The BBCWhen headteacher Michelle King was told her school was inadequate, she said she was not ashamed to say she was “shocked, appalled and seriously concerned” by it.
Judging Ofsted inspectors “good” ahead of her arrival in 2019, she knew she was at the start of “one hell of a journey” to turn around the fortunes of Idesall School in Shropshire.
Back in 2022, the school was told it was struggling to deal with bad behavior and not providing enough support for pupils with special educational needs and those struggling to read.
The school has previously hit the headlines, having been used by the Football Association to educate young stars such as Michael Owen and Sol Campbell, when it was based in nearby Lilleshall.
Following Ofsted’s decision, Ms King says changes have been made ahead of the school’s latest inspection decision in the coming days.
Things became a challenge soon after he enrolled at the school, with a global pandemic lockdown just months after his appointment.
‘Staff felt distressed’
However, when Critical Ofsted Report Posted on September 28, 2022 Ms. King knew she would be in the line of fire, especially from parents.
“When you’re a freshman, you don’t have that confidence,” she recalls.
“They don’t know you well and the previous chief was here for a long time.”
Ms King said staff felt “very hurt and battered” by some of the findings and some teachers’ first reaction was to question Ofsted.
She said her role as head teacher was to “pick them up and move on and when you’re new it’s very difficult”.
“[But] I was under no illusion that the school needed to improve in key areas.”
One of the biggest concerns raised by Ofsted was pupil behaviour.
It found that “many pupils do not feel safe” and some report “repeated sexual harassment or discrimination by their peers”.
The watchdog’s report also says pupils don’t trust teachers to deal with their concerns, so they don’t report incidents.
Ms King said she believed there was a “lack of consistency” in the way challenging behavior was dealt with.
Assistant head Casey Bailey, who is responsible for “attitudes and behaviours”, said: “Where there is no clarity, it means students don’t know exactly where they stand, staff don’t know exactly where they are. Where do you stand and it creates gaps, gaps and problems.”
‘It’s a good school’
To address this, Ms. King said the school “sat down with a large group of students,” to develop a clear set of rules for students.
Mr Bailey, a former Birmingham poet laureate, said the school was also working hard to reward good behavior and to understand and support pupils who did not conform to the school’s rules.
Sixth form student Ashwin, 17, said behavior has improved and “teachers confront bad students more”.
It also said that behavioral management was “more structured”.
Pupil Zak, 16, previously said “behavior could have been improved in some areas”.
However, overall he thought it was a “good school” and not as bad as the Ofsted report suggested.
The school has also made changes in several other areas.
For example, the 2022 report highlighted concerns about provision for children with special educational needs or disabilities.
It said he did not get the help he needed in lessons, received a high number of suspensions and “did not have a good teaching experience”.
Ms King said the school was doing more to understand these children and was working with parents to develop support plans, with external providers coming in to provide support.
Ofsted also asked the school to do more to support pupils with reading difficulties and to recruit more experienced teachers.
There were other recommendations, and Ms King said: “It can be a lonely job and you have to rely on a great team behind you.”
In September 2023, the school joined the Marchese Academy Trust, which manages 10 other schools in Shropshire.
Ms King said she did not feel her role was at risk and welcomed the support and advice.
She said the trust also challenged her and made it easier to collaborate with other schools.
Idsall is hoping the results of the latest Ofsted inspection, due to be published before Christmas, will paint it in a better light.
Ms. King said that although the school was full to its 1,200 capacity, she knew some parents of 6-year-olds were considering sending them elsewhere.
The most recent Ofsted monitoring report, in July, noted that while work to change the culture was progressing, it appeared to have had “little impact on the perceptions of some parents”.
Ms King said it was “really hard” to change minds and invited parents to witness the changes.
But eventually, he said he accepted “it’s not really about what we say, it’s about what we do”.