An action plan summitted by Ryde School to the Independent School Inspectorate, after failures in certain areas were highlighted following an inspection, has now been approved, a spokesperson for the school has told News OnTheWight.
An inspection was carried out by the Independent School Inspectorate in May 2022, when under the previous Head Master, Mark Waldron. It revealed a number of failings at the fee-paying school in Ryde.
Ryde: School immediately implemented action points
A spokesperson for the school told News OnTheWight,
“The school immediately implemented action points relating to this during the Summer Term to ensure we are now fully compliant in this area.
“The school reassured parents then and in an updated letter in October that we continue to be compliant and our records and procedures have been updated.”
Formal notice from DfE
However, following this, a formal notice was sent by the Department for Education (DfE), calling for an action report to be submitted by Monday 19th December (see below).
A spokesperson from the School told News OnTheWight that an action report has now been submitted and approved.
Failings highlighted in the report
The ISI inspection report (see below) revealed that no fault was found with the educational aspect of the school, however, concerns were raised in a number of other areas:
- Principles and values which facilitate the personal development of pupils as responsible, law-abiding citizens were not always actively promoted.
- Homophobic and sexist comments made by a small minority of pupils were not consistently challenged by school staff
- Arrangements to safeguard and promote the welfare of pupils did not always pay due regard to current statutory guidance. In particular, suitable references were not always obtained for staff before they begin work.
- The school did not prevent discriminatory behaviour against pupils because of their protected characteristics, contrary to the Equality Act 2010.
- The school did not always carry out further checks on staff who have lived or worked abroad before they commence working at the school.
- The school did not always check the medical fitness of staff before they commence working at the school.
- The single central register of appointments did not always record, as required, the dates of pre-employment checks.
- The proprietor did not ensure that the leadership and management demonstrate good skills and knowledge, and fulfil their responsibilities effectively, so that the other standards were consistently met, and they actively promoted the well-being of the pupils.
- The leadership and management of boarding did not ensure that all required policies and records are maintained and effectively monitored
The report found the quality of the pupils’ academic and other achievements to be ‘excellent’ and the quality of the pupils’ personal development to be ‘good’.
The final steps
As is standard practice in these circumstances, the School will have another visit from ISI inspectors at some point this academic year for a `Progress Monitoring Report’, through which they’ll be assessed again to ensure the School has addressed the action points required in the report that were not previously met.
A spokesperson for Ryde School told News OnTheWight,
“We have already placed a renewed focus on EDI (equality, diversity and inclusion) since the start of term through assemblies, the Personal Development programme and discussions with pupils, and through the focus of our new larger Pastoral Care team.
“All staff at the School take very seriously the responsibility of ensuring language used by pupils is appropriate, kind and considerate of others.”
In relation to the recruitment issued raised by the ISI, the spokesperson told News OnTheWight,
“The timeliness of procedural steps and checks regarding the recruitment of new staff. We obviously took and take this very seriously and as explained to parents by the Head Master, at the time Mr Waldron, the School immediately implemented action points relating to this during the Summer Term to ensure we are now fully compliant in this area.
“We ensured the report was available immediately via our Website for parents to read at that time.”
The formal notice from the DfE and Inspection report from the ISI can be found below.
Article edit
1.56pm 14th Dec 2022 – Headline changed from ‘Action plan now approved after Ryde School ISI failed inspection’ to ‘Action plan now approved after Ryde School ISI inspection raises concerns’ as they did not fail the inspection, but failed to meet certain standards.
