Ofsted has concluded it has no serious concerns about a school at the centre of a gender row, saying Rye College has a “culture of kindness and mutual support” and mostly “manages pupils’ discussions well”.
The East Sussex school made national headlines last month after a recording went viral of a teacher branding a pupil “despicable” during an argument over identity.
It was widely reported the dispute erupted after the child rejected a classmate’s request to be identified as a cat. But this was not clear from the recording and the school insisted none of its pupils “identify as a cat or any other animal”.
Matthew Haynes, an HMI who visited on the school as part of an urgent inspection on June 29, said the “concerns relating to the teaching of RSHE that led to this inspection do not reflect pupils’ normal experiences at school”.
