Ofsted reports that Stamford Hill school still requires improvement

V A STAMFORD Hill school that is applying to split into separate boys’ and girls’ branches to comply with equality law has been told that it still requires improvement.

Ofsted said that education for senior boys at independent Yesodey Hatorah remained too narrow — and also that the school should teach respect for all groups whose status is protected under equality law (which includes sexual orientation and gender reassignment).

The school, which has 680 pupils, takes boys from five to 16 and girls from five to 11.

But they are “segregated for all lessons and social activities” — contrary to equality law. Yesodey Hatorah is now seeking registration as two separate single-sex institutions.

Ofsted said the school — which was graded as requiring improvement at a previous inspection 14 months ago — should follow up remaining issues with the Department for Education in order to register.

Younger pupils developed a love of reading, Ofsted noted. But senior boys did not read a wide range of books and their education generally narrowed. As a result, they “do not gain the qualifications they need to prepare them for further study and employment”.

Although the school taught respect for others in a general way, it did not meet independent school standards because it did not teach about all the protected characteristics listed in equality law, even in the GCSE citizenship course, where these were part of the curriculum.

According to the school’s leadership, pupils learned about “different sorts of families. Leaders described single parent families and families headed by a mother and a grandmother as examples.”

But Ofsted observed that these examples were “not sufficient to demonstrate that pupils know about all the protected characteristics”.

The behaviour, attitude and personal development of pupils was good, as was the school’s early years provision.