'Unhappy and unsafe' - Damning Ofsted report for Liverpool school

Pupils at a special education needs school in West Derby have been exposed to ‘aggressive and unruly behaviour’ with children unable to read well and feeling ‘unsafe’ according to Ofsted officials. In a damning new report, the education inspectors said Ernest Cookson School has been ‘devoid of leadership for a long time’ as it deemed the location to be inadequate.

The Bankfield Road school was last inspected in 2014 and until 2020 was exempt by law from routine assessment. In its previous inspection a decade ago, Ernest Cookson was graded as outstanding, but since then it has been through ‘turmoil’ with pupils telling inspectors they feel ‘unhappy’ and ‘unsafe’.

The school – which caters for boys aged between five and 11 – does not currently have a permanent headteacher and at the time of the inspection (June 5, 2024), it was led by acting head Geraldine James with support from Liverpool Council’s school improvement service. It operates across its main site and an additional location within Lister Junior School on Green Lane in Tuebrook, where 10 pupils receive full-time education. Ofsted officials said the experience of the 67 children on its books could not be more different at each site.

A damning report published on July 17, 2024 said: “The majority of pupils who attend the main school receive a poor standard of education. They have been let down by frequent changes in leadership and a curriculum which does not meet their special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) effectively.”

It said the young people who are taught at the satellite location have been ‘protected from the turmoil that the school has recently faced’ and are ‘much more positive about school than the majority of their peers’. The inspection in June found pupils in the main school site are ‘frequently exposed to aggressive and unruly behaviour’ and this left them feeling unsafe.

Rated as inadequate in all four key areas - quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development and leadership and management - inspectors noted that in most subjects, the curriculum is ‘ineffective’ and that, for some pupils, ‘school is often an unhappy place to be’.

The report continued: “Many staff do not believe that they have the support that they need to successfully address incidents of misbehaviour. Over a period of time, the school’s expectations of what most pupils can and should achieve have fallen sharply. As a result, most pupils do not achieve well. They make little or no progress towards the targets in their education, health and care (EHC) plans. Until very recently, the school has done little to halt this decline in its effectiveness.”

The ‘rapid succession’ of temporary leadership arrangements has created confusion for staff and inconsistency in their approaches to supporting pupils according to inspectors, who said governors’ actions to stem the decline in pupils’ behaviour and achievement since the previous inspection have been unsuccessful. Weaknesses in the school’s provision are ‘wide-ranging and entrenched’ but a ‘glimmer of hope’ has emerged from intense support given by the city council. Little evidence exists, however, to indicate that changes made by the school are having real or sustained differences to pupils’ experiences at school. This includes management of poor behaviour, which has ‘frequently interrupted’ lessons or led to them being abandoned altogether.

The report added: “In sharp contrast, the efforts of staff at the satellite site have ensured that a minority of pupils experience a better quality of education. This aspect of the school is an oasis of calm. Pupils learn what they should and they achieve well. The school has not acted to address the gulf of inequality that exists between the two sites. Nor has it ensured that successful practices at the satellite site are replicated in the main school.”

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The school’s provision for personal, social, health and economic education (PSHE)  is also of poor quality according to education officials. Their assessment said: “Consequently, pupils are not developing into respectful, responsible citizens. They have not learned enough to prepare them adequately for life in modern Britain.”

Cllr Lila Bennett, Liverpool Council cabinet member for employment, educational attainment and skills, said: “When a school receives a low Ofsted rating it is always concerning and the recent report on Ernest Cookson makes for sobering reading. The school last received a full inspection almost ten years ago when it was rated as ‘outstanding’ and a short inspection in July 2019 found that the school had maintained that level of provision.

“However, since then, Ernest Cookson has gone through a sustained unsettled period of staffing not least with its senior leadership which has been further compounded by the Covid-19 pandemic. This has meant that the school has faced significant challenges in providing the support that pupils rightly deserve.

“Since the end of last year, we have put a team around the school in place to give intensive support and we are pleased that Ofsted has recognised that this is starting to have a positive effect. I want to reassure parents that an improvement plan has already been put in place. The local authority will continue to work with the school as they implement the plan, helping to guide it towards stability so that pupils are able to enjoy their education whilst achieving the life skills that they need to progress.”

The full Ofsted report is available here.