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.

having read the ofsted report I think it's erroneous to dismiss it as 'just safeguarding'

i think to be able to judge this we'd need to really ti understand what the actual issues were - it's written too high level to understand or get a sense of how serious these things were and how much of a real and tangible risk they posed to students

i have a huge amount of sympathy for the head though - something about the pressure of regulatory regime really needs more research and investigation to ensure support is in place

Her sister has been interviewed. She speaks very persuasively about the change overnight in her sister. Family and friends are submitting text messages from before and after the inspection to the coroner as proof of what it did to her. Of course an inquest is more conclusive, but their testimony is very powerful.

I agree with you.

We had similar in retail - commercial reviews.

The whole point was you're supposed to be ready at all times.

Schools (Heads) know what Ofsted will be looking at. Just run your business the right way daily and surely it doesn't matter if they turn up on a whim?

I worked as a teacher after being in retail. Really didn't see what the fuss was all about. Literally couldn't have given a shit who was observing me - I was damn good at teaching. A couple of my colleagues were having mental breakdowns about being observed. Bizarre. We should actually not let people become teachers straight from school/college. Teachers should only go into teaching after having a 'proper' real world job for a while. That's probably one of the real reasons the Head's can't cope - school, uni, school. No real life experience!

What's actually ridiculous is that the majority of 'Outstanding ' schools achieve this based on paperwork. I've worked in Outstanding schools you couldn't pay me to send my own children to. Likewise, I've taught in 'failing' schools I would happily enrol my own at.

The system isn't fit for purpose , let's be honest.

Let good teachers teach.

Oh, I can believe the suicide is for the one reason, but then what is the answer? Claim it is a good school apart from the inconvenience of staff working there not having been checked? Because that’s really not a good school.

www.bera.ac.uk/blog/the-success-of-finnish-schools-lessons-from-a-high-performing-system

About time.

Who is Ofsted even for any more? I don;t know any parents who truly set any store by their measures. I hope parents turn out in support for this very brave Head.

This isn't a school. This is my work post-retirement from teaching. And this guy is a refugee from a country where there fuck all chance of getting much in the way of records. Though we do have references from his very reputable company where he was a high flying preofessional. No contact with kids involved.

But it does spell out that safeguarding in employment isn''t just about getting a DBS.

I’ve seen excellent teachers be reduced to tears by ofsted. I’ve been through quite a few inspections and can honestly say only once was it a supportive experience and that was many years ago.

I really hope this is the catalyst for change and the government finally listen to those who actually work in schools.

Just wanted to add my support - just a parent, but it has been obvious to me for a very long time that Ofsted is a disaster - they destroyed my DC's primary school - I had two happy kids there, after first one had already gone through to high school, Ofsted came in and said it required improvement, the extraordinary head who had set up the place and knew every kid by name and what pushed their buttons and was incredibly creative ended up going, the head who came turned it into a military camp, I ended up switching my DD out of there in Year 5 (and I was incredibly lucky to find another place in a nearby school - a school that was not a patch on the first one educationally, despite being rated "good", although it did have lovely kids for my DD to be friendly with, so wasn't a disaster).
My DD is now in Year 12, so it is that long ago - but it was clear to me from that experience that Ofsted is extraordinarily rigid and fixated on tick the box requirements that if anything hamper the provision of top quality education and indeed proper safeguarding.

Similarly in my DD's high school - the main occasions where I think the high school has made poor decisions, they are inevitably as a response to some dictate of Ofsted's - eg abolishing the three year GCSE - which they had traditionally implemented in a very creative way - by having a range of new subjects in Year 9 that broadened the education, were not for GCSE assessment, and gave the students a whole range of additional interests and life skills - such as first aid, public speaking and Chinese. Then Ofsted said they would not give outstanding to anybody with a three year GCSE, and the programme went. The school now has the usual bored Year 9 students taking yet another year of subjects they know they want to drop and hence cannot be bothered with.
I am certainly not against the idea of schools being regulated, but Ofsted should unquestionably be rated "inadequate" and replaced, and in the meantime, in my view, any sensible parent should support this head teacher.

So if it's literally just one reason, why doesn't every head teacher whose school is rated inadequate kill themselves?

Oh, I can believe the suicide is for the one reason, but then what is the answer? Claim it is a good school apart from the inconvenience of staff working there not having been checked

Yes, almost exactly that. Which was how it was done until relatively recently.

Yes, there'd be a big red flag about those issues with a demand for immediate action. But the whole school wouldn't be damned if in every other way, the children were getting a good education.

@itsgettingweird

Yep, I teach and I wouldn’t touch an outstanding school with a barge pole.

Having gone to an awful school (which was eventually shut down by ofsted), I'm horrified at this suggestion of withholding information about school performance from parents.

Context is important when it comes to ofsted ratings and results, but as a parent I want to know if my child is getting a good education, and be able to make an informed decision about which school to send my child to.

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

Can we ignore the rest of your post too.

In independent schools we have inspections by ISI approx every 6 years - which are a completely different experience to Ofsted. The inspectors are all current head teachers or deputy heads, they are looking for what is good as well as what we need to improve, don't care "how" you teach as they are looking for kids being safe and learning rather than a particular method, and their report (in our case at least) was pretty accurate imo. They noted things we were doing well (which was nice) and things to improve (which fed into our plans for the next couple of years).

But half way through the cycle there is an additional "regulatory compliance check" which is essentially an audit to make sure we are meeting our legal obligations (eg safeguarding, teaching RSE, policies which aren't discriminatory etc). The compliance check was very low stress - hand over all the records which you'd be keeping anyway and answer a few questions to make sure you haven't faked it all. I'd like to see the Ofsted do yearly compliance checks in both state and private schools and no are-you-teaching-using-the-latest-fad inspections at all.

It is awful that inadequate in one area results in an overall inadequate rating, and that label.

We talk about 'below expected' with children, surely that would be better?

Go Flora ! Ofsted are not fit for purpose

No, that really wasn't my point. I was responding to a point another poster made.
I do think also that it's only fair to point out that the staff had been DBS checked and it is much more difficult to manage the overseas police checks, if these aren't routine in another country. I'm not saying that further checks shouldn't have been done. But it doesn't seem to have been the case that the school was wilfully ignoring checks.

Because not all humans react to the same pressures in exactly the same way.

@saraclara do you honestly think that until recently a school could have not checked references of staff, not completed DBS checks and not checked their identify and been awarded ‘good’?

Because I am fairly sure that safeguarding has been a major reason for schools being graded inadequate for some time.

Ah, so what you mean is - there are other factors that contributed. Which is kind of the point.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-65019341

Just on BBC - unions request Ofsted inspections to be paused.

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

Welcome to primary teaching!

I can actually understand how the ‘shame’ (probably the wrong word but hopefully people know what I mean) could become a sort of monster in her mind and lead to suicide. It’s awful and it’s tragic. But it doesn’t mean that it is wrong for the school to have been labelled inadequate.

We can’t not hold people to account because they might commit suicide. I know that sounds lacking in compassion and I’m not in the slightest. I’m just concerned at how many teachers are delighted at the thought of OFSTED being barred entry to their schools without thinking that it gives a perfect green light for the corrupt and the incompetent to carry on being so.