Ampleforth College told to stop taking new pupils over ‘ failings’
THE GOVERNMENT has told a fee- paying school in North Yorkshire it must stop admitting new pupils because of “very serious” safeguarding failures.
Enforcement action was yesterday issued by the Department for Education against the St Laurence Education Trust’s Ampleforth College in York after it was found not to have met certain independent school standards.
The institution – whose website states its combined board and tuition fees for 2020/ 21 are £ 36,486 – last night said it “cannot understand why this decision has been taken” by Education Secretary Gavin Williamson. It plans to appeal.
The Department for Education said: “We are pursuing enforcement action against Ampleforth College, requiring it to stop accepting new pupils in light of safeguarding concerns that have not been addressed in the timely and sustained manner that the department and school community would expect.
“We will continue to work closely with the college and local authority to secure rapid and sustained improvement to ensure the welfare of all pupils is protected. We will not hesitate to pursue further action, including the deregistration of the college, should it be necessary.”
A published enforcement action notice reads that in making his decision Mr Williamson “principally had regard” for Ofsted and Independent Schools Inspectorate
reports from January 2016 to the present day – the latest of which, after an emergency Ofsted inspection in September, is unpublished and the subject of a complaint by the school – and the institution’s own “response to regulatory action”.
It reads that the “failings are considered to be very serious”.
The school said: “We will be appealing this on the basis that we believe, and have been advised, that it is unjustified and based on incorrect information.”
It said there had been “very considerable steps” taken to “learn from the mistakes of the past and to put in place a robust safeguarding regime, a new senior leadership team and a new governance structure.”