To think that unannounced OFSTED inspections are great news.

[Trapper]

The rules about giving 3 days notice were ridiculous. At least some good has come out of this debacle

In principle, I have no opposition, but OFSTED will need to change their expectations to something feasible to sustain. The level of detail in planning, and "showcase" lessons simply can't be performed in 4-5 lessons a day, everyday.

3 days notice was a long time ago, schools get a phone call the afternoon before an inspection.

How many school governors will be able to drop what they are doing and pitch up for a no-notice inspection? My employer would take a very dim view of me giving them no-notice to stop what I was doing for a few hours to attend a meeting with Ofsted.
Para 102 of the new Ofsted framework;

"102. Inspectors should meet with as many governors during an inspection as is possible, and should determine how well governing bodies evaluate the performance of the school, particularly in terms of: pupil progress; the leadership of teaching; the management of staff; and the difference made by initiatives such as the pupil premium, the Year 7 catch-up premium, or the new primary school sport funding."

So if Ofsted are inspecting within their own rules then no-notice inspections are as unworkable now as they were 2 years ago when this idea was squashed. Or do rules not apply to the DfE and Ofsted?

I think it's great. More natural.
But actually LESS stress for everyone - my parents are both teachers and the three days pre inspection are like a stress fuelled hell. At least it's over and done with with no build up

Notice is currently under 24 hours. As a school governor, I do wonder how I'd be expected to be free for an immediate grilling at any point determined by Ofsted, without even the afternoon I currently have to reschedule other commitments where possible.

Never mind governors not being available for no-notice inspections, how would it be if the HT was not there? This could quite easily happen if the inspectors turn up with no notice at all if they are on a training course, meeting etc?

Great if all the people the inspectors need to speak to are actually on site, what if they aren't? If a Head has a Team around the Child meeting offsite and a teaching Deputy/Assistant Head who are Ofsted supposed to liaise with in the school? The secretary or admin assistant? Perhaps the cook or caretaker will be able to show them around and talk them through RaiseOnline and pupil progress data?

I think it's very telling that Gove's solution to a problem of his own making is punitive dawn raids on schools.

As others have said, schools don't get 3 days notice, they get a phone call the afternoon before, and yes, ensuring unpaid governors with full time jobs are available with an afternoon's notice is hard enough!

This just shows what many people know about the inspection system. I've worked for over 10 year and we've never had 3 days notice for an inspection.
And I agree, expectations would have to be changed.

X-post with Unexpected and Brecon great minds and all that... If this goes ahead Ofsted will leave itself open to claims that it is not operating within its own framework and guidance, you cannot make judgements on leadership and governance unless you speak to the school leader and governors, if you try to then any judgements will unsafe and could be challenged in law.

Flash inspections just to see if schools are not bedlam is fine and i'd agree with them.

If they want detail detail and more detail there has to be notice.

Flash inspections just to see if schools are not bedlam is fine and i'd agree with them.

I don't understand what this means? Do inspectors just walk around the school and look at behaviour? As long as there is no shouting/running in corridors then they tick a box and go home? What if it's end-of-exams prank day, sports day or summer fair would that be an immediate fail?

There's no way flash inspections are going to be just to check schools are not bedlam.

In some respects it's a great idea, but in others it would be a nightmare.

Maybe, as someone else suggested, flash inspections could be done with no notice, but the more indepth inspections done with a couple of days notice.

I'm a school governor, I also have a job, children and a million other things, I can't just drop everything with no notice. Would lack of governors involvement during an inspection risk the school being down rated? If so, it's totally unreasonable to drop that on a school with no notice.

When my school had its last inspection, the inspectors expected a lot of the governors, I was in school for a whole day, I had 48 hours notice to arrange childcare/swap work days/change meetings. I couldn't do that with no notice.

Also, what about stuff like whole school trips? Development days?

Our last inspection had to be delayed by a few days as the school was closed for development days due to moving. Thanks to our twatty council and their inability to organise a piss up in a brewery, we had 4 days to pack up and move schools so the head added 2 development days. If Ofsted had just rocked up with no notice they would have found a packed up school with no pupils in it

Surely they could do the classroom inspections turning up unannounced and have the interviews 3 days later.

It's a great idea and much fairer.

Sorry, pressed post too soon.

I know things like moving or whatever isn't a normal thing, but would it be a case of "Ok, we'll come back", or "tough luck, no excuses, you're now in special measures"?

It's a silly knee-jerk reaction to a few schools running a amok.

Overnight warning of an inspection seems reasonable. It doesn't allow enough time to create the illusion of success in a failing establishment, but it's sufficient to avoid staff being stunned into failure.

You could do a flash inspection, and then follow up later for more detail.

I've worked in regulated industries, and unannounced inspections are the norm.

Good grief you'd think teachers were the only people that ever get inspected. I used to work in scientific research and any number of government departments could have turned up unannounced to check whether basic standards were being met on a day to day basis. That's just the way it was.

But it's not actually about whether teachers and schools should be inspected. Ofsted don't pop in to check on basic standards, all happy to fit in with whatever's going on when they rock up. Besides checking the place isn't Bedlam (!),they expect to evaluate lessons, discuss data, meet with the SMT and governors. This simply isn't possible if the day they choose happens to coincide with any number of factors that have been listed already - school trips, sports day, staff training off the premises, etc, etc.

Our school was Ofsted during Sports Week,things carried on as normal.

YABU. It's just silly. Schools get only a day's advance notice as it is. The current inspections are already quite capable of detecting problems in a school, believe me.

This is just another way Gove and the current government can pretend they're doing something to improve education without actually devoting any new money or resources to schools. Ugh. Big headlines, no money spent: win/win for them, but not for pupils.

I agree with no notice inspections. we run a business. the health and safety and food hygiene officers give no notice they just turn up. then they are seeing the place as it is not as it should be/we want it to be/we know they want it to be. it keeps us on our toes - self compliance and self assessment to make sure we are doing the right things. just don't buy the argument that schools are special and need notice. if an inspection takes 3 days you can surely meet up with everyone you need to over that time.

The point of inspections is to see how things are, for good or bad.

Advance notice enables weak members of staff to be absent, troublesome pupils to be corralled and hidden from view, phony 'best' lessons to be planned and delivered and so on.

If anyone, in any profession, finds themselves doing things differently because they are being observed, they should have a long, hard think to themselves about what the hell they are up to and whether they are in the right job.

If the adage, "Those who can, teach." is true, let them prove it.

No notice inspection wouldn't work as people say. What if the head or senior teams are out possibly on a residential at least they could get back currently.
Also There are lessons that children have to do such as independent writing (think big writes) or end of year tests. If OFSTEAD walked into that lesson it would be failed straight away as the children are making no progress. However they are lessons that need to be done. The current knowledge of less than 24 hours is sufficient as realistically how much change can be made in one night. You can't change teaching style or data overnight because data has to be backed up.

"I think it's very telling that Gove's solution to a problem of his own making is punitive dawn raids on schools"

Yep. Isn't it just.