Ofsted faces more challenges by schools after High Court ruling
SCHOOLS should be able to challenge Ofsted inspectors if their conclusions are “defective”, a High Court judge has said as he quashed a report that would have put a school into special measures.
Judges ruled yesterday that the inspectorate’s complaints process was unfair, stating that Durand Academy, a south London primary school, was un- able to effectively challenge the report on its performance.
Sir Greg Martin, the chairman of the school’s board of governors, said the report – which marked Durand Academy “inadequate” – would have “destroyed” the school.
In his judgment, Judge Mckenna said: “To my mind, a complaints process which effectively says there is no need to permit an aggrieved party to pursue a substantive challenge to the conclusions of a report it considers to be defective because the decision maker’s processes are so effective that the decision will always in effect be unimpeachable is not a rational or fair process.”
He added: “The absence of any ability effectively to challenge the report renders the complaints procedures unfair and, in my judgment, vitiates the report.” This is the second time that a school has successfully challenged an Ofsted report. Al-hijrah school in Birmingham took Ofsted to court after it was marked as “inadequate” for educating girls and boys in separate classrooms.
Sir Greg said: “This report would have destroyed this school when it should have been held up as a beacon for what other inner city schools should be.
“This year’s school results have been exemplary and have placed us in the top 2.1 per cent of primary schools in the country and yet Ofsted judged our school to be failing and wanted to sack the head teacher and the board of governors.”
He added: “It has taken us six months and around £300,000 to fight this unfair school report through the courts, and when you include Ofsted’s legal bill the amount of money wasted on this action is in excess of £500,000.”
He said that the school “should be able to claw back a large proportion of our legal costs”.
Judge Mckenna noted in his ruling that there were “stark differences” between the views on the school and Ofsted on how the inspection was conducted and what was found.
An Ofsted spokeswoman said: “We are clearly disappointed in this ruling and have sought permission to appeal.
“Notwithstanding the overall judgment, we are pleased that the court recognised the impartiality and professionalism of the inspectors undertaking the inspection.
“Our complaints process is longstanding and has previously been commended by the independent adjudicator. However, as an organisation we always keep policies and practices under review and regardless of the outcome of the appeal application will consider whether clarification of our complaints procedure may be required.”
The school has an ongoing dispute with the Education Funding Agency (EFA), which announced in June that it was terminating Durand’s academy funding agreement at the end of the next academic year.