School Ofsted Inspection reform is absolute bollocks

[noblegiraffe]

So after the long campaign to get rid of the Outstanding grade post the suicide of Ruth Perry, they have merely renamed it 'Exceptional'.

Good is now Strong Standard
They've reinstated the old Satisfactory as Expected Standard.
Requires Improvement and Inadequate are now Needs Attention and Urgent Improvement

As currently, schools will not get a headline grade but will be assessed in 6 areas against these grades. Safeguarding will be separate and 'met' or 'not met'.

The areas are curriculum and teaching, attendance and behaviour, inclusion, achievement, personal development and wellbeing, and leadership and governance.

"Schools deemed to require significant improvement - judged as “urgent improvement” in any evaluation area or “not met” in safeguarding - will receive up to five extra inspections within 18 months.
Schools that are judged to require special measures - graded as “urgent improvement” in leadership and governance or “not met” in safeguarding, and given the lowest grade in at least one other evaluation area - will receive up to six inspections within 24 months."

Workload, workload, workload. This is going to be awful.

Inspections start in November.

https://www.tes.com/magazine/news/general/ofsted-first-report-card-inspections-voluntary

If you are a head teacher, could I ask a question?

If we all just broke the conspiracy of silence at the same time, and spoke out as teachers and parents on the same team, would the teachers get in trouble?

I know the parents are afraid to speak out because they are afraid of the teachers, but are there consequences for the teachers if they speak out?

I read exam nation and clearly that guy is okay with speaking out. I wondered if more of us could do it.

I think if the answer is that "good" is a good school and "outstanding" is a school that's burning up the staff and pupils from trying too hard, then that's a clear message that could be put out there.

A lot of parents round here tell me that "requires improvement" is the sweet spot.

@MrsMurphyIWish☹️ That breaks my heart that your colleagues have been in tears. I have no work experience of education but as a parent I’ve seen myself how bloody hard you all work. I know that DD’s teacher often doesn’t get home from work until 9pm+!
Also as someone with zero training in teaching, even I read that article re: the OFSTED changes and thought huh? How is that any improvement???

True but the point I was trying to make is my Head is an inspector and this is how they’ve interpreted the new framework and thus will be expecting other schools to also exhibit the same standards.

Well now you’ve got the Labour Government you wanted. Can’t blame the ‘Tories’ any more Just get Bridget to fix it.

Massive missed opportunity by the government and ofsted. I wasn't that optimistic at the outset, and really disappointed by the outcome. All they've done is change some words and separate SG off to some extent (spent God knows how much on this 'review'.) Don't rate Bridget Philipson at all after this.

It is to do with ofsted anyway, obviously! They set the structure, tone and targets that heads then enforce.
You have my sympathy @MrsMurphyIWish, not that it helps

The problem is there has got to be a system that assesses schools and identifies positives and areas for improvement. The unions don’t want that, so they are never going to agree to any reform of Ofsted.

There are huge disparities in the quality of schools across the country, and it does a disservice to children to brush these under the carpet rather than identify and address them.

The Ruth Perry case is tragic, but bereaved families cannot be in charge of national policy decisions, as they perfectly understandably have particular perspectives.

Of course the inspection system should be fair and humane. Unfortunately though it also has to identify some very serious issues in schools, which is never going to be pleasant for those involved.

OFSTED is not and has never been fit for purpose. Most inspectors force too much emphasis on attendance when some parents do not care if their children attend or not.

I think there are a few key reasons why education is so low down the list of voter priorities.

The over-60s make up a huge part of the people who actually vote. They likely prioritise policies on health over education.

15% of British adults have the literacy and numeracy skills of primary school children.

Add in a significant proportion of kids who come from ‘anti-intellectual’ backgrounds that don’t place much emphasis on education, it’s not surprising that overall, education is not a big election issue

The only time since the 80s that I can remember where education did seem to be a key election issue was 1997 where Labour promised to significantly increase spending on health and education.

Education spending fell steadily from 4.5% to 4% of GDP under Thatcher and Major. It then rose to a 40 year high of almost 5.5% of GDP under Labour in 2010.

Cameron and his austerity policies reduced it back to under 4%.

So the pattern is pretty clear and in the current environment where cost of living and immigration are the two key concerns of voters, I’ll be surprised if education is much of a priority come the next election in 2029.

But “outstanding” doesn’t necessarily mean that the school is burning out the staff.

My daughter teaches in a secondary school that was inspected by Ofsted last year. There was no overall judgement by then, but all categories were assessed as being outstanding and the Ofsted report described the school as exceptional and commented on the priority given to staff well-being. Pupils are described as flourishing.

My daughter, now in her 4th year of teaching, is extremely happy there. From what she tells me, the rest of the staff seem to be too. She didn’t find the Ofsted process at all stressful - the head specifically told everyone to carry on as normal and do nothing different. She works hard, but she feels valued and supported by the senior leadership team. She took on a new role this term and has already received two emails from her boss complimenting and thanking her for her strong start to the year.

I think she is lucky to be in such a good school, and just wish that more schools were like hers.

Before anyone asks, it is an Academy.

@Fifthtimelucky I suspect your DD doesn't have children yet?

This is a grim post given that the coroner specifically said that Ofsted contributed to the suicide of Ruth Perry and that changes needed to be made in a Prevention of Future Deaths report. This isn't a 'bereaved family in charge of national policy', but a legal process to try to prevent future suicides.

The unions, and all teachers know that there has to be accountability because of the incredibly serious nature of the job that we do. This isn't the problem.

One of the major problems is how high stakes the process is. That it is punitive, not supportive. That it is not reliable and affected by things outside of a HT's control.

It's well known, for example, that Ofsted outcomes correlate with the wealth of the intake.

And the parents face no consequences. Especially the weekend or absent parent, which in almost all cases is the dad.

Ofsted in it's current form is fantastic for schools that can talk the talk and play the game, outstanding really doesn't necessarily mean that your child will be better educated or have a better learning experience. That's one of the biggest problems with it, it would be better as a support to improve model.

@noblegiraffeNo. Not yet, but I’m sure other teachers there do.
The head certainly does, because my daughter used to teach him!

Perhaps she will feel differently when (or if) she has children, but it seems to me that a management team that is genuinely supportive of its staff doesn’t suddenly stop being supportive when one of them becomes pregnant.

No but the job becomes very different once you have your own children. It's not family friendly.

I will say the changes I like, are inclusion, and attendance being set individual categories, if and only if, as they've said they focus on things like the proper long-term interventions to help those who struggle with attedance, things like poverty, and SEN and MH and didability and not just rewards for 100%. The same for inclusion and things on wellbeing, and quality of teaching, do they focus on developing teaching well, are they supportive of staff etc. Time will tell if that happens, some hints at it, but also hints the other way.

I do like the fact that teams will now have 1 more Inspector during inspections. As well as the change that allows 1 member of SLT works with the Inspector team not just during inspections but across the school year. I do like the fact that each category will be graded itself, and I think that's better. I do think Ofsted or inspections are needed, we can't expect that schools shouldn't be held to high standards but we also need an inspection system which is fair, and doesn't induce so many problems of stress, more work etc. It's a balance but right now too much that way.

I do like the fact that each category will be graded itself, and I think that's better.

The previous categories were individually graded too and there were only 4 of them.

The removal of the overarching grade was a direct response to the suicide of Ruth Perry because of the extremely high stakes associated with it.

But what that has now done is increased the stakes on the graded categories. And there are now 6 and not 4 of them.

Yes I know that. But I mean that there won't be ant headline grade at all, they were all put in a category in the report yes, but not many actually go through that as much. The fact that all the sections: leadership, teaching, inclusion, attendance, achievement etc will be given a category and that there won't be a headline grade, but each category marked - which will mean they are all looked at more.

It just means that each grade is now a headline grade.

True but for a specific area, if a school has a mix, you aren't going to be able to say it's all Exceptional or Strong standard, and I think from shadow inspections it shows that it's unlikely a school doesn't have a mix between 2 or 3 of the judgements. It also allows you to have a more specific judgment for the area, which I think is fairer.

Do I think all the changes are good, no but I do think some are. There's clearly way more that needs to be done, but that also depends on thr re-training and new guidelines for inspectors, which I think should have received more pressure to be changed and reworked.

True but for a specific area, if a school has a mix, you aren't going to be able to say it's all Exceptional or Strong standard

Which is why schools are now going to be whipping staff to become all exceptional in all areas. Like the PP's school whose teachers are being ordered to run clubs. And that's coming from an inspector who knows the framework. That's going to massively increase workload.

For those that haven't been following

It used to be

Outstanding
Good
Satisfactory
and inadequate.

Because satisfactory meant that you were ok at your job it became

Outstanding
Good
Requires improvement (god forbid that you could just do your job)
and inadequate.

They then said that ofsted were not going to measure teachers ability and it was all about the school (yeah right)

So now its

Exceptional
Good
Satisfactory
Needs Attention
and Urgent Improvement

And just to back up @noblegiraffe's post that at a point in time where schools, the DfE and the government are all supposed to be trying to reduce workload.
Ofsted comes in and fucks it all up again with rule changes that benefit no-one and is just a quango making itself important.