A SCHOOL where 81 pupils held a party at night as been deemed inadequate by Ofsted.

Inspectors held a social care inspection at Ampleforth College in North Yorkshire and were told that on their last day of school, 81 Year 13 students left the boarding houses at night and attended an "unauthorised gathering" they had planned to celebrate the end of the academic year.

The school has since hit back at Ofsted and claimed the report has 'factual inaccuracies'.

Ofsted found that ineffective staff supervision, combined with poor security checks on the boarding houses, meant that staff did not act to keep the pupils safe.

As a result, one pupil was admitted to hospital due to alcohol intoxication.

Another pupil was missing for one hour after everyone else was back in their boarding houses. The pupil was found unconscious and alone in an orchard.

At the same time, leaders located Class A drugs in the boarding house.

The inspectors report states: "Despite improving the boarding house security after this event, senior staff do not accept any failings on their part for the harm some pupils suffered."

The report also states: "At the time of the last inspection, the head teacher had a veto which allowed him to insist on any monks of concern being removed from the abbey.

"Monks of concern would include those who have been accused of child sexual abuse, including any found guilty and any who are currently under investigation of child sexual abuse in the past and any who are under investigation currently.

"The abbot no longer recognises this veto. Although there are plans for an information-sharing protocol between the school and the abbey, this has not yet been agreed and is unlikely to include a veto.

"This means that the needs of monks who were previously required to leave the abbey, due to concerns about their behaviour towards children, could be prioritised over the safety of pupils."

This is not the first time the school, where parents pay £37,905 for a year for boarding and tuition and £26,370 for day pupils, has made headlines for the wrong reasons.

Back in 2020 the North Yorkshire boarding school was ordered to stop admitting new pupils as a result of "serious" failings.

The Department for Education (DfE) launched enforcement action against the school, near Helmsley, after it ruled that the prestigious school had failed to meet safeguarding and leadership standards.

Then Education Secretary Gavin Williamson told the school to cease accepting new pupils in a bid to "safeguard the education and well-being of children".

This time around the school was inspected under the social care common inspection framework.

The school is on the same site as Ampleforth Abbey and provides education for 456 pupils, from Year 7 to Year 13 with boys and girls attending the school in all year groups. The school began to admit pupils from Year 7 in September 2020. The numbers of children currently in Years 7 and 8 are lower than in other years.

The school has 368 pupils who board full time in nine boarding houses. In addition, all day pupils have bedrooms within boarding houses allocated to them. This allows ad-hoc boarding and enables day pupils to enjoy activities in the evenings and at weekends. Each boarding house has a house master or house mistress in day-to-day charge. A range of other staff care for pupils, including academic tutors and matrons.

Commenting on the report’s publication, Robin Dyer, Head of Ampleforth said: “We are deeply disappointed that Ofsted should have produced a report based on a number of incorrect assumptions and factual inaccuracies regarding our safeguarding.

"We have made repeated attempts to correct the facts before the report was published. We do not lightly stand up to our regulator but in this instance the injustice cannot be allowed to stand.

"Ampleforth is a safe school. Our students know it and our parents and staff know it too.”