Scalding hot water in taps has been fixed, says head teacher
SCHOOL FOR PUPILS WITH AUTISM WAS RATED ‘INADEQUATE’ BY INSPECTORS
THE interim head teacher of a school for autistic pupils has reassured parents that scalding water from the taps has been fixed.
Hope House School in Newark is a small independent special school which educates pupils aged between five and 19 who are on the autism spectrum.
It currently teaches 17 pupils, two of which are in sixth form, and is also a charity.
In January 2020, an Ofsted report rated the school as “inadequate” overall, finding that its leadership and management was “inadequate” and the quality of education “required improvement”, although the other areas were found to be “good”.
In that report, it said: “Inspectors found that the temperature of the water in some taps was too hot.
“This posed a risk of scalding to pupils of all ages.
“The school’s weekly health and safety checks show that leaders have been aware of this failing for some time.
“By not resolving this, senior leaders have failed to follow their own health and safety policy.
“Senior leaders resolved this concern during the inspection.”
An additional inspection took place last March, with a progress monitoring report published in April.
The issue of scalding was not mentioned, as the standards were met.
But inspectors found the school did not meet certain aspects relating to the welfare, health and safety of pupils, premises and accommodation at schools, provision of information, and quality of leadership and management of schools.
It did improve in the area of suitability of staff, supply staff and proprietors in that report though, with all requirements met.
However, the school was most recently inspected again in November, with a progress monitoring report published earlier this month, where the issue of scalding was raised again.
The report states: “The temperature of hot water in washing facilities is not regulated. Leaders have not taken swift action to rectify this issue, even though they have known about the problem for some time.
“They do not check the temperature of the hot water often enough to make sure that it does not pose a scalding risk to users.
“Leaders have not implemented a suitable risk assessment to reduce the likelihood of pupils being harmed.”
But when asked about this, interim head teacher Joanne Kiernan said the problem had now been “rectified”.
She said: “The trustees have taken immediate action since the November 10 and the hot water was rectified within a few days.”
Although the report finds that the school still does not meet certain aspects relating to the welfare, health and safety of pupils, premises of and accommodation at schools, and quality of leadership in and management of schools, Ms Kiernan is pleased at how the school is developing.
All standards are now met in provision of information.
She said: “The school was very encouraged by the progress it has made and how this was recognised by Ofsted in the November monitoring report as we continue our journey of improvement.
“We were very pleased with the recognition of both pupils and staff of how much the school has improved.
“The trustees and I are continuing with the hard work, as the Ofsted report says, actions are still in progress and the school has made significant changes since the original judgement in January 2020.”
As the latest two inspections have been to monitor progress, a full inspection has not taken place since January 2020, so the school currently remains rated as “Inadequate”.