School set to take Ofsted to court over inspection

Queen Emma Primary School in Cambridge is challenging Ofsted

A school says it will challenge Ofsted in court for not following correct procedures, after an inspection left its head teacher feeling suicidal.

Sarah Jarman, whose experience spans 20 years, said she felt "crippled and crushed" by the inspection.

Queen Emma Primary School in Cambridge was downgraded to inadequate over its measures to keep children safe, and has appealed against the decision.

Ofsted told BBC News: "We completely refute these allegations."

It added: "We firmly stand by our inspection and published report (into Queen Emma's)."

In an impact statement written as part of the school's formal complaint to Ofsted, Ms Jarman said she usually considers herself to be a "strong, resilient and self-aware leader".

"Yet the experience of that day has shattered every piece of self-belief I have, both in myself and the Ofsted system. Without doubt, the negative connotations will stay with me for the rest of my life," she told BBC News.

Ms Jarman said her previous experiences of England's schools regulator had been positive, but the inspection in October 2022 had felt "like a wrecking ball had come through our school".

She said in the months following the inspection she found it difficult to leave her house, could not sleep, and felt an "overwhelming" sense of loneliness because she could not discuss the outcome with anybody outside the school.

She said: "If somebody comes into your school, and without foundation says there are widespread safeguarding issues in your school, all the hard work you have strived for pales into insignificance.

"You begin to doubt every single thing you have ever done and you begin to question whether or not in fact you can do the job."

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The Ofsted report said: "While safeguarding systems and procedures are in place, swift action is not routinely taken to keep pupils safe."

It added that record-keeping related to child protection concerns were "not robust".

The school was unsuccessful in challenging Ofsted's grade before the report was published.

In its complaint to Ofsted, the school claims inspectors handled a concern raised directly with them about the welfare of a child inappropriately, by investigating it rather than leaving that to social services.

The school said confidential information about children was taken away by an inspector, resulting in a breach of data security.

In a letter seen by the BBC, Ofsted apologised to the school for the information being "inadvertently removed", but said it was kept securely.

Cambridgeshire County Council confirmed to the BBC that a concern raised during the Ofsted inspection was investigated thoroughly and no further action was taken.

The school has also lodged a request for a judge to review the grade, pending the outcome of the appeal to Ofsted.

If Ofsted rejects the appeal, the next step is waiting to hear if permission has been granted for a judge to look at whether Ofsted followed the correct procedures.

The application is mainly about the inspection, but it also seeks to challenge the principle of the single word judgment, where leadership and the whole school can be judged inadequate if concerns are raised about managing child welfare.

If a review is granted it could have much wider implications.

A national debate about Ofsted inspections has been sparked in recent weeks, after Reading head teacher Ruth Perry took her own life. Her family believes the anxiety and stress following the inspection led to this happening.

Queen Emma Primary School's chair of governors, Sean Lang, says challenging Ofsted's report has been tough

Schools do not get to see the information on which inspectors base their judgements, making it hard to challenge the findings.

Queen Emma's chair of governors, Sean Lang, said: "Effectively, Ofsted marks its own homework.

"How can you challenge a judgement when you don't know what it's based on?"

The school has written to parents to explain its plans to take legal action.

It said: "We will never give up on this school and on our children."

Ofsted said: "Ensuring that children are safe in school is one of the most important elements of our inspections.

"We only give an inadequate judgement to a school for safeguarding reasons if we have serious cause for concern."

Photos by Branwen Jeffreys