Friday 4th October 2019

Stone King LLP advised King David High School, Manchester on its successful legal challenge against Ofsted after it had downgraded the School’s rating further to an inspection earlier this year.

The top ranked law firm brought the challenge against the education inspection body after it found the school inadequate.

The state school had previously been rated as outstanding.

The school was said by Ofsted to have ‘unlawful segregation’ of pupils ‘on the grounds of faith and belief and sex’, which inspectors had deemed to be in breach of the Equality Act.  However, following an application from Stone King for a judicial review of the inspection report, Ofsted has agreed to overturn its decision.

An Ofsted spokesperson said: “We have taken the very unusual step of giving consent to the quashing of the most recent inspection report on King David’s High School in Manchester, which was published in June 2019. We have agreed with the school that, given the school’s particular arrangements, it was not open to us to conclude that there was unlawful direct discrimination on grounds of either sex or religion and belief, when comparing a pupil in either of the single-sex streams with a pupil in the main stream.

“Quashing the report will allow us to re-inspect the school at an appropriate time, looking again at how it manages the separation of pupils by sex and assessing the education it provides against our new inspection framework.”

The school’s outstanding status has now been reinstated pending re-inspection.”

Michael Brotherton, a Partner in Stone King’s Education Team, said: “Stone King was pleased to represent the King David High School in this matter; we were instructed on the basis of our strong reputation in the Education sector and are delighted with the outcome that the School has achieved.”

For counsel, Stone King instructed Sam Grodzinski QC and David Pievsky both of Blackstone Chambers.