A free school that did not enter any of its Year 11 pupils for GCSEs this summer has been put into special measures.

Route 39 Academy, which opened in Higher Clovelly in Devon in 2013, said it “strongly refutes” and is challenging today’s Ofsted judgement, which rates it “inadequate” across the board.

The report says that the school had judged that the current Year 11 pupils “have made such inadequate progress that they believe they would have significantly underachieved had they been entered for public examinations at the end of key stage 4”.

The inspectors say the average attainment of the cohort was higher than the national figure at the end of key stage 2.

The report adds: “This is an indication that teaching has failed to promote sufficient progress for these pupils. The work of pupils in Year 11 confirms this. It is also clear, however, that there are individual pupils who could have succeeded in public examinations, had they been entered at the usual time.”

The report says that the failure to enter any Year 11 pupils for public exams was “in breach of statutory requirements and the school’s own funding agreement”.

Request from parents

The school said it was challenging Ofsted’s legal view of this.

In a letter to parents, it said it decided to enter all 11 of its current Year 11 pupils for GCSEs in 2018 at the request of some parents.

It said the pupils had joined Route 39 in Year 8, after having an “unsettled” Year 7 at other schools - a situation which was compounded by their first year at the academy when “the provision was below our expectations”. Although the academy said that it had since improved.

The letter said that some parents wanted their children to join the school’s sixth form - the opening of which had been delayed by a year - and some thought their children “would benefit from an extra year academically and emotionally”.

The school told parents that its Department for Education adviser had “expressed an opinion that he could see it was in the interests of the individual students, but that he felt that Ofsted may be concerned”.

It claimed that “Ofsted have chosen to misrepresent this decision as a view that current teaching in the academy in inadequate. In truth, current teaching is demonstrating that the gap between these students’ achievement and their potential is narrowing”.

The school said it had formed a partnership with South Dartmoor Multi-Academy Trust to “further develop” the academy.

Ofsted confirmed it had received a complaint from the school, but said it would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage.

A Department for Education spokesperson said it was in contact with the school to find out “how they intend to bring about the rapid and sustained improvement required”.

He added: “Every pupil deserves an excellent education and if we are not content with the school’s response we will consider alternative measures, including - if necessary - transferring it to a new high-performing sponsor.”‎

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