Backing for Copland School after notice to improve from Ofsted (From Harrow Times)

Backing for Copland School after notice to improve from Ofsted

7:30am Tuesday 30th June 2009

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A CRISIS-HIT Wembley school has vowed to improve after a watchdog exposed problems with criminal record checks on staff.

Copland Community School has confirmed six employees did not have up-to-date Criminal Record Bureau (CRB) checks and acting head Philip O'Hear says they will not be allowed unsupervised access to students until the problem can be fixed.

As the Harrow Times reported last week, education watchdog Ofsted flagged up the failure and gave official “notice to improve”.

Mr O'Hear, who was brought in from Capital City Academy to run Copland, said: “The report confirms what I have found in the last four weeks as acting headteacher.

“The education at Copland is good, with strengths in the achievement of students, the teaching and learning, the curriculum and the personal development of our students — all of which have been graded good.

"Regrettably, the report also confirms that the school has a weakness in one key area. The school's safeguarding is inadequate as a result of its failure to have up- to-date criminal record checks on six staff.”

He said he was “quite confident” the next inspection, which will come within a year, would rate Copland good in all areas.

Ofsted pinned responsibility on the Cecil Avenue school's governors, stating they did not do enough to ensure the checks were done.

The governing body was sacked on June 23, by children's secretary Ed Balls on the request of Brent Council as part of a separate investigation.

The inquiry centres around claims close to £1million was paid to staff in bonuses, including £130,000 to headteacher Sir Alan Davies.

Sir Alan, deputy head Dr Richard Evans and bursar Columbus Udokoro were suspended in May as part of the investigation.

But the council today gave its backing to the school to recover after the Ofsted verdict and an interim board has been set up to replace the governors in the short term.

John Christie, director of children and families, said: “Staff and students should take heart from the report's positive findings, not least the fact that examinations standards are consistently above the national average.

“The entire school should also be reassured that the council has every confidence in the new acting headteacher Philip O'Hear and that his experience, talent and firm leadership will ensure that the issues raised in the report are quickly addressed and the school continues to move forward.”

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