I have been an Ampleforth parent during the past 11 years – I have had two boys through the school and a girl there now. My children have always felt safe and happy there and they have thrived. I have seen the school change in this period, and I find it hard to reconcile the Secretary of State’s recent decision and the Ofsted report with the school as it is in 2020.
I am, of course, acutely aware of the IICSA report, and can only feel horrified on behalf of anyone who has suffered abuse at Ampleforth, or any other school, and has to live with the devastating effects of it. There have undoubtedly been failings and it is only right that these have been brought into the open and addressed. It is also only right that the government and the statutory bodies concerned with education should protect all children.
Ampleforth has accepted the dreadful events of the past and is a very different school today. It has also listened to the various safeguarding and educational authorities and learned from its failed ISI inspections in 2018. It has thoroughly overhauled its approach to safeguarding. A new head, Robin Dyer, was appointed. He oversaw the creation of a new senior leadership team and the approval by the Department for Education of the new action plan. Successful changes in governance, policies, procedures and reporting lines led to the school passing two ISI Inspections in 2020. As a parent community we were thrilled because that is the school we recognise. The parents are happy and have confidence in the senior leadership team.
Along with many other parents, I am therefore mystified as to why we had an Ofsted inspection, so soon after the successful ISI inspection, which resulted in the Secretary of State taking a contrary view and the steps announced recently. It is also hard to understand the Secretary of State’s references to the rejected 2018 action plan when the 2019 action plan has been approved. Everything I have seen over the past two years shows me the school is committed to achieving the highest standards in safeguarding and education. All the communications from the school, since Robin Dyer started, leave me in no doubt how seriously the school takes safeguarding culture, policies and practices. The Ofsted report does not chime with the enormous amount of work the school has done to bring safeguarding to the required standards and I know the school will respond and become even better.
Although the school and the Abbey have been separated, the Benedictine ethos runs throughout the school and is fundamental in every aspect of school life. The children are not just taught about kindness and supporting the weakest in society, they are encouraged to live out that belief in the community. The children get an excellent education but Ampleforth is a non-selective school and is about so much more than academic results. They are given a template for life and it is impressed upon them that it is important to contribute to society and be a good and grounded person. The genuine sense of community between staff, families and children makes Ampleforth an extraordinary institution.
I am one of many, many parents who are keen to spread the word that we are a happy community. Along with hundreds of parents, I have continued to choose Ampleforth for my children because our experience is that the pastoral care is so strong, better in my opinion than other schools we could have considered.
I hear the same again and again from other parents, including those who have had children at other schools and make a favourable comparison. I also hear children at Ampleforth compare their sense of wellbeing favourably with their friends at other schools. None of us would choose Ampleforth if we felt it was in any way unsafe. The terrible sins and shortcomings of the past cannot be denied, but l am confident lessons have been learned and Ampleforth has changed. I am praying along with the extended Ampleforth community for the sake of the current and future pupils that the Ampleforth I have come to know and love so much is allowed to survive.
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