The Guardian published the not yet released Ofsted report on Al-Medinah school. It’s grim.
Overall effectiveness: Inadequate.
Achievement of pupils: Inadequate.
Quality of teaching: Inadequate.
Behaviour and safety of pupils: Inadequate.
Leadership and management: Inadequate.
An Ofsted report, due to be published imminently, declares that the Al-Madinah Islamic school in Derby is “in chaos” and has “not been adequately monitored or supported”.
The report, which has been leaked to the Guardian, says teachers at the faith school are inexperienced and have not been provided with proper training.
Pupils are given the same work “regardless of their different abilities” and the governing body is “ineffective”, according to the report which was commissioned amid reports of irregularities at the school.
But it’s reform. Reform is good, isn’t it?
Tristram Hunt, the shadow education secretary, said the Ofsted report showed that Michael Gove’s reform programme, in which the new schools are freed from local education authority control and allowed to appoint unqualified teachers if they choose, has become a “dangerous free-for-all”.
Hunt told the Guardian: “What this report exposes is that David Cameron and Michael Gove’s Free School programme has become a dangerous free-for-all: an out of control ideological experiment that has left 400 children losing an entire week of learning.”
The Ofsted report gives the school the lowest “inadequate” ranking in every area, prompting the chief inspector of schools Sir Michael Wilshaw to call for it to be placed in special measures. The inspectors also complain that teachers without proper qualifications have been given key posts.
It’s the free market. Give it time.