Kings Langley’s troubled Rudolf Steiner School is to close again, it has been confirmed.
After a series of damning Osted reports, the school closed its doors in June only for a kindergarten to open three months later.
No final date had been announced as MyKingsNews went to press.
Amazingly, the school could reopen for a third time later next year under the stewardship of Avanti, a Hindu schools trust.
The latest twist in the long-running saga comes after the results of another highly critical inspection were made public last month.
Staff have hit out at the government inspection and accused Ofsted inspectors of a “clear lack of sensitivity.”
Inspectors visited the school in November and although there was only a kindergarten open, appeared to pass judgement on the school as a whole.
Rating the school inadequate, the lowest possible rating, inspectors found that arrangements to keep pupils safe were still not effective, trustees had not held leaders to account,sufficiently for pupils’ safety, well-being and academic performance and constant changes to leadership and governance have impeded school improvement.
Inspectors also found that historical parental complaints remain unresolved and said that, during the previous academic year, pupils of all ages did not make consistently good progress across a range of subjects.
They praised the kindergarten for the strong level of support it offered pupils and also for the support offered when the lower and upper school was closed. However it also found that older pupils were not being sufficiently challenged enough to reach higher standards of work.
In a statement, staff admitted they were surprised the inspection had even taken place.
The statement read: “The whole school was inspected as it had not been formally ‘deregistered’. Specialist teaching staff (still working their notice period stock-taking materials and archiving documents) were asked to show what they had put in place to improve teaching and learning since the last Ofsted monitoring Inspection in May 2018.
“This was an extremely upsetting experience for staff in what was clearly an empty school – wounds that had started to heal following the traumatic closure in July, when we had to say good-bye to all our pupils, were reopened, and a mood of disbelief and grief filled the empty corridors during and following the visit by Ofsted.”
MyKingsNews contacted the Department for Education but no-one was available for comment.
School supporters held a Christmas market last month
No-reopening date has been given.
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