Welwyn Garden City school’s Ofsted report delayed by ‘technical error’

A Welwyn Garden City primary school’s Ofsted report has been delayed because of a “technical error”.

Inspectors had visited Springmead on February 27 to complete a two-day full inspection, and on February 28 the school announced that headteacher Jennifer Moles had resigned due to “unexpected personal circumstances”.

The report was due to be published within 25 working days of the assessment, but an Ofsted spokeswoman said a technical error had meant it would now be released in mid-May.

She said: “Ofsted carries out nearly 25,000 education inspections a year. On the rare occasion, a small number of inspection reports may take longer than the usual time frame to be published.

“In relation to this school, there was a technical error with the automated process in sending the inspection report to the school for factual accuracy checks.

“The report was further delayed because of the school Easter holidays as we do not send inspection reports to schools during this period.

“The report has been sent to the school and going through routine quality assurance checks. We plan to publish the report in mid-May.”

In the 15 months to December 2016, 18 teachers either left or handed in their notice, compared to 19 in the previous five years combined, and in June last year the entire board of governors resigned.