As
her 11-year-old daughter Grace arrived home, Deborah Finch naturally asked her
how the day had gone.
Her
response could hardly have been more surprising.
She
explained that Ofsted had launched a snap inspection of her school in Durham,
quizzing pupils about their experiences.
‘Grace
told me what she had been asked and I could not believe it,’ says Mrs Finch,
36, herself a teacher at another school. She was asked if she knew what it was
to be gay and whether she had any gay friends.
‘She
was asked if she knew any lesbians and whether any family members had gay
friends. At one point she was even asked whether she had ever felt she was in
the wrong body, which completely baffled her as she hadn’t any idea what the
woman was talking about.
She
felt very embarrassed and uncomfortable — she said she felt under pressure as
though she was being force d to sit some kind of test and worried she wasn’t
giving the right answers.’
As
it turned out, those worries were entirely justified.
Earlier
this week, the Department for Education announced it was withdrawing funding
from Grace’s school, Durham Free School, and that come Easter, it would close.
The
reason? The results of that inspection by Ofsted last November.
‘One
day spent in a failing school is one day too many,’ was the reaction of
Education Secretary Nicky Morgan, adding: ‘I am deeply concerned when I hear of
pupils being let down.’ But while the pupils, parents and staff do feel ‘let
down’, it is not by the school — but by Mrs Morgan and by Ofsted.
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