High Court to hear review into Ofsted inspection at Dunstable’s All Saints Academy after ‘inadequate’ rating

The High Court will hear a legal challenge tomorrow (April 24) into allegedly “flawed” Ofsted inspections at a Dunstable school, after it was rated ‘inadequate’.

All Saints Academy Dunstable had tried to stop the publication of the damning report, which deemed the attitudes, behaviour and personal development of pupils at the school to be ‘inadequate’.

Now Law firm Irwin Mitchell has taken Ofsted to court after school’s leaders argued that the education watchdog had not provided “sufficient evidence, explanations or reasons for its latest graded inspection report which comprised two separate visits with each team arriving at very different conclusions”.

Ofsted said it could not comment ahead of the judicial review.

The school, on Houghton Road, was inspected in November 2022 and again in January last year as inspectors conducted a ‘gaining additional evidence visit’.

After the first two-day visit, the school says it had been told it would receive a ‘requires improvement’ rating. But following the second inspection on 24 January 2023, it was handed the lower rating of ‘inadequate’.

The High Court granted the judicial review into the inspection, which will look into whether Ofsted had given enough evidence to allow the school to understand the findings and challenge the report.

Rachael Smurthwaite, a specialist education lawyer at Irwin Mitchell representing the school, said: “The school is concerned not only about the content of the report and the procedure by which it was produced, but how a second team of inspectors could reach such very different conclusions to the first.

“The school has raised several matters regarding the inspection regime, which it believes are of national importance. There is real concern over Ofsted’s refusal to provide evidence and explanations for its judgement and this case will hopefully provide clarity on both this and the other issues at stake. This hopefully will help All Saints and other schools understand the reasons behind Ofsted’s judgements.

“This review will ensure that these serious concerns that have been raised are recognised and examined in detail, and we welcome the case being heard by the court.”

The hearing will begin at the Royal Courts of Justice tomorrow (Wednesday) and is expected to last two days.