First headteacher refuses to be Ofsteded in boycott

[noblegiraffe]

There has been talk on twitter over the weekend of a boycott of Ofsted in protest at its ridiculous system of stressful high-stakes inspections and public shaming, following the suicide of a headteacher in January after her outstanding primary was downgraded to inadequate.

This morning the first brave headteacher has put her head above the parapet. Ofsted called to notify of an inspection tomorrow and the head said no.

twitter.com/florascooper/status/1637760884243066881?s=46&t=vKGM6xpoeW3wdlaVVVagQA

She is calling for people to come to the school tomorrow morning to support the boycott (details on twitter).

I hope this becomes the catalyst for a serious review and reform of the inspection system.

That’s true. My last inspection (2018) I was told as a main scale teacher at 2pm that Ofsted were due in next morning.

That the system shouldn't have been set up in the first place in such a way that contributed to that appalling outcome.

The system needs reform. It shouldn't be a high stakes 4 yearly assessment where a single grade can determine whether the house prices in the area will soar, or whether parents will start pulling their kids out and teachers quitting left right and centre. It certainly shouldn't be very publicly naming and shaming the head to the local community as someone who isn't keeping their children safe.

Of course schools need to be inspected, no one is disputing that. But the current system is intolerable. And it looks like some heads are saying that they will no longer tolerate it.

How many have you been through ? I’ve done 6 and that is not the case. You have no idea when they’ll come until the day before so no idea where you’ll be in the scheme of work.

How long do you want to argue this for?

And again, the checks are actually carried out by the HR department of the LA. And they're not even getting a mention. Either by OFSTED or by anyone on this thread.

What @noblegiraffe said. And if it was such an awful safeguarding failure why wasn’t she allowed to discuss it with anyone until 4 months later????

why not have a discussion, get an action plan in place, look at appropriate trainings

The aircraft industry have a great “no fault” way of dealing with errors and many have called for it to be used in the NHS too. That’s not about accountability it’s about a blame culture that means more things are likely to be missed or hidden than resolved.

I was thinking about the earlier assertion that Ofsted inspections are the only way to hold heads to account.

I've been through numerous Ofsteds, one with a particularly bad head where staff were certainly hoping that Ofsted would take note of what was going on.

They bloody gave the leadership a glowing rating. Fat lot of use that was.

What do you mean, how long do I want to argue this for? I mean, I think I’m right but then so do you. I don’t think it’s wrong for either of us to express what we think.

You don’t think safeguarding failures mean a school is inadequate: I do.

Yes - my sons' appalling school got through Ofsted not glowingly, but they certainly weren't ranked as inadequate which they most certainly were in almost every respect.

of course schools need to be inspected. The issue is the ‘sweep in, make a judgement, sweep out’ approach. It’s deeply unfair, stressful and - ultimately - totally unhelpful.

A system where schools were linked to an inspector, visited each other regularly, gave feedback, supported with improvements, shared resources etc, would be much more effective.

You don’t think safeguarding failures mean a school is inadequate: I do.

I don't think that schools should have a grade at all.

Believe me... no one tells Bob how to behave!

Ofsted don't look at lesson plans and there is no long lead in (unless you mean the dreaded "we're overdue" wait)

It's less than 24 hours

The HR department of an LA don't complete any employment checks for any schools- what makes you think that they do?

I know @noblegiraffe . Some of them make (retrospectively) embarrassing reading for OFSTED. I’m definitely not arguing that they are some sort of brilliant system that can’t be improved, altered or changed.

What I AM saying is that, first of all, there are precious little ways of holding a head who is corrupt or incompetent to account. Encouraging heads to refuse entry to OFSTED isn’t a two-fingers-up-to-the-system, it’s actually colluding with that system.

Secondly, I do believe that inadequate safeguarding makes a school inadequate. I think that’s probably more serious than anything else a school could be found inadequate for.

They don't look at individual lesson plans but they do look at the sequence of learning (typically lessons) within a topic. Very little difference!

Under the inspection framework in England, this isn't happening. Ofsted are looking for the "learning journey"

How do we change it then? Because teachers and heads have been asking for an overhaul of Oates for over a decade now. What action should they take to make the government do it?

There has always been accountability but the system of Ofsted, coupled with league tables and an ever narrower focus on testing at all levels is having a catastrophic impact on staff and student wellbeing. When I started teaching in the early 1990s LEAs had oversight and advisors who worked in a helpful and collaborative way.

I don’t know Torvi. I’m not a HT and I don’t have all the answers here. But any system that involves some amount of scrutiny is going to be uncomfortable and stressful, and upsetting if that scrutiny reveals weaknesses.

My school had some of the worst GCSE results in the country. Just 5% got Maths and English at C or above. Schools vary so much in their performance, surely we need to know as parents

well, yes @Babyboomtastic , but you won’t find that information in an OFSTED report. It’s on the DfE ‘Compare Schools’ website.

There is when people are talking about "perfect lesson plans"

I agree. Ofsted have spotted major issues in some schools however it is a very blunt instrument. Having been through 2 inspections as a governor I would never use them to decide on a school, they were negative, didn't understand the school or context and had an agenda that was apparent throughout (different each time) which made the process unnecessarily stressful for staff and didn't weed out issues it could have. I felt the report added very little value and the latest one gave us nothing to work on so felt utterly pointless. It's not the right approach to lead to genuine improvement. Luckily our school knows what the children need and is working on that rather than trying to meet arbitrary tick sheets for ofsted.

It is not apparent hat the safeguarding breach was and I dont know in the is case. I do for a couple of the others and lets just say that its as far from cut and dry

The issue for historic outstanding is that they missed the 2103-2017 focus on safeguarding linked to historic recruitment. Schools inspected in this window knew what they had to do and largely did it (often once an inspection was underway at the direction of the inspection). But these schools missed that.

Ofsted redefined the term 'should' in 2019 -which has been a long understood term in all government documents. (should meant do it if you want before)

Actually, you are not right about the checks, these are entered onto the Single Central Record (SCR), it is the school who check the references. References should be taken up before interview. It is the school who then processes the Disclosure & Barring Scheme (DBS), they are notified if there is anything untoward on the candidates DBS, it is then up to the HT and Governors to risk assess the issue if there is one. The school are also responsible for the Section 128 check on persons who are not permitted to take up a role in the school.

Is it though ? Perhaps they just want improvement in the system , that’s not abolishment of accountability.

Northern - but “Leaders have not ensured that all required employment checks are complete for some staff employed at the school” is, ah, worrying.

I was last appointed to a post in 2020 so not long ago. My DBS was done, along with references from my previous school and identity checks. That’s the minimum I’d expect, tbh.