A South London school for expelled students where parents pay £17,500 a year has been blasted by Ofsted after it found teachers failed to plan some lessons.

Inspectors said Education – My Life Matters in Lewisham didn’t meet independent school standards and warned staff teaching must improve.

Ofsted inspectors found teachers planned lessons in an impromptu way, while staff weren’t up-to-date about how to keep the 11 to 16 year-old children safe from sexual harassment and violence.

An Ofsted report, published on March 15, reads: “Staff have not had training to help them to deliver high-quality lessons and assess pupils in a range of subjects. Lessons in most subjects continue to be planned on an ad-hoc basis.

"There are no curriculum plans for subjects other than English and mathematics. Pupils, especially those very few pupils placed at this school on a full-time and permanent basis, are not provided with a curriculum that includes all the required areas of learning.

“Staff have not been trained in the light of the changes to ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ (September 2021), including the guidance on sexual violence and harassment.

"Safeguarding information on the school’s website is out of date. Guidance and factual information within policy documents are inaccurate and contradictory.”

The Keeping Children Safe in Education is governement statuatory guidance for schools and colleges across England.  

Inspectors said the school had failed to take steps to improve teaching following a previous visit in 2020 when Ofsted had criticised staff’s organisation of lessons. The school had been handed a rating of ‘requires improvement’ at the time.

The March 2022 report, based on a visit in February, continues: “At the school’s previous standard inspection in 2020, the quality of education was judged to require improvement.

"This was because the curriculum was not well thought out.

"This inspection found that leaders have not taken sufficient action to provide a well-structured and consistently broad curriculum.”

After the 2020 inspection, Ofsted said teachers’ expectations of pupils were too low.

But inspectors praised the school for tailoring lessons to students’ interests.

The 2020 report reads: “Pupils have opportunities to develop their computing skills.

"They do research work for projects on subjects that interest them, for example the history of women’s football or important people from black history.

"Pupils also have access to recording equipment and like creating their own music.” 

Education – My Life Matters has been told it must improve in every Ofsted inspection since it opened in 2016.

The school in Catford has room for 20 pupils, but only eight were in attendance at the time of the latest Ofsted report. 

On its website, Education – My Life Matters boasts that it aims to “to reconnect, reengage and empower the learner who could possibly be at risk of becoming the subject of permanent exclusion.”

Its home page has a photo of ex-England defender Rio Ferdinand holding an A4 piece of paper  bearing the school’s name. 

Education – My Life Matters has been contacted.

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