Church of England inspectors found that the way Roehampton Church Forest School is governed was putting “undue pressure” on its senior staff.
Their report, from an inspection in March, came before the council’s religious education advisers on Monday evening, at a meeting of Wandsworth’s Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education (SACRE). Church inspections reach one of two conclusions: that a school is living up to its foundation as a Church school, or that it has strengths but also areas “that leaders need to address as a matter of priority”. The Roehampton Lane primary, which had 123 pupils at the time, received the second.
Inspectors wrote that “strategic governance is not working well, which has a negative impact on the effectiveness of RCFS as a Church school. It places undue pressure on senior staff and detracts from their wellbeing.”
The report traces the problem to the governors’ decisions and how they communicate them: “weaknesses in governors’ decision-making and communication are not consistently conducive to a dignifying culture. This impacts negatively on the wellbeing of senior staff.” It tells governors to improve “the quality of their strategic leadership” and to make sure “governance decisions and communication take full account of their impact on adults’ flourishing”.
Inspectors also called the curriculum “creative and ambitious” and collective worship “inspiring and joyful”, and found that pupils with special educational needs “flourish alongside their classmates”. Staff, the report says, benefit from “school leaders’ care for their workload and personal lives”.
Dual inspection system
Every state school is inspected by Ofsted. In voluntary aided church schools such as this one, religious education is inspected by the church instead: Catholic schools by the Catholic Schools Inspectorate, and Church of England schools under SIAMS, the Statutory Inspection of Anglican and Methodist Schools. These inspections happen every five years, and the reports go to SACRE.
The council officer’s annual paper for Monday’s meeting, which reviews how religious education fares in inspection reports, did not say which conclusion the school received. It said “SIAMS reports no longer provide grades”, and quoted several of the church reports on how other faiths are taught. From Roehampton Church Forest’s, it quoted one line: “Pupils learn about a wide range of religious and non-religious worldviews.”
At the meeting in Putney, members praised the church reports for giving a fuller picture of school life than Ofsted’s. The Roehampton report was not mentioned.
The school’s website presents the inspection under the heading “Highlights of our SIAMS inspection (March 2026)”. After quoting the praise, it says: “As with all inspections, there are areas identified for further development.” The school says it is “already working closely with governors and the diocese to strengthen strategic leadership”.
Putney.news sent questions on Tuesday to the chair of governors, through the governing body’s clerk, and to the Southwark Diocesan Board of Education, Wandsworth Council and Cllr Ethan Brooks, the council’s appointed governor at the school. We will report their answers when they arrive.
We read the inspection report, the council’s paper and the governors’ records, and sat in on the meeting.
Members can read what Ofsted found at the same school in 2023, who runs it now and how its leadership has changed. They also get what the council’s paper left out about two other Wandsworth schools, and the change planned for religious education in every school in England.
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What members get from this story
- What Ofsted said about the same school’s staff and governors in 2023
- Who runs the school now, and how its head and governing board have changed
- What the council’s paper left out about two other schools, and the RE change planned for every school in England
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What you can do
- Contact the governors. The school asks anyone who needs the governors to contact them through the clerk, Joanne Saich: Joanne.Saich@richmondandwandsworth.gov.uk
- Read the reports. The SIAMS report is on the school’s website, and the 2023 Ofsted report on Ofsted’s.
- Follow SACRE. Its papers are published on the council’s website. Its next meeting is on Monday 15 March 2027 at 7.30pm, at Wimbledon Synagogue, 1 Queensmere Road, SW19 5QD.
- Respond to the consultation. When the government’s National Curriculum consultation opens, it will be open to anyone.
