ISI Inspection

[Picturesinthefirelight]

Does anyone know roughly how long it takes before the report is published?

[snakeface]

Not long, a few weeks at most. The main finding will be with the school within days.

I'd take the report with a pinch of salt, it's written by people who have a vested interest in the continuation of private schools, in a climate where many are closing down.

The one carried out on my DD's prep school mentioned the fact that several parents had concerns but disregarded these comments and would not say what they were. The school had undergone tremendous upheaval in the previous 6 months and that was just swept under the carpet. Several of the teachers were not up to scratch and that was ignored.

ISI accentuate the positive and are not realistic about the negative.

[MillyMollyMama]

Totally agree with Snakeface. The one at our school was total fiction. It mentioned aspects of school life that were planned. They could not have inspected them because they did not exist! The whole report was like a prospectus. ISI sent poorly qualified inspectors of no real standing in the world of independent education, a former Head of a very minor, and low achieving, girls' school with no 6th form, a teacher from a music school and deputy head, pastoral, of a school with known problems! They glossed over problems, even ones that were well known to parents and pupils. They had no experience of managing a girls' boarding school with a 6th form. They were obviously easily flattered as they were wined and dined. The school was decked in flowers for their visit. The parents were cheated.

[trinity0097]

As a parent you should have sight of it within 4 school weeks of the inspection. We were done 5 schools weeks ago, parents got the report about a week ago, but still not on the ISI website yet.

[sheepster79]

Mollymama-what school does your child attend ?

[Picturesinthefirelight]

The inspection was last month but not had the report yet. I'm expecting it to be good but am just interested. I believe it was very thorough.

[happygardening]

ISI reports are not worth the paper they're written on. A number of us at my DS's old prep raised significant concerns on the ISI parent questionnaire and the published report stated all parents were very happy! It is like so many things a box ticking exercise schools know exactly what the inspectors are looking for in the schools so would have to be pretty daft not to ensure these things are clearly visible.
Having said this I know a couple of the inspectors neither are "poorly qualified" one is an expert in her field the other from a very well know school.