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.

I find myself so conflicted on this.

I used to be responsible for our system of working and we had external people coming in to see if we were complying and to 'certify' us. This was a flag waving thing rather than critical.

It should be possible for Ofsted to pop in with limited notice and check a school is following it's own policies, that teachers know the point of their lessons, and that students are safe and making progress.

This shouldn't need extra special work being done for it. Schools should be doing 'the right things' and not 'jumping through Ofsted hoops'.

But this doesn't seem to be the case.

I feel as if part of this must be the rumour mill that makes schools do things because they think Ofsted want it, whether or not they do. That is certainly what I had to fight against in the company I worked for.

But it is clear that Ofsted visits also seem to be extremely high stakes and high stress, and open to proving first impressions rather than keeping an open mind.

I have no idea what should be done, but the existing system seems to be failing.

100% agree.

The inspection should be less highly pressured and take place on a normal day in a normal term. The long notice has school staff filled with dread, knocking their pans in to show off their best, yet they just end up being a snapshot of everyone on their best behaviour that masses of effort has gone into!

My main issue with OFSTED reflects my issue with teaching in general - constantly moving goalposts, an insane number of pedagogies and the incessant 180s in terms of how we should teach.

also, to those saying schools should be regulated, obviously they should for safeguarding etc. But in terms of the teaching and learning, at a good school teachers will observe one another throughout the year and give and receive feedback, complete team reviews, have ongoing CPD sessions and training and have personal strengths and targets assessed by their senior. We are always trying to better ourselves and our teaching strategies for the children.

Good for them, it's a fucking stupid system anyway.

I really hope this gains traction, and that other Heads follow suit, with the support of their unions. Ofsted absolutely needs reform, it should be working with the teaching profession to ensure schools are good, and help them improve where necessary. They need to ditch the outstanding/good/RI labels, that just creates competition, and means local schools no longer collaborate, if they're not in the same Trust. In its current form, I'm not sure that Ofsted doesn't do more harm than good. It's certainly not a force for good. Reform to a more positive, supportive system would be a big boost for teacher recruitment and retention, particularly of Heads. And it would likely be cost neutral, so a win win for our education system, where there's very few easy wins to be found. I gather other nation's inspection systems are of a more supportive nature, even close to home, Scotland's or example. This needs to be a watershed moment, the teaching profession need to come together and say that enough is enough.

I'm not a teacher but I'm a parent governor and I believe from observation over some years in my area. Also the local primary that was forcibly academised over 10 years ago and there are reports of blatant cheating for an outstanding OFSTED, bringing star teachers from the chain but who aren't normally teachers in that school for the inspection. As well as cheating in Y6 SATs a few years ago.

@ItchycooParkCult

They insisted on forcing reading tree books read perfectly rather than getting DC interested in reading.

That's literally what Ofsted are looking for. Hence why schools do it.

The long notice has school staff filled with dread,

There is no long notice. The call comes the morning before the inspectors arrive.

The dread is that the school CONSTANTLY has to be OFSTED ready (apart from maybe the first couple of years after an ispection, when they're focused on addressing what OFSTED said last time).

Being OFSTED ready would be fine if OFSTED had reasonable expectations of what they want to see and how they addressed issues. But there's so much riding on the final one or two words, that present-day OFSTED arriving at any point means that heads and staff are tense and stressed the whole time.

The "long notice", is less than 24 hours. Last week Ofsted gave some schools two days notice (i.e. notice on a Friday for a Monday inspection), because of the teacher strikes on the Wednesday and Thursday. Inspections do not normally happen on a Monday. There were complaints that was unfair, as it would them dominate a weekend. But that was exceptional, and unlikely to be repeated.

The method of accountability is the issue here. I've got a few friends who are head teachers in my home country; the inspection process is radically different - much more peer-led and focused on development and improvement. Experienced head teachers get trained to do review visits and reports and become senior reviewers who lead school review teams, which are made up entirely of either former or current head teachers - so each team has two reviewers who are experienced teachers and head teachers who are now part of the permanent inspections team, and one who is a current head teacher in a peer review capacity.

The idea being that a good head teacher is probably better placed to recognise good practice and support improvements around poor practice than someone who is at best a long way removed from day to day teaching.

Schools don't get a 'rating' at the end of the process. There are recommendations for improvement, as well as identifying strengths.

I genuinely despair because I don’t know what the alternative could be. We desperately need one but I just don’t know what would work.
I think the issue is so much bigger. It’s about the state of our entire culture. How little respect we have for professionals. It means teachers, medical professionals, police etc. are put in a situation where the public they serve treat them with contempt and the professional bodies above them (e.g. Ofsted, the government) put unrealistic expectations and pressure on them.
I stopped working in schools in 2017 and I won’t be going back.

We need a huge cultural shift.

www.cavershamprimary.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/10242325-Caversham-Primary-Sc-109778-final-PDF.pdf

Worth reading the actual report imho. The school was inadequate because heir safeguarding was woefully bad in multiple areas which put children at risk of harm.

It’s tragic that the headteacher took her own life, but this exactly the sort of accountability Ofsted should be about.

I am a teacher. Teachers don’t speak with one voice.

OFSTED are often shit, I agree. But at the moment, they are really the only ones who hold HTs to account (yes, governing bodies should, but often don’t, and besides, who holds the governing body to account?)

I outlined yesterday an utterly shocking safeguarding failure by a headteacher which she got away with (and really shouldn’t have.)

That said, I do agree OFSTED have gone absolutely haywire at the moment. But I am not in favour of banning them entry!

I trained as a primary teacher in Ireland then worked in England for a short time before changing careers. I found OFSTED inspections truly and utterly baffling - I genuinely couldn't see the point of them, other than to scare the absolute shit out of the teachers and generally lower morale. In one school I taught in, a teacher came in sick because there was an inspection on, then vomited on the floor of her classroom while she was being observed. She was a wonderful person and a great teacher and the whole thing was so humiliating for her I found it hard to bear - she was sobbing in the staffroom at lunchtime. In a genuinely professional system, she would have been able to say she couldn't come in and that would have been fine, but OFSTED treats everyone with such contempt that she felt she had no other choice.

Interestingly having worked in other industries since then, I've found the OFSTED attitude repeated in some other workplaces - ie that a review is about testing someone and essentially about catching them out, trying to find ways to criticise them and deem them 'not good enough.' It's a bizarre attitude that I can't understand at all - what on earth is the point of it? Surely a review/inspection is about understanding issues, finding ways to provide support, identifying strengths etc? Instead OFSTED seems to be about holding up a weird standard that no one really understands and saying 'not good enough' over and over without much insight into why that is. It's a waste of everyone's time.

More power to her.
The threat of Ofsted sucked all the joy out of teaching more efficiently than any dementor.
There should be accountability. If Ofsted really were the 'critical friend' that they are meant to be, it'd be fine. They're not. They are not fit for purpose.

This. I wouldn’t send my children to a school if the teacher had refused Ofsted, because it’s the easiest way to cover up safeguarding failures.

Presumably you read the rest of the report? That showed the school to be Good in every other area, and was full of praise for pretty much everything else? A sinngle word 'Inadequate' absolutely did not describe that school or the head's work.

The report doesn't give very much detail. I've read an article about the safeguarding issue relating to a foreign national coming into the school to give some coaching, getting through the DBS fine, but that they couldn't get clearance from his country of origin for some reason and they didn't do an enhanced check. I've also heard a friend say that the Ofsted inspectors at her school asked the dinner ladies what the policies regarding radicalisation were and how they were downgraded because they couldn't answer on the spot. So I do wonder who has been asked about the online training they mention.

Well done her! If we stopped examining everything and got back to letting people educate, nurse, audit, provide services etc etc instead of being grilled we would all be a lot better off. My thoughts are with the family of that poor head teacher who took her own life.

It should be a smaller yearly check and a pass or fail system. Obviously any failings then a more in depth inspection should be had. This would mean schools are always being monitored but that it’s not as intense.

The threat of my children being murdered by the school caretaker would suck a lot of the joy out of parenting for me. Which is why I’m glad this school failed Ofsted for ignoring safeguarding laws put into place after the soham murders and put their children at risk of predators.

If the pressures of keeping children safe is too much for you, don’t teach.

www.cavershamprimary.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/10242325-Caversham-Primary-Sc-109778-final-PDF.pdf

And that there's timely follow-up if there's a problem with offer of support. Not a hiatus of thirteen years.

Well done, that HT.

I hope many others follow suit.

Ok, so you think it’s ok that couldn’t get the appropriate checks and just went ‘oh it’s probably fine’?

I do not.

I’m glad a head teacher is taking a stand and glad that some teachers have been striking. I think teaching in general hasn’t been a professional where they kick up a fuss about the conditions they work under- I’m glad they are starting to do that now. Hopefully there will be improvements for staff and pupils.
I know several teachers who left the profession due to the stress.

I don’t know how/if the over assessment of school children links to Ofsted too, but I’d like to see that changed.