To think that this proves the incompetance of Ofsted

[Filmbuffmum]

Having already annoyed me by deeming our lovely friendly local village primary school to be failing (and in their report stating that although the parents were pleased with the school, they- on the basis of a 2 day visit- knew better), I now have a more personal reason to be seriously furious with the whole Ofsted system.

I've recently taken over as chair of our parent led preschool, and 10 days ago spent an hour and forty minutes filling out the 23 page form required to change the name of the chairperson and Ofsted nominated contact. Decided to do this online to save time and paper. After 10 days of hearing nothing, I log on to discover that the entire application has disappeared.

Just grrrrrr.

This "in their report stating that although the parents were pleased with the school, they- on the basis of a 2 day visit- knew better" is common place with Ofsted these days.

I think that they've stopped publishing the table with breakdown of parental responses because there is such a disparity between parents' views (94% of parents are happy with their child's experience of school nationally) and their current political agenda to tell teachers that they're crap.

Listen on iplayer to this week's File on 4 (Radio 4) (think it was on on Wednesday night) for an informative (and infuriating) lowdown on Ofsted.

I hardly dare listen, because I'm already so irritated by the effect that the whole process has had on our community and the school. If they manage to demotivate all the existing teachers, who exactly do they think is going to take over?!

Having spent the last two weeks trying to jump through every hoop for our imminent ofsted I can see that our great parental feedback is hardly considered.

I know, my daughter's school has had the same this year. But, knowledge is power, as they say, and it may provide some comfort to you to know that this is a widespread problem, with some headteachers out there pursuing Ofsted through the courts because of blatantly unfair/inaccurate reports.

All of which is a little bit heartening, but will not regain me the 100 minutes which I spent filling out a lost form. In order to change one contact name. If they can't design and run a working website, what makes them think they could manage a school?

who exactly do they think is going to take over?!"

One of the academy chains run by one of their friends or some Tory donor is the answer to this.

Wilshaw was appointed the Head of Ofsted to ensure that as many schools as possible are deemed to be 'inadequate' and then Gove can use the powers reinstigated in the Education Act that he rushed through parliament last year to give them to academy chains.

It matters not a jot to Gove or any of his advisers that neither these chains nor Ofsted can run a school - all he cares about is weakening LA control, removing any collective negotiation power that teachers have through their unions, and ensuring that as much public money is used to line the already well-lined trousers of his friends and cronies.

i read the boys nursery Ofsted report .... countless time its mentions have various parts of the the nursery are outstanding / how well the kids are learning / how they have lovley outdoor space and are offered new things to do etc.... then quite a few paragraphs saying the govenors should be round visiting the nursery and the children every week, just to see what they are doing?? then awarded it a 'good'

I KNOW it is a fantastic place / the teachers are brilliant the TA's are brilliant and they all really care about the children they look after - I sent a cake in iced with SOD OFSTED WE KNOW YOUR BRILLIANT ;)

Love the cake idea but hope you didn't spell it like that, what with it being a school an' all .

Totally agree Rosebud 05 - what scares me is that the teaching unions seem to be so accepting of it. Why are they not striking? Why are they content to see their unions and rights pissed away? Academies are going to destroy state education and the life chances of millions of children.

I wouldn't say that teaching unions are just accepting of it - there have been localised strikes but you're right about there being nothing on a national level.

Part of the problem is the stealth by which the academy chains are being handed public assets. Also, that so many people believed the rhetoric a year ago about 'under performing schools' and that they could cite research to indicate that some of the academies established under Labour had had some success.

A year later, Ofsted are putting schools into categories to be 'eligible for intervention' left, right and centre and it turns out that there isn't any evidence for the success of converter academies (Prof Machin has publically criticised the government for trying to extrapolate his research findings). More and more is coming out about the high number of informal exclusions, high staff turnover, excessive use of vocational qualifications to 'game' the League tables within academies.

The only positive about the political use of Ofsted is that more schools and communities are being damaged, and forced academisation doesn't have the stigma or seem like something only happening to 'crap schools' that it did a year ago.