider community," the inspectors said. "Leaders have chosen not to teach pupils about healthy relationships. They have not followed statutory guidance on relationships and sex education.
"Younger pupils do not learn about how to stay mentally healthy. More recently, leaders have begun to accept the endemic weaknesses in the school's safeguarding procedures.
"They are now engaging external agencies to do a root-and-branch review. However, it is too early to see any impact of this work."
The Local Democracy Reporting Service has contacted the school for comment.
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