Rudolf Steiner School receive '˜extremely upsetting' Ofsted report

Rudolf Steiner School Kings Langley (RSSKL) was deemed Inadequate after Ofsted visited from November 6-9.

‘Leadership’ was deemed Inadequate, while ‘Quality of teaching’, ‘Personal development’, and ‘Outcomes for pupils’ were all deemed Requires Improvement.

But in an exclusive interview with the Gazette, school bosses said that Ofsted showed a “clear lack of sensitivity” and that the visit had been “an extremely upsetting experience of staff”.

Teacher Steffi Cook said: “The Department for Education knew we were closed to all of the pupils in the lower and upper parts of the school.

“Yet inspectors insisted on knowing what we had put in place between May and July of the last academic year and asked what we intended to put in place for the new academic year.”

One of the main criticisms made in the report was the turnover of leadership, and the failure of trustees to hold the school’s leaders to account.

Inspectors pointed to five different leaders of the school and five different chairmen of the board of trustees since the 2016 inspection.

It adds: “Each time there is a change of leadership... progress towards much-needed improvements slows.”

The report also says that, “despite good intentions”, the investigation into a number of historical complaints has still not been completed.

School business manager Jessica Hardiman said: “There has been a turnover, it’s a fact. And you have to look at whether that’s impacted on the running of the school.

“But of course we have seen trustees leave when they have had children here, and they have taken their children to other schools once they knew we were closing.”

With regards to the historical complaints, she said: “Because the ongoing investigation has not yet concluded we are unable to comment yet.”

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