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Original poster

Ofsted needs to be abolished (Trigger warning)

387 replies

MrsMurphyIWish · 17/03/2023 09:29

Watched this heartbreaking story today:

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001k4r9

A headteacher took her own life as her school was rated inadequate. The pressures Ofsted creates are immense. Last week Ofsted were on strike Wednesday so decided to break protocol and rang schools Friday to conduct inspections on Monday - some schools were off for snow but that wasn’t a good enough reasons and even if the messages were picked up, that meant school staff would have worries over the weekend - some even going into school. Then there were schools who complained as these schools were given “extra notice”. Ofsted has created such a toxic work environment.

How has it come to this? A teacher who dedicated their life to education feels that a one word judgement meant life wasn’t worth living?

OP posts:
Thread gallery
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noblegiraffe · 18/03/2023 14:49

It's the process that is under criticism.

Original poster
MrsMurphyIWish · 18/03/2023 14:49

I currently work in an outstanding school (although haven’t had an inspection for 13 years). It’s a toxic environment and I only cope with it as I’m part time.

My children attend a “good” and a “RI” school. They are so happy, progressing well and they love their schools. I’m only hope their staff aren’t under the pressure I feel as I know they’re turning my children into wholesome members of society.

OP posts:
Shinyandnew1 · 18/03/2023 15:13

MrsMurphyIWish · 18/03/2023 14:49

I currently work in an outstanding school (although haven’t had an inspection for 13 years). It’s a toxic environment and I only cope with it as I’m part time.

My children attend a “good” and a “RI” school. They are so happy, progressing well and they love their schools. I’m only hope their staff aren’t under the pressure I feel as I know they’re turning my children into wholesome members of society.

Having worked at Good, Outstanding and RI schools-sadly, it’s probably the case that the staff at the RI schools do feel huge amounts of pressure, just like you.

I was much happier working at a school rated ‘Good’ (apart from when in the ofsted window) as we were pretty much left to get on and just do our jobs. As an RI school, it was a huge struggle to recruit and retain staff and the pressure and stress from above to get out of a category was immense.

GrimDamnFanjo · 18/03/2023 15:33

noblegiraffe · 18/03/2023 14:38

The issue here is what OFSTED uncovered

No it's not. The issue is with how it was dealt with.

Dealt with by who?
Genuine question.

noblegiraffe · 18/03/2023 15:42

GrimDamnFanjo · 18/03/2023 15:33

Dealt with by who?
Genuine question.

Show quote history

By Ofsted. The whole system.

The fact the school wasn't inspected for 13 years was the first failing.

The second is the incredibly pressurised nature of the inspection.

The third is the incredibly high stakes nature of the grading system - a school being Inadequate has enormous consequences.

The fourth is the public and personal nature of the reporting.

The fifth is that the headteacher, on being informed of the outcome wasn't allowed to discuss this with anyone.

And after that, the sixth was the absolutely appalling way the headteacher's death was casually inserted into the Ofsted report, that the school were then legally obliged to post on the school website.

alienslove · 18/03/2023 16:17

Schools should be inspected more often in a different way and then helped to improve things that need improving. The problem is so many schools haven't been inspected for so long that the whole staff is entirely different.
It's in dire need of change...

ThunderThighs123 · 18/03/2023 18:55

Absolutely. Words of wisdom from noble giraffe.

ThunderThighs123 · 18/03/2023 19:29

cantkeepawayforever · 17/03/2023 11:52

Politicalnamechange,

I think the difficulty with teaching (vs, for example, financial work) is that so much of the output is not ‘visible’ on paper in the same way.

So, for example, an experienced teacher could teach a lesson with the objective ‘To calculate unit fractions of an amount’ with very little more than that objective, their own personal knowledge of that class, a jar of counters, a whiteboard and a pen. Sone children may have almost no work in their books after the lesson, having used the counters throughout, but will emerge from the lesson with a secure understanding. Others may have a variety
of numbers written down in their books.

The teacher will have a good knowledge, as a result of the lesson, who understands, who doesn’t, and what tomorrow’s lesson should look like.

However, for inspection, everything must be documented (and obviously as inspection is short notice, this tends to mean that documentation becomes a routine burden even if not required). There needs to be a written plan. Specific adaptations must be detailed as evidence of meeting SEN needs. Marking books is done to evidence that the teacher knows what the child can do - and so on.

With such a high-stakes inspection system, so much is done ‘just in case’.

This.^^

ThunderThighs123 · 18/03/2023 19:30

Loupenny25 · 17/03/2023 11:55

It's because the list of things you "should be" doing doesn't even fit in a 13 hour day. Teaching is a constant juggling act of sorting out the absolute most pressing tasks while shouldering the weight and guilt of all the things you should be doing but don't have time for.

So for example when I taught Year 1 in a particular school I had 120 books to mark every evening (English, Maths, RE and Topic). And not just a few ticks and a smiley stamp.... a multicoloured, 2 stars and a wish, next steps kind of marking! Now let's say one day you are feeling really ill so you leave without doing the marking that night. Well the next day you've got 120 to do again, you can't do 240 pieces of work so you skip that day. Then you can't catch up at the weekend as that's when you do your planning, catch up on your assessments and maybe look at your own children.

But OFSTED might ask why that day was never marked, so the night before the inspection you've got to go back and "fake" mark it. That's just one example I can think of, and yes, I only stayed at that school for a year and had a lovely breakdown mixed in too!

Show quote history

So true!

ChestnutGrove · 18/03/2023 19:47

There was a post on mumsnet recently about a comp in London. The Head had written an article about her time there after she retired. She said when the school was rated Outstanding she got 2 emails from parents congratulating her and 7 saying "You might have been rated Outstanding but don't think that means I'm happy with the school." Does make you wonder how much pressure parents put on if they dont get a good rating. That school might have had exceptionally demanding parents I guess.

cantkeepawayforever · 18/03/2023 21:53

I wonder whether an unintended consequence of academisation and the decimation of LA services is the disappearance of professional and personal support for heads after a difficult Ofsted? A primary that is a stand alone academy or in a small MAT might well be a very isolated place for a Head in that position.

LolaSmiles · 18/03/2023 22:02

Isn't that why they're slowly suggesting that large MATs come and swallow up smaller, local MATs? It certainly feels that way.
The large MATs in our region seem to have large bloated central management and school improvement teams.

Maximo2 · 18/03/2023 22:46

Screenshots of the above Facebook link

Ofsted needs to be abolished (Trigger warning)
Ofsted needs to be abolished (Trigger warning)
Maximo2 · 18/03/2023 22:47

NAHT and NEU are writing an emergency motion.

Colourfingers2 · 18/03/2023 22:54

Ofstead was dreamt up by Tony Blair’s government. Did anything good ever come out of that shower?

saraclara · 18/03/2023 23:22

Colourfingers2 · 18/03/2023 22:54

Ofstead was dreamt up by Tony Blair’s government. Did anything good ever come out of that shower?

There was nothing wrong with the idea when it was brought in thirty-odd years ago. My school was one of the first in the country to be inspected, and the procedure was massively different from what it is now.

It's more recent governments that have turned it into the cruel and punitive thing that it is now, and have used it as a tool to benefit their friends who run Academy trusts and to get one over on local authorities (especially those with Labour majorities)

noblegiraffe · 18/03/2023 23:56

Ofsted came in under John Major. What a bizarre thing to try to blame this on Labour.

Colourfingers2 · 19/03/2023 00:56

noblegiraffe · 18/03/2023 23:56

Ofsted came in under John Major. What a bizarre thing to try to blame this on Labour.

No it didn’t.

Maximo2 · 19/03/2023 03:09

onefile.co.uk/explore/why-was-ofsted-introduced/

Labour, my arse.

OxanaVorontsova · 19/03/2023 03:42

I endured my first Ofsted inspection before labour won the election so it was definitely John Major.

pimplebum · 19/03/2023 06:48

My partner is on anti depressants due to ofsted pressure which stated to be put on two years before the inspection , now it's over they are physically really run down and sick - all the work done does not Benefit the kids one bit

wehavenotomatoes · 19/03/2023 08:49

@LolaSmiles yes absolutely.

And I would take away the notice, whether two days or a weekend or whatever. Teachers shouldn't be going back and fake marking or making special lesson plans or anything else for them. They should be there to see what provision is there FOR THE ACTUAL CHILDREN.
If the marking is so poor, over an extended period that it's impacted outcomes, then it should impact judgement and no one should be allowed to fake that. If not, then judge based on what the children actually experience, verbal feedback, conversations, peer marking, not stupid stamps and stickers etc.
ditto lesson planning. Either a lesson is planned or it isn't, and that can be judged by watching a lesson and seeing the outcomes. It doesn't need power points or school pro formas - fine if that's what the teacher wants to use to help themselves day to day anyway and happens to hand them to the inspector, but if someone is an experienced professional with half the content in their head, that should only be judged negatively if it impacts children negatively.
Then within their 'satisfactory' reports they could put a lot more formative feedback about what they appreciated and what could be improved, not a pointless page of numbers.

MrsHamlet · 19/03/2023 09:03

Notice is less than 24 hours. And got multiple reasons, it cannot be less than that.

LolaSmiles · 19/03/2023 09:17

wehavenotomatoes
I think I agree in principle with some of your ideas, but there's some issues in taking the approach you outline.

Unfortunately it isn't the case that learning can be easily observed, which means schools spend a lot of time trying to make things obvious just in case a stranger shows up.

Some real examples I've seen expected as general expectations:

  1. Lesson objectives printed and glued in or on a sticker. The teacher must tick off what level every child has hit the objective for every lesson. (30 children x 4 or 5 lessons a day)
  1. Books marked daily for core subjects
  1. Tracking sheets or stickers on the front/in the cover of books whet teachers and students have to copy out of duplicate record assessment information.
  1. A piece of work has to be marked in detail, the pupil has to be given a personalised task after the piece of work, the pupil completes the personalised task, and that needs marking. Some also have a full redraft of the original piece of work.
  1. Written feedback for reception and year 1 children who cannot read yet.
  1. Assorted initiatives from SLT or aspiring SLT to prove that they've done something with the expensive Ofsted wants course that they attended. These must be printed and stuck in the books to show it's been done. The language is more for showing Ofsted you have used their buzz word than the children.

A lot of that is done daily, not because it's good for children, but because there's less than 24 hours notice for Ofsted and so everything has to be Ofsted ready at all times.

Ofsted ready does not mean providing a high quality education for children. Ofsted ready means having largely meaningless stuff in place on top of being a decent teacher.

We don't have to have special lesson plans on the day, but people will often have them because Ofsted have shown that they make it up as they go along and will conclude that if they didn't see A/B/C in the 10 minutes they're in then the teacher mustn't do it.