THANK you for the balanced reporting on the news of Kirkby Stephen Grammar School's Ofsted report (Gazette, March 2, 'Security blow for second Cumbrian school').
Your measured analysis contrasts starkly with the ill-informed judgements of the Ofsted inspectors.
The Ofsted spokesperson told the Gazette that the way each school approaches safeguarding would be determined 'according to local circumstances', yet this inspection failed to do so.
Nothing has changed in our local circumstances since the school was judged good in the last Ofsted inspection in 2013. The crime rate hasn't risen, no external threat to the school has been identified, the school site remains safe and the pupils overwhelmingly say they feel secure.
In an independent health and safety audit by external professionals in 2016, Kirkby Stephen Grammar School was rated 79 out of 100 in relation to safeguarding. The inspectors have chosen to ignore this audit, ignore the unique characteristics of Kirkby Stephen Grammar School and the rural community in which it exists.
Instead of an overall assessment based on the high standards in leadership, teaching and results, the inspection prioritised hypothetical risks more associated with inner city schools.
Your readers will rightly question how an inspection system has lost its focus so badly so that it fails to reward good educational standards and puts a school into special measures because it doesn't have a perimeter fence or enough locks on doors.
In doing so the inspection system has been brought into disrepute.
Andrew Wallington (Parent)
Soulby
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