School given noticed today that ofsted arriving tomorrow?

[oldstudentmum]

Not a teacher btw. Is this the norm as schools that kids have attended all got longer notice and we were sent forms to fill out for inspector. Any thoughts 💭

I rather think it’s you that is wrong!

It’s Ofsted, by the way.

Schools don't get a tip off. If you are in a Trust they may work their way round a number of schools in the Trust, but there is no tip off.

If you are in a small Primary take some cakes for the staff room for tomorrow, they will be appreciated

They absolutely do not get a tip-off. Phone call at lunch time for next day inspection. We've just had ours. Ofsted seem to be doing the rounds locally. Schools who are overdue an inspection know to expect one soon, but they don't know when. My school had been expecting one since September last year!

I'm surprised they even get told the day before tbh. They should just be able to drop in and inspect.

There are things that can make it inappropriate for them to just pop in unannounced.
The death of a teacher for example (or a student).

That was the original plan back in 2012, but it was agreed that the logistical issues of making sure all the necessary people, including governors, were on site and available during the inspection needed the half day. There are no notice inspections where they call essentially from the car park, but those are more focused (safeguarding) and involve less general upheaval.

Thanks for sharing, I hope ofsted put a bullet up their arses.

@TheFallenMadonna it's still hard to get governors on site with half a day's notice, as they are volunteers and many have full-time jobs. Something some Inspectors seem to forget when they change the time of when they want to speak to governors

Ah I see. So if someone died in between them calling and the inspection they'd call it off? That seems fair enough.

I’m in Scotland but HMIE are in my kids’ school this week, we got a letter home a couple of weeks ago and a link to a parent questionnaire

They can but it's not practical. The inspectors require:

• a specific room just for them that they can use as a base,
• the headteacher to be available at set, specific times for meetings and "keeping in touches" during the inspection,
• the surveyed views of parents, staff and children ahead of time,
• subject leaders to be out of class for the specific subjects they are inspecting (in our last, I was out of class for almost 3 hours just on day 1),
• subject leaders to 'present' books and other documented learning
• timetables to be rearranged so that they can see specific foundation lessons or specific core lessons at set times,
• the governers to be in school and available for their meeting.

Ofsteds are not a "seeing things as normal" process. They only work with set high-speed timetables and the co-ordination of staffing.

Oh I'm aware, although meetings can happen on Teams now, which is a plus. I'm just saying that's one of the reasons Michael Wilshaw didn't get the no notice inspections he was after.

@Iamnotthe1 All sounds very impressive and thorough. Thanks for explaining.

Being due for an inspection is not the same as getting a tip off.

Why's that, then?

Also, was the thread by chance started to complain that the school weren't giving you enough notice to complete the parent survey?😂😂😂

Yup. It’s how it’s done, to try to inspect the school as ‘normally’ as possible.
tiu should fill in Parent View. The inspectors do look at the responses.

‘Being due for an inspection is not the same as getting a tip off.’

every school in the bloody country is expecting one any day! When you’re due one the school leaders are on tenderhooks.
the amount of documentation that schools have to give inspectors is astounding.

The shorter notice the better, that way Ofsted get a true feel of the school. Anything more than a day gives school chance to put the best work on display, have meetings about what they want to portray and persuade teachers to have lunch with children in the hall or be out in the playground so it looks like they enjoy being with the children so much they don't want 20mins to themselves (which they're entitled to).

‘Thanks for sharing, I hope ofsted put a bullet up their arses.’

How pleasant! If you think the school is so terrible, I assume you’ve raised your concerns already or are planning on taking your children out?

A school in my area was inspected recently, and one of their curriculum deep dives was into a subject for which the subject-lead had died a term earlier, and not yet been replaced (it is a non-core subject that is notoriously difficult to recruit for). They couldn't change the subject because the inspection team included an inspector whoose specialism was in that subject.

Have worked in RI, Good and Outstanding schools and they definitely don't know and day before is the standard. A lot of heads make educated guesses if Ofsted are in the area, a new head teacher, lots of parental complaints to boards, not had one for a long time etc or if the school has deferred for reasons (I.e a school in Covid deferred as it was early in Covid and staff absence was too high) which means Ofsted will be back soon as they can only do this once. But yeah less than 24 hrs is norm

@MrsDThomas - given you can’t even spell Ofsted, get back in your box.

Where I live its ESTYN.

<an old gimmer writes>

I was a parent governor, elected 24 years ago this month. At my first meeting a few days later the Head announced that they had been given a date for Ofsted to come in - the following summer! A large team arrived, every teacher in the school was observed, and they were in school for four full days, I think.

Much, much better to give almost no notice. Less nerve-wracking on balance, far more realistic.