A team from Ofsted has called for governors at a high-flying Bath secondary school to take firmer action to ensure complaints, grievances and whistleblowing are properly dealt with.
An inspection of Oldfield School in Kelston Road took place over three days in December, and concern had been mounting over how long it had taken for the report to be published.
The education watchdog today put the report on its website, but there is no sign of any full inspection document.
Ofsted made a surprise visit to the 775-pupil academy on December 11 and 12, to investigate concerns over safeguarding - the way policies are enforced to ensure pupils are safe and protected from abuse and bullying.
But the team then upgraded their visit to a full inspection, in an unusual move for a school previously rated as outstanding.
Today's report says that the school meets its legal requirements for safeguarding the children in its care.
But it raises concerns over the relationship between its governors and headteacher Kim Sparling, saying the board relies too heavily on what she tells them.
It also says that Ofsted has passed some - unspecified - concerns onto the Department for Education.
Oldfield was one of the first in B&NES to move out of local authority control and become an independent academy in 2011, converting from a girls' school to a mixed one.
The report says the inspection was carried out because Chief Inspector of Schools Sir Michael Wilshaw was concerned about the number of complaints and allegations made to Ofsted about "the effectiveness of safeguarding arrangements at the school."
Although there was little feedback to parents during the inspection, Ofsted analysed 53 responses to a staff questionnaire and considered 11 written or emailed submissions from serving staff. Some 14 staff requested individual meetings or telephone calls with inspectors.
The team observed nine lessons, and concluded that students were very polite and courteous around the school site.
It also praised the school's high quality teaching, outstanding attitudes to learning, and the respect show to teachers by pupils.
It said: "The school's safeguarding procedures meet requirements. Through curriculum opportunities and assemblies, students have a good awareness of different types of bullying and how to keep themselves safe. Students research current topical issues and present findings to their peers."
Ofsted said that there was no enough analysis of poor behaviour or of absence patterns.
In its heaviest criticism, the report says: "The school's governing body has too little understanding of its statutory responsibilities. Its members are over reliant on information provided by the headteacher and it does not ensure that complaints, grievance and whistleblowing procedures are sufficiently robust to enable stakeholders to have confidence that their concerns will be handled in proper manner."
It says the school needs to improve the quality of leadership and management in the school by ensuring that policies and procedures about complaints, grievance and whistleblowing are "fit for purpose, reflect good governance and are implemented correctly, impartially and confidentially", and that the school's single central record is maintained accurately and checked rigorously to ensure it meets requirements.
It adds that the governing body needed to have "a clear understanding of the school's performance and is able to hold the senior leaders robustly to account for their work, including monitoring how well all school policies are being applied."
Ofsted said an external review of governance should be undertaken, in conjunction with the Department for Education, in order to assess how "this aspect of leadership and management may be improved."
The report said that during the inspection, Ofsted received a number of complaints from staff and from B&NES Council which lay outside its remit.
It says: "The issues underpinning these complaints have been passed to the Department for Education for further consideration."
A statement from the school said it was "delighted" with the feedback following the inspection.
Mrs Sparling said: "We are very pleased that students reported to inspectors that they felt safe at school and that our safeguarding arrangements meet requirements."
The statement added that the school was "always keen to make any improvements to develop the school further and will follow up issues suggested by the inspection team".Read the Oldfield School inspection report
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