Ampleforth head steps aside as inspection finds more safeguarding failures

LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Tablet

July 2, 2019

By Liz Dodd

Among the most serious criticisms made in the ISI report was that the school still did not implement its safeguarding policy effectively

Ampleforth College is in crisis after an inspection report found it was failing to reach child protection standards, and its acting head is stepping down.

The Tablet can reveal that Deirdre Rowe will be leaving after just ten months in post. The announcement of her departure, which a spokesperson for Ampleforth said was decided on in March, comes after a highly critical inspection report that found the school did not meet standards for safeguarding, leadership, behaviour, bullying and complaints handling.A leading Catholic independent school, once described as the “Catholic Eton”, its former pupils include Conservative peer Julian Fellowes and actor Rupert Everett.

The inspection, a Progress Monitoring Visit, was unannounced and conducted in May at the request of the Department for Education (DfE) to check progress had been made on issues highlighted in a November visit, including safeguarding.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.