Private school watchdog School Inspection Service closes

Private school watchdog the School Inspection Service has closed down after Ofsted found concerns with its rigour and approach to safeguarding. In a letter to the education secretary, chief inspector Amanda Spielman called for the government to close down underperforming Steiner schools that fail to improve. She also highlighted failings in the School Inspection Service (SIS), which had been responsible for monitoring the largely privately run Steiner schools and some religious schools.“The results of our monitoring work of SIS also gave me cause for concern: the inspections we monitored lacked rigour, particularly in relation to safeguarding,” Ms Spielman wrote to Damian Hinds.“I am aware that SIS has taken the decision to cease operating. I know our officials are already working together, along with the Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI), to ensure that all schools previously under the SIS umbrella are inspected by an alternative inspectorate. “In November Mr Hinds commissioned Ofsted to inspect some Steiner independent schools and step up its monitoring of the quality of SIS inspections. MS Spielman had complained that Ofsted’s oversight of the quality of SIS and ISI inspections had been “seriously hampered” by the small number of reviews commissioned by the DfE.