Ofsted - Fit for purpose?

[weltweit]

After the suicide of a head teacher of a primary school was blamed on the pressures of an inspection the question is being asked, is Ofsted fit for purpose?

 

[weltweit]

Ofsted boss rejects calls to pause school inspections

Schools had urged the move after Ruth Perry took her life following her school being rated "inadequate".

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Shippou-Sensei]

No idea.

It is fucking stressful though.

 

[SpookyFrank]

It's not just the ratings system that's the problem, it's the our-way-or-nothing attitude. You could be running the best school in the country but if your teachers don't put learning objectives on the board for each lesson it all counts for nothing. A learning objective is a single sentence about what we're going to be doing in this lesson. Never mind if we're finishing off a bit from last lesson or skipping ahead to the next lesson or going off topic because something interesting came up, that sort of thing doesn't happen in OFSTED land. Learning is broken up into chunks, all of which are exactly one hour long.

That and a thousand other stupid fucking things that have no basis to them but which the inspectors demand everyone does. It's the ratings that let them do that though. Otherwise they'd just be saying, well in my opinion you should do this. To which a teacher could reply OK but I'm an experienced professional who knows these kids and I do something different, thanks for stopping by though.

The ratings are an implicit threat used to push an agenda. And the agenda is school as assembly line. It's an agenda that expects, and rewards, mediocrity.

 

[weltweit]

And it can't be right that the head couldn't tell her staff the result for 54 days, meaning she bottled it up all that time.

SpookyFrank looks like you are a teacher, your view is certainly interesting.

 

[weltweit]

Apparently Sunak supports Ofsted. Says parents can rely that their kids are getting good teaching.

Except when their schools get a poor rating I assume. In which case there is nothing they can do anyhow.

 

[Sweet FA]

What's the difference between a plastic surgeon and an OFSTED inspector?
One tucks up your features.

As true in 2011 as it is now.

 

[Thora]

Ofsted inspect childminders too, and the inspections are similarly adversarial and judgements are made on 'teaching and learning'. Why can't inspections be supportive rather than about catching you out?
For childminders I think the whole idea of having outstanding/good/requires improvement grades is ridiculous and it should just be a met/not met legal requirements.
With childminding there is now a choice, you can either operate independently and be subject to Ofsted regulation, or you can join an agency and the agency is subject to Ofsted inspection - the agency is then allowed to do it's own supportive quality assurance visits to individual childminders where they can advise on any issues and what can be done to improve.

 

[StoneRoad]

No, Ofsted is definitely NOT fit for purpose and neither are their procedures and as for the rating system, words fail me ...

OH was a teacher, and we have several friends who are, or were also teachers [something in the education sector].

Q - How can you justify rating a school inadequate overall when about the only fault is that the wall around the site is too low and has too many gates. The LEA / headteacher can't do anything about - the boundary [amongst other things] is "listed" !!!

and I have other examples

 

[weltweit]

I found the whole child minding thing very odd, especially when government started giving us money to help with childcare. If you are going to give anyone money to look after our children, give it to us and we will look after our own children!

 

[friedaweed]

As true in 2011 as it is now.

It's very sad what's happened to that head. I've been on the receiving end of and inspected youth provision with OFSTED. It's not fit for purpose.

 

[scifisam]

I'm not sure it's ever been fit for purpose. I've seen schools I've worked at marked low when they were excellent, and the worst school I ever taught in got top marks. One school was forced to Ofsted on a snow day when there was no way to judge them fairly - they got marked down on attendance among other things that were purely due to the snow; every other school in the area had closed for the day.

It's also used as a way of forcing schools to become academies even if that wouldn't change anything except giving money to private companies and lowering teachers' pay and working conditions, and, usually, bringing in insane uniform rules.
.

 

[Mattym]

Shit for purpose.

 

[SpookyFrank]

It's also used as a way of forcing schools to become academies even if that wouldn't change anything except giving money to private companies and lowering teachers' pay and working conditions, and, usually, bringing in insane uniform rules.

But insane uniform rules improve learning, behaviour and wellbeing. They do this by, um, somehow...as clearly shown by, hmm, hold on a sec I know I left the evidence base for insane uniform rules around here somewhere...

 

[Sweet FA]

I've taught primary for a long time and been through many inspections. Schools need oversight; OFSTED's not it.

 

[Mattym]

Have always worked in inner city schools & have never had a positive OFSTED report- Always special measures or requires improvement or inadequate- says it all really!!!

 

[8ball]

All I really know about them is based on the stress my teacher friends go through whenever there is an inspection.

Really seems set up like they are on the opposite side to the teachers.

My work gets visits from orgs like the MHRA and FDA and while we stress about it a bit, it’s a lot less fraught.

 

[souljacker]

I knew Ruth Perry very well and knew loads of kids who went to Caversham Primary. It was one of the best schools in the whole of Reading and she was hugely respected. I feel like she was stitched up because there is no way that school was inadequate.

 

[Sweet FA]

Sorry for your and their loss souljacker.

 

[maomao]

A learning objective is a single sentence about what we're going to be doing in this lesson. Never mind if we're finishing off a bit from last lesson or skipping ahead to the next lesson or going off topic because something interesting came up, that sort of thing doesn't happen in OFSTED land. Learning is broken up into chunks, all of which are exactly one hour long.

We have to have three learning objectives per lesson now. That's fun.

I genuinely enjoy my job despite all the bullshit but it often feels like a hoop jumping exercise with academy chains waiting to swallow anyone that doesn't do it their way. The biggest problem is the obsession with types of learning that are easy to measure.

Schools need oversight; OFSTED's not it.

I didn't go in a British school for thirty years. My first impression was that they had improved massively since the 80s. There does need to be oversight but bullying everyone into academisation isn't it.

 

[8ball]

The biggest problem is the obsession with types of learning that are easy to measure.

Corporate ideology that has been imported into the wrong place.

 

[SpookyFrank]

I knew Ruth Perry very well and knew loads of kids who went to Caversham Primary. It was one of the best schools in the whole of Reading and she was hugely respected. I feel like she was stitched up because there is no way that school was inadequate.

Inspectors are commonly reported as being rude and unprofessional to the point of bullying. As is so often the way with petty bureaucrats who have somehow been given power over people who do actual work and are actually valued and respected by those around them.

 

[Mattym]

I genuinely enjoy my job despite all the bullshit but it often feels like a hoop jumping exercise with academy chains waiting to swallow anyone that doesn't do it their way. The biggest problem is the obsession with types of learning that are easy to measure.

Spot on- & that's not how I teach. Makes me so upset & cross.

 

[scifisam]

Here's one short article related to the death of Ruth Perry and the topic overall:

Ruth Perry: Ofsted resists calls to halt school inspections after headteacher's death

Unions representing teachers and principals had urged Ofsted to pause inspections, following the suicide of headteacher Ruth Perry in January as she waited for an Ofsted assessment.

news.sky.com

The other local headteacher in that article makes the good point that none of the teachers she works with want to be headteachers. Why would anyone, these days? Especially at secondary school level. The pay can be decent, but it's never going to be enough to do that job well and stay sane. Oftsed isn't the entire reason, of course, but it adds to it quite a bit.

Also the union in that article says that they're not against inspections, just the way they're done. Schools should be inspected annually - all schools, even the outstanding ones - but schools are already judged and assessed in so many ways that the annual visit should be basically going "oh, you said you have this? Let's check," with Ofsted collating the data from those other assessments into one place so that a school whose results go way up or down is noticed, or a school that suddenly has a lot more/less exclusions, that sort of thing.

 

[Red Cat]

I knew Ruth Perry very well and knew loads of kids who went to Caversham Primary. It was one of the best schools in the whole of Reading and she was hugely respected. I feel like she was stitched up because there is no way that school was inadequate.

Sorry to hear that, it's absolutely tragic.

 

[Red Cat]

A head just refused to let Ofsted inspect following this, I don't know how much momentum it might have.

 

[Elpenor]

I was thinking it was local to you souljacker wasn’t it the reason it being so popular and oversubscribed that the Cav Heights free school was set up?

 

[goldenecitrone]

They are worse than the Met, and that's saying something.

 

[Sweet FA]

Local to me; hope it becomes more widespread.

Preschool shuts its doors to block Ofsted inspection

Obviously don't read the comments.

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

It's not just the ratings system that's the problem, it's the our-way-or-nothing attitude. You could be running the best school in the country but if your teachers don't put learning objectives on the board for each lesson it all counts for nothing. A learning objective is a single sentence about what we're going to be doing in this lesson. Never mind if we're finishing off a bit from last lesson or skipping ahead to the next lesson or going off topic because something interesting came up, that sort of thing doesn't happen in OFSTED land. Learning is broken up into chunks, all of which are exactly one hour long.


The ratings are an implicit threat used to push an agenda. And the agenda is school as assembly line. It's an agenda that expects, and rewards, mediocrity.

This

It's also used as a way of forcing schools to become academies even if that wouldn't change anything except giving money to private companies and lowering teachers' pay and working conditions, and, usually, bringing in insane uniform rules.
.

and this.

As a parent I can see this as clear as day at the two schools my daughter has been to. . . both got an unfair ofsted shake up. . .I thought school was a meat grinding factory when I was a kid, but it's so much worse now and ofsted is just the gestapo wing of that agenda.