Lambeth school charging thousands of pounds in fees rated ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted

By Grainne Cuffe, local democracy reporter

A school charging thousands of pounds in fees per year, rated ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted, is still not meeting standards.

The independent London Steiner School in Balham, which charges between £4,320 and £9,400 in annual fees, was rated inadequate in all areas in 2018. 

The latest monitoring inspection on February 10, the third since 2018, found that the “school does not meet all of the independent school standards”. 

According to the inspection report, following the standard inspection in November 2018, the Department for Education (DfE) required the school to prepare an action plan to outline how leaders plan to meet the unmet standards.  

“The action plan was evaluated by Ofsted in March 2019, and was judged to be not acceptable.  

“Following the monitoring inspection in July 2019, the DfE required the school to prepare another action plan. The DfE rejected this action plan,” according to Ofsted.  

The aim of Steiner education, also known as Waldorf education, is to take a holistic approach to learning, “providing an unhurried and creative learning environment where children can find the joy in learning and experience the richness of childhood rather than early specialisation or academic hot-housing”.  

But Steiner schools have proved controversial, with Ofsted finding the majority ‘require improvement’ or are ‘inadequate’.  

According to the findings of London Steiner School’s inspection leaders have made “significant improvements” since the last one to how they articulate written plans around the curriculum.  

“The curriculum coordinator has worked closely with teachers to develop well-structured schemes of work.  

“These are well understood by leaders,” according to the report.  

It states that during the previous inspection leaders were not able “to articulate their curriculum plans in a coherent way”, but the latest inspection found that leaders have “prioritised the building of their curriculum plans”.  

It also states that the school’s assessment procedures are now well understood and it “continues to have strong safeguarding procedures in place”.  

“However, leaders have not ensured that the school has met all the independent school standards at the last three inspections.  

“During the school’s previous standard inspection in November 2018, the school was judged to be inadequate with many unmet independent school standards.  

“The school did not meet all the independent school standards during the most recent progress monitoring inspections in July 2019 and in January 2020.  

“Consequently, leaders do not demonstrate that they consistently meet all the independent school standards over time.  

“Therefore, the standards relating to the quality of leadership and management of schools remain unmet.  

“The independent school standards in this part remain unmet,” according to the findings.  

A spokesperson for the school said: “The monitoring inspection reports confirm that the school has made significant progress in meeting all independent school standards (ISS) with the exception of leadership and management.