THE future of a school established during reign of Charles II has been plunged into doubt after Ofsted inspectors found pupils’ regular use of homophobic and racist language was going unchallenged by teachers.

Lady Lumley’s School in Pickering, North Yorkshire, has been further criticised for “trying to surpress” the inspection’s findings and using more than £100,000 of public funds for children’s education on legal action considered by the most senior judge in civil law.

An Ofsted inspection in October found while the school’s overall effectiveness had dropped from good to inadequate, the quality of education and sixth-form provision was good, but pupils’ behaviour and attitudes and the school’s leadership were inadequate.

The inspection report described “a school of contrasts” in which classrooms were usually calm and behaviour in lessons is usually good, but a large minority of pupils did not feel protected from bullying, others believed the school site was insecure and felt threatened on school transport.

It added: “Pupils are concerned about the regular use of homophobic and racist language around school. They said that when staff hear such language, it is not always challenged.”

In response, the school launched a lengthy legal challenge, which it took all the way to the Appeal Court in London, where the case was heard by the Chancellor of the High Court.

A joint letter to parents from the school’s headteacher Richard Bramley and chair of governors, Stephen Croft, states Ofsted’s claims over homophobia and racism condemned the “students at Lady Lumley’s School to be classed as racist and homophobic and it condemns the staff to be classed as people who accept such behaviour”. It added: “It also reflects on the whole community. This is the one of the main reasons we felt we had to challenge this report so strongly.”

The letter stated: “When you read the report, did it sound like the school your son or daughter goes to?  Whilst there are a number of positive aspects to the report, we are bitterly disappointed with the overall outcome.”

The school’s leaders said as there is no way to appeal against an Ofsted judgment, the governing body agreed there was “no choice but to resort to the legal system”.

They stated: “This has naturally cost a great deal of money, but money that was already in the school budget and the school still remains in a sound financial position.”

After being found to be inadequate, education policy stipulates schools must convert to an academy and be taken over by an academy chain. In the meantime, the school has tackled security and safeguarding concerns by installing locks on doors, introducing a buddy system and bolstering its pastoral care team.

North Yorkshire County councillor for Pickering Greg White said he was saddened to learn the school had been rated as inadequate and would do whatever he could to help Lady Lumley’s “become an excellent school, providing great teaching in an environment where all pupils feel valued and safe”.

He added: “I was also very disappointed to learn that the school had tried to suppress the Ofsted report by taking very expensive legal action. Whilst I can understand the school’s governing body and head teacher wanting to question the inspectors’ findings, in what was a very harsh report, I could not see any justification for spending over £100,000 of public money to challenge Ofsted in the High Court. That money was provided to fund children’s education.

“As soon as I became aware of the likely cost, I called on North Yorkshire County Council’s senior officers to investigate how such expenditure had been authorised, to use their powers to prohibit any further spending on fighting the report’s publication and to consider replacing the governing body with an Interim Executive Board.”

Within hours of the report being published scores of parents, former teachers at the school and Pickering residents said they were not surprised by Ofsted’s findings and branded the legal actions as a “vanity project” by the school’s leaders.

Parent Dave Goodfellow said: “The report is clear the teachers are doing a good job and should be thanked for their work. The leadership team and board of governors have failed at their job.

“This failure is then magnified by spending significant sums on an ego trip. A cover up is never a good look.”