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.

You’re missing the point completely.

Good.
That poor, poor woman. She looked exactly the sort of teacher I'd have loved my children to have.
Meanwhile my childrens' school was so dreadful I had to home-ed them, and they kept getting satisfactory when it was absolutely appalling. I have no confidence in Ofsted whatsoever. I hope it does get reformed. I totally support any school refusing to allow them access. At the very least there should be a risk assessment given the level of mental illness and worse that ensues all too often from Ofsted inspections.

Ofsted needs reforming and hopefully this is the start of it.
Not sure a HT organizing a public protest at the school via Twitter is the wisest move though.

I’m not a teacher but my choice of primary for DS was strongly influenced by the post on a local school’s website (pre-Covid) which said “there will be no Christmas play this year as we are preparing for an inspection”. The pressure seems to put all the priorities and joys of learning out of whack.

I didn’t base my views on the ofsted reports, I visited three schools and made my decision based on that and location, I didn’t even read their Ofsted reports.

That's ridiculous @Houselamp and yet somehow not surprising. I had some experience of a special school where the head was a former OFSTED inspector and that same attitude of faking and hiding problems and talking a good talk was very apparent.

There are very few Inspectors who understand Special Schools

Children's homes are also inspected by OFSTED. We get no notice at all, they just rock up.

They have become so punitive over the years. A young person goes missing, obviously not great, but they look at that and judge that rather than looking how you have dealt with the missing episode.

I have Sen children and I have found this to be the case.

My unpopular opinion is that OFSTED would be fine if a) schools were funded and therefore staffed appropriately and b) the inspectors were trained properly and had experience of working in a school environment themselves.

Schools need to be held accountable by independent advisors. But currently teachers are so overworked, and schools so underfunded, that Ofsted pushes them even further towards breaking point. The system is broken because schools are broken.

My son's school got utterly shafted by Ofsted. It's a fantastic school and they got a requires improvement (down from Outstanding) basically on a technicality plus they got inspected the first week back after they'd been closed for lockdown and the headteacher had just been.

It made me so angry, the report focused on utter bullshit ignoring the fact that the school had just navigated Covid lockdowns amazingly.

Parents don't help inspections either, there have been cases where the answers on parent questionnaires have been rigged by parent groups on social media. Also where a school appeals/complains about an Ofsted inspection, the appeal is carried out by Ofsted, so not exactly impartial.

The "“I don’t know what I’m doing ..." quote seems a worry; perhaps she'd do well to find out

I'm the first to agree that some reform may be wise, but am not sure this is the way to go about it

I worked for a large MAT and went through several OFSTED inspections.

When we got the call, staff would descend from other academies and the central trust offices. Many of these people had never even been to the school, but the corridors would be well staffed and students controlled for those days.
Some staff would be OFSTED experts and come in to stage manage. There would be plenty of staff for classrooms, they’d spend more on school dinners, there would be plenty of resources.
A whole room would be full of these SLT/managers to deal with every request or deal with any issue.
I’ve seen badly behaved students told to stay off site and been told the same about staff and taken off staff lists.
It’s a fraudulent system. The day OFSTED leave it all went to shit again, but they would get their good rating.

A genuine inspection would be someone turning up and walking about just to get the feel of things.

Personally I support the concept of low/no notice inspections as I think anything else is totally pointless (my absolutely awful school totally faked Ofsted back in the 90's, when they got notice).. I'd personally go further, and have zero notice inspections, carried out at more random intervals, so schools really cannot prep then, and it gives a more accurate snapshot of school life.

BUT in return, the inspection needs to be less formulaic, less about lesson plans and box ticking, and more about real teaching and real school life. There also needs to be more story e for schools in between inspections, so it's not such a shock.

I don't think they are 'everything' as a parent, but they are useful, and I'd hate for the reports to be kept secret. I was tempted to send my toddler to a particular local nursery until I read their Ofsted - babies not given eye contact, babies out to sleep in an unsafe and unsupervised room, toddlers allowed to climb high on furniture unsupervised etc.

I know the idea of inspections is hugely stressful, but they are common to many areas of life, and when it comes to protecting a vulnerable group with limited capacity to complain effectively (children), then I think inspections should be expected as part of the territory.

OFSTED are pretty much the only way a HT can be held accountable, and teachers are cheering this on.

Well done. Slow hand clap.

A few years ago, a HT in Scotland took her own life after a bad inspection report and apparently the inspection process was changed to be more of an advisory process rather than critical. Hopefully the same thing happens in England after this terrible tragedy.

I concur.

my DCs outstanding primary absolutely traumatised them to the point they were diagnosed with attachment issues rather than correctly diagnosing the adhd, dyspraxia and dyslexia with asd that was present from day one with trauma. Focus on perfection over progress absolutely got on my nerves. They insisted on forcing reading tree books read perfectly rather than getting DC interested in reading. Ditto handwritting. Everything had to be re written until it was right. Dc now has a poor relationship with both.

DC left the school 6yrs ago and only just has got the correct diagnosis which is too little too late for schooling.

I agree with ofsted and their systems need an overhaul

but so does education in general. The closing of special schools so that only the really really challenging and developmentally delayed get access to them massively harms perfectly able but in need if specialist support and alternative learning like my DC and possibly yours.

mine would’ve thrived with a more practical rather than desk focused curriculum.

@Treaclehair have you read what the teachers are actually saying and how the system at the moment isn't fit for purpose? Surely better to have a system that actually works

Nobody is saying inspections shouldn't happen, so the slow hand clap is completely unnecessary. It's also pretty insensitive when this stand is being taken in light of a tragic suicide. Post after post from both parents and teachers is talking about the fact that Ofsted inspections at present are both ineffective and punitive. It's not about headteachers trying to evade responsibility.

There's not a single teacher on any of these threads, who's said that schools shouldn't be inspected. In fact most would probably say it needs to be done more often.

It's OFSTED's methods, priorities and and systems that are entirely unreasonable. If they came in with reasonable expectations, with priorities that were important to children and parents, and with an attitude and funding that would lead to support with any areas for improvement, this action would not be being taken.

Schools do “judged” and saying “it’s stressful” is no different to how every performance review is for anyone working irrespective of their sector.

However, there are a few key differences which all play into school inspections being much worse stress wise.

In my job I get a performance review quarterly. Anything negative is not allowed to fester - it gets addressed and resolved. In schools it’s usually years between inspections (and over a decade for lots).

Our performance reviews aren’t made public. Joe Bloggs doesn’t know whether I’m exceeding or failing in these reviews. Ofsted reports are public and it’s quite easy from these to pick out the individuals who could be “blamed”.

Loads more reasons two, but these are biggies that really should be addressed.

It should but is there is a united front? I know too many union members who chose not to strike this year. Not sure current moral would support any cause right now.

If the report relates to a small Primary school, you can identify exactly which member of staff they may refer to in a report, even when no names are mentioned

My school hasn't been inspected since 2009! We have been expecting the call and have been constantly preparing to be reinspected for years but it's never happened. It's a constant strain and feels like a cloud hanging over the school- there needs to be reform to put an end to this situation.