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.

Perhaps because some HT's and governors are proud of there grade and they want the world to know about it. Banners are printed and hung outside these schools for years. There are even adverts on the sides on buses. This can't happen if abolished.

*their

There are practical - and crucially, safeguarding issues - which explains why it can't be zero notice. As it is, it's half a day's notice - and most of that isn't during working, or even waking hours.

Humiliation should never be a normal part of working life.

Sacking is a part of working life for some, but in most decent businesses that is not accompanied by public humiliation, with it plastered all over government and business (or school here) websites for everyone to read, and it being left there for several years.

I hope it begins an avalanche of refusals. The process is inhumane and seems to be run by people with no knowledge or experience of what they are judging but are just out to be cruel. When I hear of Teachers and Heads having mental illness through it, I know it is not doing its job. It should be there to support the Teachers. I wish there could be redress for those broken by the iniquities of Ofsted.

The refusal achieved nothing.

Bit was own refusal. Hopefully more will follow. Actually it achieved a number of articles and editorials in the media about the state of ofsted. Two unions set out statements on ofsted. The NAHT have reiterated it will be discussed at their upcoming conference.

No action is ever successful on the first move.

I was on a webinar this morning which included a number of school Trust leaders, the whole conversation was about this and how representations could be made to Ofsted and DfE

Apart from loads of news headlines and discussions and union interventions?

How bloody rare is it for what is going on in schools to make the news?

They said on the webinar it is unusual for everyone to agree on all the points being raised. Let’s hope something does change for the better

Are you an educator? You could not be more wrong - but you may not be able to see what is going on behind the scenes.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-65028962

My mum was a teacher. I have only seen her cry with 2 family bereavements but she told me she was crying before a school inspection. It is outrageous that teachers should be put through this.

A colleague got a poor ofsted assessment of her lesson because a 6foot towering inspector walked up to some year one pupils and asked them very abruptly about something they had just been taught. They got confused and befuddled and gave the wrong answer. The children he asked absolutely knew the right answer, he just scared them.

As a deputy head I was told that a teacher didn’t know how to manage behaviour. I had also observed the lesson. I thought behaviour was managed well, so I asked them what they were talking about. It was because the teacher had talked to a child doing their maths who was upset, listen for a few minutes and then let them go and read a book and said they could have a chat after the lesson. The child then rocked back and forth in the reading corner for 10 minutes until the end of the lesson. I explained that this child’s parent had tried to commit suicde the day before, which the teacher knew and was giving the child a bit of space. That was apparently “making excuses”.

Ofsted measure the wrong things and doesn’t even assess those things well. I’m not against accountability but do we actually want our children bullied into learning? Do we care more about data than people? If we want a happier, healthier and positive educational experience for our children we have to fight for it.

Personally as a parent and former teacher, I would 100% support my child’s school in refusing ofsted. It is short term disruption for long term gain. It is for the children that this needs to change. Teachers being made mentally unwell by stress is not good for children. Teachers’ working environment is your child’s learning environment.

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/mar/22/nursery-manager-and-owner-tell-of-devastation-after-ofsted-downgrading

I don’t even know what to do with this. County lines, in a nursery? Witchcraft?!!

This woman is frantically asking for help on twitter. Ofsted were asked for a deferral and rejected so they have closed the setting.

I have heard many stories of Ofsted rejecting referrals in terrible circumstances so can well believe this.

https://twitter.com/kimashfordkim/status/1638627383103062023?s=61&t=U9XrcF693-JpMxeIueYG7g

Equally, whilst sometimes they clearly nit-pic, sometimes they pick up serious and wide ranging issues.

I was contemplating sending my toddler here before I read the report. Going from outstanding to inadequate in all areas is quite shocking.

@Babyboomtastic but surely you don't need the 'inadequate' grading to realise this nursery isn't good? Surely the report tells you that?

@Covidwoes I’m not even sure that I trust the content (or lack of) of the reports any more. The ones I’ve seen recently (including Caversham’s) don’t have a lot of substantiating detail, they are only a couple of pages long. If you take the example cited in the guardian, if the nursery hadn’t challenged it and the report had stood, it would have said something like ‘staff lack the necessary safeguarding knowledge to keep children safe’. Behind that would have been the -frankly- nonsense about alleged lack of knowledge about county lines and how to protect children from abuse related to witchcraft. But someone reading the report would never know that. Just ‘staff lack the necessary knowledge to keep children safe’.

Excellent point @ImNotAsThinkAsYouDrunkIAm.
It's all so vague isn't it.

Witchcraft in a nursery setting 😮. Funny how when they involve solicitors the outcome is changed.

No, it's not strictly speaking 'necessary' to have the grating, but it makes it easier to evaluate the nursery, group together those than that need more frequent inspection etc. Grading systems are pretty much universal in life surely.

Exam gradings
Hotel star ratings
Food hygiene ratings
Film reviews

Within schools grading systems are used extensively. Sun, rainbow, cloud gradings for behaviour, colour coded gradings for attendance, gradings on pieces of work.

I'm not sure why schools themselves should be exempt even it's a system they use 🤔

Sun, rainbow, cloud gradings for behaviour

An out of date model that very few classrooms still rely on and has since largely been replaced with better systems.

Rather like Ofsted should be.

@Babyboomtastic none of those examples
you have given are anything like the complexities of a school unfortunately. I can't begin to explain those as I'd be here forever.

Still used in many schools, including my eldest's.