Here’s where Educating Manchester’s Harrop Fold is today after a serious visit from Ofsted
It was deemed 'inadequate in all areas'
If you watched Educating Greater Manchester, you’ll definitely remember Harrop Fold School. It was the backdrop for all those emotional moments and heartwarming stories, but behind the scenes, things weren’t quite as rosy as they looked on TV.
In 2018, the school was actually slapped with a pretty brutal Ofsted rating and put straight into ‘special measures’. So, what went wrong, and what’s happening there now?
Harrop Fold was once deemed ‘inadequate in all areas’
Back in 2018, Ofsted came in and basically said Harrop Fold was failing across the board. Their report was harsh, describing “serious and wide-ranging weaknesses” that couldn’t be ignored.
One of the biggest issues was safeguarding, per BBC. Inspectors found that pupils could literally walk out of school without staff noticing, and there were “off-the-books” exclusions happening too. That actually ended up being the reason the school’s headteacher, Mr Povey, was banned from teaching.
Attendance records had also been reportedly messed with. Some students were marked as present when they weren’t, or temporarily wiped from the register, especially around census time.
And then there was leadership. Headteacher Drew Povey, who fans of the show will remember, was suspended just before the report was released. He and a few staff members were investigated for those admin “errors” including the dodgy attendance figures.
With all that in mind, it wasn’t a huge surprise that Ofsted decided to put Harrop Fold into ‘special measures’, meaning it needed serious intervention and close monitoring until things improved.
Where is the school these days?
Since its Educating Greater Manchester days, the school has been through some huge shifts.
After Mr Povey stepped down, an interim leadership team came in to steady things and start tackling the safeguarding and attendance issues.
Inspectors later confirmed that those urgent problems had been addressed, though there was still a long road ahead.
The biggest transformation came in 2021, when Harrop Fold officially became an academy under the United Learning Trust and was given a brand-new name, The Lowry Academy.
The rebrand wasn’t just cosmetic, it was about showing that the school was moving on from its rocky past.
And the fresh start seems to have worked. In its most recent Ofsted inspection, published in February 2024, The Lowry Academy was rated Good in every category.
Inspectors said safeguarding is now effective, behaviour has improved, and leadership is strong. There are still challenges, like attendance, which the school is still working hard to improve, but the days of being “inadequate in all areas” are firmly behind them.
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