Ministers accused of playing politics over Durham free school’s closure

http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/jan/23/durham-free-school-closure-ministers-ofsted

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Parents of pupils at the Durham free school, which has been labelled as inadequate by inspectors and is expected to close within months, say they are angry at the government’s handling of the issue, with some accusing it of “playing politics” with their children’s education.

DFS – one of more than 300 free schools now operating as part of the plan to open schools outside of local authority control – has been open for just 16 months but will now have its funding agreement terminated and its pupils sent to other schools as soon as Easter, after it was placed in special measures by Ofsted.

Inspectors found that leadership, teaching and pupil behaviour at the school were all inadequate – its lowest rating – during a visit late last year. Julian Eisner, the acting headteacher at DFS, said the decision was a “gross injustice” and the school had been singled out for unfair treatment.

“Staff and parents are very, very angry,” he said. “We’re not being treated as other schools would be in these circumstances.”

Eisner said investigations into the school began after its former headteacher made a complaint to the Department for Education (DfE), after the school’s governors took dismissal proceedings against him in October last year.

“It seems very unfair for the rug to be pulled out from under our feet at that point when other schools in special measures would be given five terms with loads of support to turn things around,” he said.

But Pat Glass, MP for Durham North West and a member of the Commons’ education committee, said she had earlier made complaints directly to the DfE after she became concerned about the school.

“I consistently raised concerns with [former education secretary] Michael Gove and he failed to act. But when I raised those same concerns with Nicky Morgan, to be fair to her, she responded quickly,” Glass said.

“Ofsted have advised me that this is one of the worst schools they have inspected, and any teaching or learning going on at the school is purely incidental. My concerns about this school were not ideological but based on solid educational experience and wanting a good education for every Durham child.”

Ofsted’s inspectors faulted the school for weak teaching and poor pupil progress, reporting: “Student achievement is weak … Standards are low and progress is inadequate.”

The inspectors also said the school – which bills itself as having a “Christian ethos” – was overly concerned with “religious credentials” when recruiting. The report detailed several instances of bullying by pupils. “Some students hold discriminatory views of other people who have different faiths, values or beliefs,” it concluded.

Eisner was critical of the Ofsted report, which he said was “unbalanced”, particularly the reports of “many instances of bullying” at the school. He claimed whenever bullying was found it was dealt with, and many of the complaints were levelled at just one student.

“We have quite a number of students who have moved from other schools and the reason for that is because they were bullied. Those children feel very safe and secure here,” he said.

One of those students is the son of Neil and Gail Collingwood, who was moved to DFS after bullying at his state comprehensive had left him suicidal. His parents say he is more settled at DFS and they are “devastated” by the decision. “My son is being used as a political weapon,” Mrs Collingwood said.

But the DfE’s decision to rapidly cut off funding to the school mirrors its response in the cases of other free schools it has closed after they received strong criticism from Ofsted, including the Discovery free school in Crawley and the Hartsbrook free school in London.

Another free school, Grindon Hall Christian school in neighbouring Sunderland, was put into special measures by Ofsted this week.

Eisner believes the government has failed the school ever since it opened. He says the school’s intake, currently 94 pupils in year 7 and year 8, is mostly from deprived ex-coalmining communities to the south of Durham.

Lisa Cook, the mother of a year 8 pupil at DFS, said she would advise parents against sending their children to new free schools.

“Other parents are going to have to look into it, because I’ve made a big mistake moving him. Moving him again is just going to disrupt him again,” Cook said.

But it was business as usual at DFS on Thursday morning, as buses dropped pupils off for the start of the school day at 8:40am.

Parents dropping off their children were quick to blame Ofsted and the government for DFS’s demise. One, who asked not to be named, said: “It’s disgusting. There’s no other school my daughter could possibly go to. She’s got a few problems and this school has helped her profoundly. I feel very let down by the government.”

Collette Lau, who was dropping off her son Cameron, 12, said: “There’s obviously something untoward going on with the other two free schools that have been targeted and put under special measures.

“It’s a political thing where free schools are being scrapped but the government don’t want to say it like that. I didn’t recognise the school described in the Ofsted report at all.”

On Friday, Ofsted issued a detailed response to the criticisms made by Durham Free School, saying it was aware that “allegations have been made in the last 48 hours about the conduct of Her Majesty’s Inspectors who inspected Durham Free School and a suggestion that findings on whether pupils were being prepared for life in modern Britain were based on comments made to inspectors by a single pupil.

“The school did not raise any of these issues with Ofsted at any point either during the inspection visit or during the various moderation and pre-publication stages, despite having had every opportunity to do so.

“For the record, Ofsted would like to make clear that in reaching their conclusions about the effectiveness of the school’s work in preparing students for life in modern Britain, inspectors considered a wide range of evidence. Discussions with students formed just a part of the evidence that was gathered.

“Inspectors found that senior staff at Durham Free School had allowed a culture to develop where it was acceptable for racist words and sexually derogative and homophobic terms to be used. Leaders were failing to properly tackle or challenge this type of language and behaviour.”