The future of the Educating Greater Manchester series hangs in the balance after the school it was filmed at was put in special measures.
The fifth series of the reality TV show made a star of headteacher Drew Povey after it was filmed at Harrop Fold school in Salford.
Following the show’s success, Channel 4 has announced that, for the first time, it would stay at the same school for two more series.
Filming began earlier this year and was near completion when Mr Povey was suspended from the school in July, and the school’s governors launched an investigation into his conduct.
He resigned from his position in September.
In a statement at the time, he said the school had been accused of “deliberately ‘off-rolling’ students and coding attendance incorrectly”.
Yesterday, it emerged that Ofsted has put Harrop Fold into special measures following an inspection on 31 October and 1 November.
The school was rated “inadequate” in all areas.
The report says: “Inspection evidence makes it clear that, over recent years, year 11 pupils have been deleted from the school roll shortly before the date of the Department for Education’s annual census of schools each January, only to be readmitted at a later date.
“This type of action means that the examination results of pupils taken off roll temporarily do not appear in school performance tables.”
It adds that “pupils’ safeguarding has been compromised by the inappropriate and informal exclusion of pupils and by the deliberate misrecording of attendance”.
In a tweet this morning, Mr Povey said: “It’s tough to read and very unfair.”
A later message read: “Life throws obstacles at all of us. And when it does, we take the knocks and rise again.”
A spokesperson for Channel 4 said: “Channel 4 is considering the findings of the Ofsted report. No further decisions will be made with regard to the programme until the local authority has concluded its investigation.”
Salford City Council told Tes it expects the governors’ investigation to report before Christmas.
