WYNSTONES School has closed following a damning Ofsted report.

The Steiner Waldorf school, which is located in Whaddon, on the outskirts of Gloucester, and has many pupils from Stroud, has been closed weeks after education watchdog Ofsted found it had ‘serious and widespread failures’.


Wynstones Steiner School, an independent boarding school in Whaddon, was rated ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted in November after inspectors reported ‘significant safeguarding concerns’.


Ofsted’s website says the school has been closed, and a spokesman for the Trustees said ‘robust action’ will be taken to tackle the issues with an aim to ‘enable the school to re-open safely.’


‘SERIOUS AND WIDESPREAD FAILURES’


An Ofsted report published in November found that untrained staff ‘had restrained children on two occasions’, after the school assured Ofsted that no restraints had occurred.


The inspectors said Wynstones’s safeguarding culture is ‘weak’, as ‘leaders, managers, staff and trustees do not protect children from harm’.


The report, which followed an inspection on November 27 to 29, said: “The safeguarding culture in the school is weak. Leaders, managers, staff and trustees do not protect children from harm. Statutory safeguarding guidance is not fully understood or followed.


“Leaders and managers have failed to ensure effective management of safeguarding matters.


“The arrangements to deal with welfare concerns are too fragmented. Too much work is undertaken in isolation and it is not coordinated effectively.


“Despite assurances from the school that no restraints had occurred, inspectors found that on two occasions untrained staff had restrained children. This poor practice leaves children and staff at risk.”


At the November inspection, Wynstone’s first in more than a year and a half, Ofsted said the boarding school’s strengths were providing children with ‘good quality accommodation’, children said that it was a good school, and leaders and managers have a ‘good understanding about private fostering arrangements’.


‘ROBUST ACTION WILL BE TAKEN’


A spokesman from the school’s Trustees said: “The Trustees of Wynstones Steiner School confirm that the school is closed while the Trustees and senior leadership team address the significant safeguarding concerns reported by Ofsted in their recent inspection.


“Robust action will be taken to tackle these issues swiftly and enable the school to re-open safely.”


In its March 2016 full Ofsted inspection, the school was rated ‘good’ by inspectors.


Wynstones Steiner School teaches a range of mixed-gendered students from three to 19 years old.