School with suspended head put in special measures

A primary school has been placed into special measures after it was found safeguarding standards were not met.

An Ofsted inspection at Cambois Primary School, in Northumberland, in September found it lacked a coherent curriculum and had poor teaching, meaning pupils were not adequately prepared for Year 7.

Head teacher Marianne Allan was suspended from the school a year ago. Northumberland County Council said the reason was confidential and Allan said she could not comment.

The council said it had been working to address "key weaknesses" at the school and a "recent change in leadership has been welcomed by staff and raised morale, and this gives the school a strong base to move forward from".

At the last Ofsted inspection in February 2025, Cambois was rated as good.

But after an emergency inspection in September, inspectors found the school had "declined significantly" and the governing body was not fulfilling its statutory duties.

In this latest report, using the new grading system, the school was judged to be requiring "urgent improvement" in all seven areas, including safeguarding, achievement and inclusion.

Between the introduction of the new grading system in November 2025 and August 2026, Ofsted data shows roughly 3% of all schools in England were graded as needing "urgent improvement" in at least one of the seven areas.

A total of 18 schools within that timescale did not meet safeguarding standards.

The report said the school's systems to ensure pupils were kept safe were not effective and pupils were at risk of harm as staff do not supervise them well enough.

In some cases pupils out of sight of staff were hurt by others, it stated.

However, the report said staff responded "quickly" to bullying.

In July, the BBC spoke to parents at the school who outlined their concerns about significant staff shortages.

An interim headteacher, Angela Charlton, has been in post at the school since September this year.

In a letter sent to parents, seen by the BBC, the interim head teacher and Dave Cookson, the interim chair of governors, accepted the outcome of the Ofsted report would be "disappointing and concerning" for parents and that "our pupils deserve better".

They said the school would continue to work with the local authority to secure rapid improvement.

Charlton and Cookson added that a number of improvements had already been made in recent months to strengthen safeguarding.

The school will now receive regular monitoring from Ofsted.

A spokesperson for Northumberland County Council said: "We appreciate that it has been a difficult period of time for the young people, parents, carers and staff, and while this Ofsted report is disappointing it was not entirely unexpected.

"Working with the school we had identified a number of key weaknesses and we are working hard to address them.

"The recent change in leadership has been welcomed by staff and raised morale, and this gives the school a strong base to move forward from.

"We are now seeing some green shoots of recovery, with staff and pupil attendance improving and strong leadership from the interim headteacher and local authority driving forward the required change."

The Conservative-led council said it would work with the Department for Education and carry out an informal consultation to look at future options for the school.

In a post on social media, Ian Lavery, Labour MP for Blyth and Ashington, said he had written to the county council "seeking urgent answers about how the school has reached this position and what immediate action is being taken to ensure every child is safe, supported and receiving the quality of education they deserve".

He said he had also written to the secretary of state for education requesting a meeting to discuss "this extremely serious situation".

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