Greenfields School responds to safeguarding concerns after ISI inspection

Following a recent inspection, Greenfields School has written to parents addressing a number of safeguarding concerns raised by the Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI). The Sussex school has close ties to the Church of Scientology and uses L. Ron Hubbard’s ‘Study Technology’ and ‘Ethics Conditions’.

The inspection, which took place at the end of March, found that the school did not meet standards relating to leadership and management, quality of education or safeguarding, and recommended several “areas for action” in order to protect pupils.

According to the ISI report, “governors have not ensured that the standards are met consistently”, “boarding accommodation meets the minimum standards, but overall, it is not sufficiently well maintained” and “for the most part, arrangements to safeguard pupils, including children in the early years and boarders, are effective. However, statutory guidance has not been followed in every incident. There is no process by which staff can formally share low-level concerns about pupils.”

The report also laid out a list of recommended next steps in order to ensure the school meets national standards:

• introduce a uniform assessment of pupils’ ability on entry to the secondary school so that their progress can be reliably measured.
• give further training to classroom teachers so they are able to adapt their planning effectively to meet the needs of all pupils, including pupils with SEND
• expand the range and choice of activities available to secondary school pupils outside lesson time to develop their emotional, intellectual, social, creative and physical skills.
• centralise records of behavioural incidents, so that leaders can more effectively analyse any trends and take action for improvement
• enable leaders to more easily check implementation and improvements needed by centralising records of health and safety, assessment of risk, and fire documentation
• improve the standards of maintenance in boarding accommodation.
• arrange for boarding leaders to undertake formal training to support them to fulfil their role
• formalise procedures through which boarders can both express, and receive feedback on, their views about boarding life
• introduce a system to coordinate staff’s concerns about pupils so that leaders can more effectively identify any risk to pupils’ wellbeing.

In response, Headteacher Andrew Hodgson wrote to parents stating “The staff put a lot of hard work into the inspection.”

“There were three areas where the inspectors have asked us to take some action to align with their regulatory requirements, and each of these has already been addressed. The first related to a single incident connected to safeguarding where they felt we could have recorded it in a more extensive fashion”

The letter hits out at the inspectors, claiming “they did not entirely understand the role that study technology plays in allowing students to progress at their own pace” and “they did not fully appreciate the extent of what we had provided” with regard to extra-curricular activities.

Greenfields, although legally separate from the Church of Scientology, is just as stone’s throw away from their UK headquarters at Saint Hill and many of its pupils take up staff positions at nearby Orgs after graduating. Peter Hodkin, Scientology’s UK lawyer, is the Chairman of Greenfields’ Board of Trustees and an inside source tells us “he handles all legal issues pro-bono for Greenfields. Peter definitely calls the shots.”

David Miscavige has personally “gifted Peter expensive watches but also his whole Bridge as thanks for the legal wins he has had” according to our source, however, Hodkin “has to continue moving on the Bridge to be the church lawyer.”

You can read the ISI’s inspection report and Greenfields’ response below.

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