School for expelled students “failed to plan some lessons”

By Robert Firth, Local Democracy Reporter

A school for expelled students where parents pay £17,500 a year has been blasted by Ofsted after it found teachers failed to plan some lessons.

Inspectors said Education – My Life Matters in Rosenthal Road, Catford, did not meet independent school standards and warned staff teaching must improve.

Ofsted inspectors found teachers planned lessons in an impromptu way, while staff were not up-to-date about how to keep the 11 to 16-year-old children safe from sexual harassment and violence.

An Ofsted report, published on March 15, said: “Staff have not had training to help them to deliver high-quality lessons and assess pupils in a range of subjects.

“Lessons in most subjects continue to be planned on an ad-hoc basis. There are no curriculum plans for subjects other than English and mathematics.

“Pupils, especially those very few pupils placed at this school on a full-time and permanent basis, are not provided with a curriculum that includes all the required areas of learning.

Education – My Life Matters has been told it must improve in every Ofsted inspection since it opened in 2016.

The school has room for 20 pupils, but only eight were in attendance at the time of the latest Ofsted report.

On its website, Education – My Life Matters boasts that it aims to “to reconnect, reengage and empower the learner who could possibly be at risk of becoming the subject of permanent exclusion.”

Its homepage has a photo of ex-England defender Rio Ferdinand holding an A4 piece of paper bearing the school’s name.

Education – My Life Matters has not responded so far.

Pictured top: Education – My Life Matters, in Catford