Matravers School firmly believes there are fundamental flaws in the conclusions reached by the Ofsted inspection team during their October 2018 inspection.
The school says, “We have received numerous communications from parents and the wider community who agree that the published report simply does not accurately reflect the school.
“As with any public body, Ofsted has a published complaints procedure which we have worked through. This procedure has now come to the end. During this process, Ofsted have not fully responded to our specific concerns we raised with them. We have repeatedly asked, through a Freedom of Information Request, for access to the evidence base that the inspection team used, but Ofsted have refused to share this.
“The school has been faced with the difficult decision to halt its complaint. Our next step would be to ask for a Judicial Review, which would cost around £100,000, which is clearly something we cannot do. The Ofsted legal team have already stated that they would seek for the school to cover their legal costs as part of this process. The school has offered to meet Ofsted and discuss our concerns; to date, Ofsted has not taken us up on this offer.
“Prior to the Ofsted inspection in October 2018, the Matravers School Board of Governors had already begun to organise a routine external review of Governance. Ofsted required the school to undertake a full review of Governance. At a time of serious funding concerns in schools, the school (and taxpayer) had to fund this. This has now been completed and concluded by a specially trained national leader for Governance. He states that, “The Governing body presented as active, sophisticated and engaged… in the reviewer’s experience considerably more effectively than many other schools … it was a matter of some bafflement as to how the GB was criticised in such a way.” This Governance expert clearly contradicted the conclusions drawn by the Ofsted inspection team.
“As a school, we have placed further information and communication we have had with Ofsted onto our website, should you wish further detailed information on the school performance.- https://matravers. wilts.sch.uk/our-school/ofsted/5737-2018-inspection-information.html
“Matravers School is fully aware of its strengths and the areas that we continue to seek to improve on as a result of our own rigorous self-evaluation. At this stage we have very little faith in the published inspection report produced by this inspection team.”
