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.

It many many other countries schools

• don’t have league tables
• don’t publish results
• have something like a school improvement partner who comes and looks at the context of school’s results and helps them to move forward as a critical friend.

There is no evidence that OFSTED has improved school performance and there is no reason to think our education system is working better than counties without a totally different system.

It was rated outstanding 13 years ago which means it was exempt from inspection for 10 years. Covid added another 3 years to that. It was then rated inadequate, although good on every area except safeguarding.

I don’t disagree that checks should be more frequent @noblegiraffe but then it rather argues against them not being let in at all!

The school is highly praised; it is literally ‘just’ the safeguarding (inverted commas for obvious reasons.)

I work in schools and used to teach, also a total Ofsted geek/analyser/watcher.

I actually really like the new framework that has come in since 2019. It's far easier for schools in deprived areas to do well. The previous Framework was heavily skewed towards leafy/affluent/schools that play the system. It's much harder to hide and play the system now. The inspection is also far less onerous for classroom teachers. There is pressure on middle leaders however.

What I do have an issue with are the judgements. They should get rid. It's what makes the stakes so high and can decimate local communities. House prices affected for example.

@withgraceinmyheart not a single person on this thread is suggesting no accountability. It there are ways of making sure things are done right and that schools are accountable without causing so much pressure and stress.

It is a fact that teachers are leaving the profession in droves due to stress and unachievable expectations. This will lead to worse safeguarding, not better.

Heads are under emotions pressure for attendance, results, budgets. There is no money for anything. We cannot recruit decent Heads because it isn’t worth it.

Yes, you need an overseas police check for everyone who has lived outside the UK for the past five years. You better do that quickly (or as quickly as you can - ithey often take weeks to come back) or else your school will also be rated Inadequate. Isn’t this a simple matter of filling in a single central record and ensuring there are no gaps?

That said, I think they have recently introduced a requirement to check applicants’ social media profiles as part of safer recruitment checks. I don’t really understand what this entails or how to do it in a way that complies with Ofsted regulations. My setting would probably fail on that at the moment.

This thread is about the headteacher’s boycott of ofsted.

That is the definition of ‘no accountability’.

The detail about the employee from overseas was in the Sunday Times yesterday.

Worth noting the comments of the Director of Education for Reading:

"I will be stating whenever I go — meeting with parents, community representatives, colleagues, wherever — that Caversham Primary is an effective, quality education environment, and is not done justice by a one-word label of inadequate. Neither is Ruth’s leadership. Inspections judge a limited range of elements of a school on a given day. I had confidence in the quality of the school and its leadership before the inspection, and I had it after.”

It's not true that suicide is never for just one reason. Sometimes it really can be. This time I'm speaking from experience.

Absolutely.
Ironically, the result of being label a ‘failing school’ is often that the educational experience for children worsens. They lose the headteacher, half the staff leave or are highly stressed and it’s almost impossible to hire good classroom teachers.
That doesn’t help children.
Being given support to improve the areas that aren’t working is helpful.
But I’d argue that unless you have sensible ideas about what a ‘good’ school is like then even a supportive school improvement process will end up doing more harm than good.
For example, why does ofsted ignore almost all educational and developmental psychology research about how children learn best?

She’s boycottting as a protest, to make a point that ofsted isn’t fit for purpose.

plenty of other countries manage without a punitive inspection process.

Well done headteacher!

I'm "just" a childminder and the pressure from Ofsted is horrendous. I was grilled for five hours non stop, whilst trying to actually do my job at the same time. I didn't take a breath all day. The "issues" she found were nonsense, because in her words, they have to find recommendations or they have to give outstanding and she never gives outstanding.

I didn't sleep for weeks afterwards, I was thoroughly miserable and lost all confidence in everything that I did. I nearly gave up. If that's how I feel caring for 6 children, I can't even imagine how heads feel.

It's actually quite shocking that there can be no inspection for so long.

I do think headteachers are stuck between a rock and a hard place and the dire number of applicants for HT posts reflects this. When you get further down the school it's really hard to fill both teacher and TA jobs. For TAs, particularly those working with SEND students, the pay is utterly dire for the level of responsibility, often you'll be better off working in a supermarket with no safeguarding responsibilities for children.

I can see there could be a situation - given checks abroad presumably take some time - that sometimes the risk reduction from being properly staffed will seem like the best overall risk reduction measure rather than waiting for all the checks. Of course they still shouldn't do it, but I can see how that might seem the best option or the stress of trying to run a school without enough staff might lead to poor decisions.

All the schools around me have loads of TA vacancies. No-one wants these jobs any more. They don't pay well enough for the stress / responsibility.

Solidarity Flora! Leadership in action. There has to be a better way to support headteachers through inspections and accountability without public stone throwing that leads to complete mental health breakdowns and career suicide.

That's not true in primary schools. Especially small schools. We have to lead subjects that we aren't specialists in, usually with no extra money or time given to do the work, and can be called in with an inspector for a subject 'deep dive'.

The current framework doesn't work for small schools or schools in deprived areas.

18% of schools in deprived areas are consistently rated good.
63% of schools in the least deprived areas are consistently rated good.

ffteducationdatalab.org.uk/2022/03/30-years-of-ofsted/

Small primaries 5 times more likely to be inadequate.

www.tes.com/magazine/news/primary/ofsted-small-primaries-five-times-more-likely-be-inadequate

Ofsted isn't fair and it's not neutral. Even if the inspection process was fair it’s intricately linked with so many socio-economic and political purposes. Think about house prices, parental anxieties, staff recruitment challenges , academisation pressures, impact on teachers’/leaders’ families. You're right on judgements.

The thing is, the very fact this head has taken this decision shows how broken state education is.

Either she's acting recklessly, in which case why did she get through the supposedly rigorous process of appointing a head and why is she in charge of the education of so many children? Or she's got a legitimate point, in which case there needs to be serious change (in light of the other strikes I'd suggest it's most likely to be the latter).

Can't have it both ways.

It's not true that suicide is never for just one reason. Sometimes it really can be

Yes it certainly can; we just don't know if that was the case here, which is why some of us have suggested waiting for the inquest rather than weaponising this tragedy

I am not a teacher so excuse my ignorance but why are you teaching a language you don’t speak?

Good!
Ofsted isn’t a natural way of assessing schools and how they meet provision at all!

All schools have ‘Ofsted plans’ that come into place as soon as there’s a whiff of an inspection. ‘Perfect’ lesson plans and perfectly well behaved kiddos is NOT what Ofsted should be about.

What should headteachers do to try to force a change here?

The headteacher’s suicide wasn’t an isolated incident. Other headteachers have had breakdowns over poor Ofsteds. Tom Sherrington of Walkthru fame documented the impact of his at the time.

No one in government seems to be listening to people working in schools.

Ha, thought I was going bonkers for a minute. Though you did put it better than me!

The NAHT has issued a statement calling for all inspections to be paused.

www.naht.org.uk/News/Latest-comments/Press-room/ArtMID/558/ArticleID/2005/preview/true/School-leaders-call-for-pause-on-Ofsted-inspections-after-Ruth-Perry-tragedy

Exactly

How brave and admirable. My best friend left state school teaching for the sake of his mental health, in spite of his left leaning principles. He is now a much loved and much happier teacher in the private sector and no longer has to deal with ofsted and the associated management bullying that comes with this style of appraisal. Schools can’t afford to lose more teachers like him!

I think she’s being reckless. I’m not sure how that having it both ways?

Well done the headteacher