A THELWALL school has been accused by Ofsted of putting pupils at risk by leaving them to spend Christmas day with a member of agency staff, whose name the head did not even know.

The Chaigeley School, which is a boarding school for youngsters with social and behavioural difficulties, was also slammed by inspectors who said staff need to work harder to stop students going missing.

And the social care report claims staff and youngsters were put in danger after a gas safety certificate was left to expire.

Inspectors who visited the Lymm Road site between January 11 and 13 discovered that on Christmas Eve a member of agency staff had been called to cover a shift because no other staff could be found.

Lead inspector Elaine Clare said: “The impact of having a stranger working closely with the pupils during this particularly emotional period is unknown.

“The decision demonstrated a significant lack of consideration of the vulnerability of the pupils. Furthermore, the head of the residential unit could not provide any details on the background or history of the individual and was even unaware of his name.”

The report also found that although several students are on medications, controlled drugs are not kept in locked boxes.

The school, which has 35 boarders on the roll aged eight to 16, was previously rated good but dropped to ‘requires improvement’. The impact and effectiveness of leaders was branded inadequate.

Inspectors pointed to problems with too few members of staff and said the residential accommodation needs to be improved.

They added there needs to be a plan in place to prevent children going missing from school although a police officer said staff reacted appropriately when pupils left the grounds.

Despite the recommendations, the report also said: “The pupils report that they mostly enjoy their time boarding in the residential unit. They have established positive relationships with the residential staff.

“At the weekend one pupil travels a distance with residential staff to follow his passion for martial arts, while another pupil enjoys the long-distance cycle paths around the area.”

Principal Toni Bailey said: “The inspection came at a time when we were moving from our 38 week to our 52 week provision. Our 58 week provision was outstanding and we were one week from being registered and leaving the 38 week provision behind. It was bad timing. We accept everything that Ofsted has said and we are now looking to the future.”

Read the full document at reports.ofsted.gov.uk.