A Kent secondary compared to a military school after it drafted in “Britain’s strictest head” has been hit with the lowest Ofsted rating possible.

Inspectors who visited the Abbey School in Faversham have found that its strict rules are considered “oppressive” by pupils, many of whom are “unhappy and do not feel safe".

The watchdog also discovered some victims of bullying do not bother reporting incidents to teachers as they have “little faith” effective action will be taken.

The inspection in May came just eight months after head teacher-turned-education coach Barry Smith - whose hardline disciplinary approach has proved divisive - spent a number of days at the school working with teachers and pupils.

New rules introduced following his visit, led to the Abbey being branded a “military school” by concerned parents who felt they were too harsh.

Now, a damning Ofsted report has found that the school’s "strict expectations of behaviour" do not "contribute positively to the culture" of the institution.

Inspectors have seen fit to downgrade the Abbey’s rating two levels from Good to Inadequate - the lowest possible.

But the school's head says a "large number of positives" were found by Ofsted, and measures to address the areas of concern have already been put in place.

Strict rules

Following Barry Smith’s visit in September, parents reported a drastic change in the way their children were expected to behave, and the punishments they faced for not abiding by the rules.

There were accounts of pupils having to attend ‘discipline assemblies’, fold their arms when they spoke, and chant phrases about good behaviour.

The school said Mr Smith was brought in to “develop good learning habits”, and confirmed new rules had been introduced to enhance its “culture of politeness, courtesy and respect”.

These included, it said, talking in full sentences, projecting voices, sitting up straight and listening, remembering basic manners, greeting each other and asking if people are having a good day.

Ofsted inspectors found the majority of pupils “comply with leaders’ strict expectations of behaviour”, but said how they are implemented “does not contribute positively to the culture of the school”.

“For the majority of pupils, these approaches are applied in a manner that is overly restrictive,” they said.

“Many pupils find this oppressive.”

Bullying

A worrying theme throughout the report is how the school deals with bullying, with inspectors reporting that “many pupils are unhappy and do not feel safe”.

They wrote: “Most pupils have little confidence in leaders’ ability to tackle incidents of bullying successfully. This means that pupils do not feel safe.

“They are not confident that staff deal with bullying effectively.

“This leads to pupils not reporting incidents because they have little faith that issues will get resolved.”

Inspectors found that outside of lessons the “poor behaviour of some pupils” made others “feel vulnerable”.

They added: “Leaders have not taken the right actions to address bullying or make sure that behaviour out of lessons is consistently good.

“Additionally, leaders have not instilled trust in pupils, which means pupils feel that they cannot report their concerns and know that these issues will be addressed effectively.”

The report also criticised school trustees for not challenging leaders “about issues around pupils’ safety and bullying”.

It added: “When incidents of bullying are reported, leaders need to take robust action to ensure that any incidents are resolved swiftly and effectively.”

Truancy

Poor attendance is an issue said to be heavily impacting the achievements of those skipping class, including in the sixth form.

Inspectors said: “Some pupils do not attend school as often as they should. This has a negative impact on their learning.

“This is having a significantly negative effect on the achievement of pupils who do not attend regularly enough.

“While the new strategies that leaders have introduced have led to some improvements in some individual pupils’ attendance, they have not had the necessary impact yet overall.”

The report again criticises trustees for not “robustly” challenging school leaders about the low rates of attendance.

Pupil safety

Inspectors described the systems for recording safeguarding concerns about pupils - and any actions taken in response - as “extremely poor”.

“Records of safeguarding concerns are not kept confidential or stored securely," they wrote. "They are also maintained in different places.

“This means that leaders do not have a precise oversight of which pupils are vulnerable and at risk of harm.

“As a result, leaders do not always refer concerns to external agencies when they should. Consequently, pupils do not get the help they need.

Ofsted described the designated safeguarding leaders as “not well trained” and urged the school to strengthen this department.

What do parents think?

Following Barry Smith’s visit, Rebecca Saunders - who has two children at the Abbey - claimed it had turned into a “military school”.

This week the 40-year-old said: “The kids don’t enjoy it there.

“"They say it is like an army camp and they can’t just be themselves and get on with learning.

“It should be their best years, and I know my children and others are struggling.

“When they make them go to isolation, they don’t do any work there so it is disrupting their learning.

“If they weren’t so strict, they would be fine going to school. They are terrified of going there and getting into trouble over silly things."

Karly Newman, who has a son at the school, says the report “sums up what everyone has been thinking and saying for a long time”.

"There is no leeway and they don’t take into account different children’s needs," the 33-year-old said.

"[The head teacher] needs to stop trying to run it as a military school. He is herding them all together."

'Heads should roll'

The Abbey was heavily criticised for inviting Barry Smith to the school by Kent education advisor Peter Read, who this week said "heads ought to roll" in light of the latest Ofsted report.

“The reason they failed is because of the utter failure of leadership to handle children coming out of Covid, who I believe needed sensitive handling, as virtually every school in Kent did,” he told KentOnline.

“[Other schools] supported children who almost forgot how to socialise, and treated them carefully.

“The Abbey School had a different idea.

“They brought in a hitman, Barry Smith, who prided himself on being called the toughest head teacher in England, and children coming back to school faced an intense disciplinary method.”

The positives

While the school was given the lowest rating for both its leadership and management, and behaviour and attitudes, the quality of its education was graded Good.

Inspectors found that staff had high aspirations for what pupils could achieve, and had acted quickly to address any impact on learning causing by the Covid pandemic.

They wrote: “The curriculum is closely aligned to pupils’ individual needs, revisiting content that pupils missed during the pandemic and building on what they have understood.”

Provision for pupils with special education needs was also commended, as was the school’s sixth form, which was rated Good.

The report says: “Students in the sixth form enjoy the increased individual attention they receive from teachers, which helps them to learn well.”

Inspectors also found that staff were taking positive steps to encourage more pupils to study modern foreign languages.

The school’s response

Abbey head Dr Rowland Speller says the school will review its practices but the challenge it faces is creating an environment where pupils can succeed both academically and socially.

"With regard to the former, we have seen a big improvement in academic grades in the five years since the last inspection, and staff attribute this to reduced classroom disruption and more work being completed," he said.

"However, with regard to the latter we still haven't got this completely right and the disruption caused by Covid hasn't helped."

Dr Speller says trips, visits and other enrichment are now returning to the school calendar, which "should add more enjoyment and fun" to the learning experience.

He says attendance has been a challenge nationally after Covid-19, and Abbey's is in line with other schools in a similar context across the country.

"The systems and processes for reporting bullying have also been completely reviewed and shared with students and staff, to increase confidence in them..."

"Ofsted quite reasonably felt that attendance could have been slightly higher for sixth form students, although we did point out that their inspection visit fell at the start of the public exam period, when attendance in classes is affected in all schools," he said.

New attendance staff have been appointed as well as a team of pastoral workers that support a number of individual children and families.

Dr Speller says all issues with recording and leadership of safeguarding concerns were addressed immediately with new systems, staff and additional training.

He adds issues around bullying are "important for us to acknowledge and will require persistent hard work to tackle".

He says additional assemblies and lessons had been introduced to focus on how students should treat each other with respect, celebrate difference and show tolerance.

"The systems and processes for reporting bullying have also been completely reviewed and shared with students and staff, to increase confidence in them," he said.

"Moreover, we have been regularly getting feedback from students via surveys and focus groups to identify where they perceive the issues to be and track the impact of the actions that we have already taken."