Sad to hear of this from an ex-pupil's point of view who has always had nothing but good to relate about my time there. How has it all went wrong?

Dont go tarnishing all the teachers with the same brush - they are some exceptional teachers who do not get the recognition they deserve - in fact they get more work put on them whilst the underperforming ones get away with it.
The school doesnt need much, to much protecting of disobedient kids and not enough support and to emphasis on targets..and employ more teachers!!! to many teachers with more on than they should...
A teacher can only do so much, the parents have a lot to answer for as well...

I for one am not surprised at the recent findings. I removed my daughter from the school because of the lack of control the teachers had over the kids. My daughter was systematically bullied over a period of months and the teachers failed to address the problem. Instead, when her grades started slipping, they in turn made matters worse by being unsupportive and critical. The school is nothing like it was when I attended in the 1980's. Bring in new blood and get rid of the current weak-minded management.

In December I was lucky enough to be asked to help prepare five students from St. Benedict's for their interviews at Oxford and Cambridge.

Probing their subject knowledge in depth I can only say I was extremely impressed by the flexibility and depth of their knowledge of philosophy, law, mathematics, ethics and engineering which had clearly been developed under the care of highly intelligent and dedicated staff.

Totally agree with the fact that there needs to be some major improvements, but I certainly don't think it's as black and white as a few ofsted inspectors (aka failed teachers that had to do something else) coming in and ticking a few inadequate boxes. St Benedict's is a school in west cumbria, where many of the kids come from a disadvantaged background. It's a huge challenge to motivate such pupils. You can teach them all day long but if they don't want to learn you can't always motivate them with the time you have. Time spent on these takes away time that can be spent with other kids. Finding a balance is hard.

It is of my opinion that homophobic bullying stems from ignorant attitudes of those who brought the kids up. Parents and guardians make a far bigger impression on pupils than the teachers do. When it does happen, the school does need to intervene.

I honestly don't think schools would be under so much pressure if more parents started bringing there children up with morals and a thirst for education. The amount of time spent dealing with unruly kids is unbelievable.

Sounds like the management needs a kick up the backside though. I do hope to see St Benedict's with the outstanding reputation it once had and deserves in the near future. The majority of the kids are wonderful people that deserve every chance to succeed in education and life and furthermore the majority of teachers, i'm sure, work incredibly hard to make sure those kids get those chances.

Hang on, have i read this properly?
So the school falls short in many ways, but what sticks in their crow in particular, is that the report highlighting their faults took a bit longer to print out than they would've liked. Well at least we know that the person fronting their "weakest comeback known to man" department is firing on all four cylinders!

I'd like to say I'm surprised but I'm not!, my child had 5 teachers in one school year, because they all ended up either leaving or sick (I know these things do happen but 5!) meaning no continuity for the children, they have revision classes after school for their exams..they get cancelled!, they dont have long enough during cookery to cook, the food ends up getting burnt, wasting money people havent got! and yes the teachers have been blaming the children for the ofsted report, they are the adults, and the head teacher needs to get back to school and fight to make St Benedicts the school its always been till now!