'˜Pupils are not safe': Private Kings Langley school with £9,520 fees slammed by Ofsted for safeguarding failures

Rudolph Steiner School Kings Langley, which charges up to £9,520 annually, did not meet safeguarding standards across the board.

The Ofsted inspection comes after “39 formal complaints” from parents last year.

Safeguarding concerns are “not followed up quickly”, record keeping is “extremely weak”, and there are “shortcomings in the school’s approach to assessing risks to pupils’ safety.”

The official report, which has been published online, said: “They (the pupils) say they are safe – but they are not, because of flaws in the school’s systems and procedures for safeguarding and child protection.” Inspectors concluded that “not enough time is dedicated to safeguarding.”

The school, for pupils aged three to 18, had an emergency visit from the School Inspection Service in March 2016 and again in June after complaints from parents.

Safeguarding arrangements were judged to be met but after a further complaint, Ofsted was parachuted in by the Department for Education to visit the school last month.

A school spokesman said: “An interval of eight school weeks between inspections does not give enough time for training and implementation in some aspects of our improvement plan, nor time to gather evidence to demonstrate all that has been done. The inspectors were aware of this fact.

“The welfare, health and safety of pupils is the number one priority of all the staff and trustees. Pupils reported to inspectors that they feel safe in the school and confident in their teachers.”