Verulam School has passed a safeguarding inspection carried out by Ofsted.

The inspection was ordered by Ofsted’s chief inspector following concerns about safeguarding at the school.

The inspector’s report makes reference to pupils previously demonstrating discrimination towards alternate lifestyles, but says the school’s measures are effective for keeping children safe from abuse.

Headteacher Paul Ramsey said: “I would like to thank pupils, parents, staff and governors for their hard work and support this year in helping the school to make swift improvements.

“Our community has worked collectively to get us to where we are, and I know that we are all eager to use this success as a springboard to further development.”

The inspector’s report says to improve safeguarding, Verulam School must remind pupils of the expectations for using common rooms so pupils feel more at ease using these after concerns were expressed about the rooms being taken over boys from the same friendship group.

Another recommendation was to analyse the pupils who are sent to the internal exclusion room to ensure vulnerable pupils who are referred there are not over-represented.

And a third was to conduct a third pupil survey because the previous two surveys were difficult to compare as they did not allow pupils to express their views in the same way.

Mr Ramsey said: “The priorities for further improvement identified by the inspection have already been actioned in readiness for the new term. The senior team and I are eager for their implementation and to see the impact of everyone’s determination to improve the school.”

The report also noted the school has run assemblies to tackle homophobia and on the subject of feminism, introduced a ‘keep to the left’ rule for when pupils move through corridors and a scheme where pupils list five people they can talk to if they’re worried, including a teacher.

Mr Ramsey said: “Given the very positive comments in this report and the plans for continued improvement already in place, the school is aiming to achieve a ‘Good’ judgement in our next inspection which we would welcome at the earliest possible opportunity.”