Ofsted - does anyone believe what they say?

I didn't even look when I was picking a nursery.
Primary school I had a look but then read the actual reports if they were requires improvement.
They didn't for the basis of my decision though - we chose the requires improvement school.

Just go and see for yourself. Settings where you can just call in without an appointment are the most reliable. Ofsted can only report on a snapshot view and only see what they choose to see bearing in mind they are expected to gain d something

I'm suspicious of them for nurseries. If anyone remembers that nursery Tiny Toes in Stockport where the little girl was killed by the nursery worker. The description that came out in the trial of what was going on in the hugely understaffed nursery was appalling, yet it was rated Good and the killer had been there 17 years I think.

They'll have been up all hours making sure things are on the right papers and things are in the right format. They'll have been up all night finding ways to prove that what they're doing fits all the boxes. None of this has any bearing on whether the kids are happy. None of this has any bearing on whether the kids are learning.
Perhaps if they didn't have to prove every last detail and analyse every last piece of data they'd actually be able to do the job they're paid for.
I'd rather ask the parents what their thoughts were. If rather ask the kids if they're happy.

You'd need the childminder's registration number to find the report though and I doubt most childminders are giving out their registration numbers to prospective parents unless they actually sign up.

Not at all, and I'm a teacher!!

No, mainly when schools get outstanding, it's purely a result of ruthless leadership teams completely focussing on achieving that outcome in many cases to the detriment of the staff and pupils.

This! I'm also a childminder and Ofsted see us for 3 hours every 6 years. They only get a snapshot of our settings, not a true representation of it. If the kids have an off day, you're stuffed! Each inspector inspects differently and looks for different things.
Our local secondary school had an inspection a few weeks ago which was 10 YEARS after the last one! A lot can happen in that time!

Why would they ask to see it though? They’re publicly available online. I read both my childminders’ reports but they wouldn’t have known as I didn’t tell them!

i do agree though that they’re largely meaningless. I only read them to check for safeguarding red flags, I went with my gut. Both were rated good not outstanding.

Ive worked in schools where the ofsted was fair, and others where it was ridiculous. One thing they do is take an isolated incident and report it as if it is a general pattern. The child crying at dinner mentioned above is a classic example. It was probably written as ‘children are left to cry at dinner which could lead to choking’. My son’s current nursery wrote that ‘staff are not aware of allergies’. Apparently the reality was that one new member of staff didn’t know about a particular child’s allergies - said child was on a settling in session (ie 2nd day) and their key worker, who was feeding them, did know. Ridiculous!!

Personal recommendations. As first time parents we went for a lovely looking ofsted outstanding preschool it was honestly worst decision of my life, a shocking place. Manager was sacked a year later

Still not convinced it wasn't better when the LEA did the inspections.

Not really. My DS's old nursery was Good with Outstanding features for over a decade. Then they had an inspector who gave them inadequate jn everything because a child was crying at the dinner table and they might have choked on their food. They were re-inspected and given Good again.
Same inspector gave that rating the month after and the owner was so disheartened she closed it down. There have been protests in town about it.

No. According to Ofsted, 98% of early years settings are good or outstanding. That is absurd.

At my friend's school, the headteacher is all proud he got outstanding last year but has royally pissed a parent but telling her he wanted to suspend her daughter for hitting back the kid that always hits out at her and that if she didn't like it she could leave! Apparently there were other parents who witnessed the squabble and definitely said the girl only hit back as it happened in the playground at collection time.

I don't think telling a parent that's concerned over her child's safety whilst at school is ofsted outstanding worthy. It's ruffled a lot of feathers in the school community apparently

That parent was head of the PTA who has raised so much money in the past 3 years and was doing a bloody good job of rallying parents to help out at some amazing events that the children and parents loved like summer funfairs, fireworks nights, circuses! My friend said these events were great.
Said parent has now quit the PTA and is now moving schools and not one person has volunteered to take it on so the school has now lost loads of money and the promise of a minibus.

Anyone who asks about the school has been told this story too, they can't believe the head was so rude to a parent. It's quite the scandal at the moment!

The school the inspectors see is vastly different to the one that operates day to day so no, I wouldn't take any notice whatsoever to the report or rating attached to a school.

I'm a teacher, so no.

Ofsted came to our school last year. I was beyond impressed by how well their report (the verbal one) matched the Head and the Governor's own judgement and the insight they'd had into every aspect of the school. So I would trust recent reports done in last year or so.

No.

I work for a company which runs children’s homes and have seen hideous abuse in homes rated good. One of them was even rated ‘outstanding’ despite being very questionable.

Ex teacher here. I agree with others that the rating is meaningless. A much better impression of a school or setting is what others who have experience of it over time actually tell you about it.

Yep childminder grades are totally random based on the personal preferences of the inspector - you could get marked down for things like sharing hand towels, letting children sleep in push chairs or helping children put shoes on that another inspector might have no problem with.

I had a discussion about this in our childminder cluster recently and almost no one had actually been asked by a potential parent for their Ofsted report, most people do not care. No one has asked to see mine for years.

Usually accurate my last place was awful and the report was awful.

I think it is part of the picture, but so should be speaking to parents with DCs at the school, a good look round, a media check and for me visiting the school at drop off and pick up a couple of times to get a feel for how this feels. It will also vary by individual requirements. In some quite highly rated schools I have found pastoral support sometimes to be quite poor.

Yes - I have been in SLT meetings where they discussed how to “train” students in what to say to Ofsted inspectors.

As a childminder I can assure you that Ofsted gradings are meaningless.