PARENTS are calling for a school to be inspected by Ofsted after blasting it for the way it has handled their children’s education.

Aureus School opened in Harwell at a cost of £19 million in September 2017, at the Great Western Park estate.

Since its opening, it has not received an inspection from Ofsted.

The calls for an inspection come after another parent – Veena Virahsammy – said her 12-year-old son had been blocked from returning to Aureus earlier this month.

Now, more parents have criticised the school for ‘failing’ their children.

One parent, who wished to remain anonymous, moved to Oxfordshire in June 2019 with her daughter starting at Aureus the following month.

The daughter was out of school from March 2020 to May of this year, and is now at a special needs school.

The parent said: “I explained the difficulties my daughter had and what the school needed to do make sure she was safe.

“Academically she was doing fine with her reports but by January 2020, the report from the school was abysmal.

“Even one of the teachers told me at a parents evening that he would not keep his children in the school.

“As part of my daughter’s anxiety, she had a time out card for five minutes but there was some occasions where she’d missed two or three lessons.

“They knew about her vulnerability – this wasn’t something new and it was a complete lack of safeguarding.”

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The parent then made the decision to remove her daughter from Aureus when the first lockdown hit, in order to home school her.

“We pressured the school for an EHCP and was told it was in hand but we found out in July 2020 that the process hadn’t even started,” the parent said.

“She has missed a massive chunk of the most important part of her education.

“Aureus has really failed her. The school has a high number of SEND children and my theory is that they’ve done that to get extra funding but they’ve taken on too many.

“They haven’t had an Ofsted report so it feels like they’ve been able to do pretty much what they want and it’s quite worrying.”

Another parent, who also wished to remain anonymous, took her children out of Aureus last September.

She claims very little was done to support her dyslexic daughter.

“The children are out of control and the teachers don’t do anything, while the children who want to work can’t work,” said the parent.

“The school focussed on the holistic side and wellbeing when it opened but that didn’t work out.

“Now that my daughter is out the school, she gets extra support and she’s flourishing.

“After we left, I still hear stories from other parents about what’s going on.

“The school has never had an Ofsted inspection and it desperately needs it.”

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A third parent, Nicole Smith, says her daughter has complicated needs and ideally, she wanted her to go to a special needs school.

Lilly-Mai Smith was due to start Year 7 at Aureus this month, but instead her mum is home schooling her.

Mrs Smith said: “The school told me they couldn’t meet her needs but told the county council that they can look after her needs.

“It’s at the point where I’ve had enough, my daughter needs someone with her.

“By not telling me what the provision the school has, Aureus has made it harder for me.

“The school doesn’t understand how children with autism are.

“It’s very frustrating but luckily for me, I knew what Aureus was like.”

Julie Hunter, headteacher at Aureus School, said the school cannot meet the needs of Lilly-Mai and is working with Oxfordshire County Council on a ‘solution that is agreeable for all parties’.

Ms Hunter said Mrs Smith had refused to meet with the school’s SENCO (special educational needs coordinator) on the matter, however this is something Mrs Smith strongly denies.

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Responding to the parents’ anger, Ms Hunter said: “Aureus School is an ambitious secondary school with a rigorous approach to academic standards.

“We are ambitious for educational success for all our learners and it has always been a comfort to me that the huge majority of our parents are so incredibly supportive of my staff.

“Our mission is simple: we will instil courage, ambition and resilience in every student to empower them to achieve greatness as a global citizen through a combined drive for excellence but in order to achieve this, our parents and staff must have a healthy working relationship.

“Students are expected to arrive at lessons ready for learning, and academic excellence is an expectation in all classes for all students.

“Whilst we have been saddened by the comments made by a small minority of parents from former pupils on social media, we have been overwhelmed with feedback we’ve had from parents of our current students, both online and to our office staff.

“We take the welfare of all students very seriously and always strive to work closely with parents, the local authority, and other agencies to ensure students receive appropriate educational provision.

“Whilst one parent of a former student did lodge a complaint with the school, she did not pursue this further after going through our complaint procedure and the matter was considered closed. The other parent did not lodge a complaint with the school. This makes their comments now very hurtful indeed.

“Whilst there are safeguarding issues surrounding these two pupils that we do not feel comfortable discussing publicly, we would like to make it clear that our version of events differs substantially, and we do not agree with the unfair comments and allegations made by these two parents.”