Ofsted needs to be abolished (Trigger warning)

[MrsMurphyIWish]

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?

Just in case anyone has actually read the Caversham report, the lead inspector was a HMI. The vast majority of the report is very positive.

It’s not true that it was one incident of employment checks. It’s made clear the governors were not holding the head to account on safeguarding. It’s difficult to get away from safeguarding being a legal requirement. It seems to me that, as so many comments are excellent, it’s very odd that the school was not on the ball with safeguarding. It’s drummed into schools! There’s loads of advice and training for governors from the LA. Heads also should know what’s required after all these years. It’s so unbelievably sad this led to such a tragedy. It was totally avoidable.

no it doesn't -not even nearly

I don't know what teachers are moaning about. They need to be monitored and audited to make sure standard are maintained
I'm not going to respond to most of the weird anti teacher rant, but you're going to be awfully disappointed to find that Ofsted does very little to main standards of education.

OK, it's not panto season so I'lll leave it there. I will add that lots of industries have stressful and unsuitable audit regimes. Not just teaching.

So? Does that make it any better?

I will add that lots of industries have stressful and unsuitable audit regimes.
Not just teaching.
If any of those people working in those industries wanted to outline the inefficient, needlessly stressful, totally inefficient and unsuitable regimes and campaign for an audit regime that is fit for purpose, I would wholeheartedly support them

What goes on in other industries doesn't undermine that there are very serious issues with Oftsed and it has a negative impact on our children's education.

Not everyone feels the urge to constantly moan about it though 😕

Not everyone feels the urge to constantly moan about it though 😕
So we're back to the idea that teachers shouldn't be talking about the systemic problems with Ofsted because other people have inefficient and stressful audits, but if we would support other people pushing to have effective and appropriate audit systems too then we still shouldn't talk about it because that's constantly moaning and other sectors haven't pushed for change.

Got it.

What would be the point of an unstressful audit?

A headteacher has died, take your tired old shtick to some other thread.

What would be the point of an unstressful audit?
A professional and reasonable evaluation of strengths and weaknesses based on a clear framework that's consistently applied would be ideal. Why wouldn't anyone want an effective, fair and transparent audit system for their line of work?

Anyway, other industries are irrelevant. Education professionals in a range of roles are complaining about Ofsted and a poor family is missing a dearly loved relative who is no longer with them.

Asking what the point is of an unstressful audit when the stress of a highly stressful one is associated with a recent suicide is in poor taste.

Look, no one should feel like they have to kill themselves because they are too afraid to face the public humiliation and shame of a less than perfect Ofsted report. Yes, children have to be safeguarded, but let’s keep things in perspective. People are human, mistakes happen. It’s not like the teachers were subjecting the kids at this school to satanic ritual abuse, it was one missing overseas police check. Why the need for all the drama with the emotive language and labelling? What does it achieve except to make Ofsted feel important and encourage the parents to get the pitchforks out? As if the gang mentality of the parents isn’t frightening enough in the best of circumstances.

Ofsted reports should be confidential. That way, no one would have to suffer public humiliation or be made to face a baying mob, but Ofsted would still retain their powers. It’s absolutely fair, and if they won’t consider it, the reason why is obvious: they’re not in it for the sake of improving schools, they’re in it to bully and intimidate. They’re in it for the power, and it’s twisted and wrong.

Has there been an inquest yet? We don’t actually know all the circumstances. Just reported thoughts. Plenty of people sadly die where work is a contributing factor. DH’s company had a similar tragedy but the inquest found it wasn’t the job. This is obviously a tragedy but it doesn’t mean the job of being a head is not doable. Or that inspection needs an overhaul. I have no doubt the governors wonder why they didn’t know about the safeguarding shortcomings . It’s their responsibility too.

Farmers’ suicides run at 44 a year just for comparison. So let’s be understanding of all who feel overwhelmed.

TizerorFizz
The thing is that if a group of farmers had a thread about the challenges of farmers, I highly doubt you'd get the same sort of posts that Ofsted threads get. People would get on with talking about the problems, discussing what need sto change, not saying 'but other people have to get up early and work long days for little pay, don't get what you're complaining about "

If someone from another industry created a thread saying their audit or inspection system isn't fit for purpose and it needs scrapping so it can be replaced by something that is appropriate and transparent, the thread wouldn't get filled with people saying "so what, other jobs have bad systems, why are you moaning about it, what have you got to hide".

It's the constant moaning about everything though.

Has it occurred to you that there's a reason why recruitment and retention are an issue though?
The system badly needs change in several ways because it's not working and children are the ones who lose out.

I've never understood it when school staff point out problems in their sector, they're always met with:
But this other sector also has an ineffective audit system
But other jobs work long hours
But other jobs have paperwork
But other jobs are stressful
But why are you complaining

There's something about education that means some people are incapable of saying:
"This is affecting/going to affect my children, maybe we do need to make sure that there's appropriate funding and assessments for children with SEN"
"This is affecting/going to affect my children, maybe we should have an audit regime that allows my children's teachers to focus on teaching and not making stickers to duplicate information on exercise books"
"Now you've highlighted how schools are picking up the pieces from cuts to other services, I've realised we need better funding for CAMHS, more EdPsyc sessions, better support around families who need it so that children can thrive in school. That way schools can focus on educating instead of trying to be all things".
"Children deserve to be taught be qualified teachers and qualified subject specialists at secondary. Let's start to look at what would be needed to ensure that happens".

Rarely any of that, just stop complaining. I don't understand why anyone wouldn't want a better system for their children.

Did a poster really just look up farmer suicides so that they could one-up teachers?

The depths that some people will fall to to try to minimise any discussions of issues facing teacher is incredible.

I think so noblegiraffe.

There's something about education where people would rather get into irrelevant whataboutery than engage with discussions for change that could change the system for the better.

Farmers aren't constantly in the media, including public forums like Mumsnet, moaning about how hard they work and how hard done by they are. Probably because they are too busy actually working.

There needs to be rigourous audits and inspections of schools to ensure educational standards are being met and to weed out teachers who can't hack it. No they should not be confidential. The public pays BILLIONS for education, you can't take our money and refuse to let us know what is being done with it, and how well what is being done is being done. No, the audits cannot be "consistent", the world changes, teachers have to be prepared to change to. Otherwise we're kicking kids out into the working world of 10 or 20 years ago instead of the world of today.

Schoolkids are tested and examined, graded and ranked all the time. Is it stressful? Yes. But it's absolutely necessary. Because they and we need some way to quantify and measure how well they are learning. Just as we need some way to quantify and measure how well teachers are teaching.

Poster "I want to know what's going on in schools"

Teachers "Here's what's going on in schools"

Poster "God, teachers are always moaning"

No, the audits cannot be "consistent"

I don’t mean that Ofsted in 1998 should be the same as ofsted in 2023. I mean that Ofsted at my school and Ofsted at the very similar school down the road the week before shouldn’t be the absolute polar opposite of each other.

Ofsted inspections should be consistent.

Hidden injustice, economic and social pressures of farming just highlight how farming isn't regarded as a vote winner nor is on the immediate radar of the public.

I actually think this is changing with awareness of climate change, the cost of food and one badly dressed middle aged man with a reputation for having a big gob has seen fit to make it his personal mission on Amazon.

Awful industry conditions across sectors being pitted against each other as 'which is more important and stressful' isn't useful. It doesn't stop the stress, it doesn't improve lives and it doesn't make taxes and costs go down.

Farmers aren't in the media, because the media has for years deemed it uninteresting and of low political interest/power. It's been deemed 'minor interest'.

Then comes Jeremy Clarkson on his tractor to give Amazon their highest viewing figures. Ever.

Which kinda shows that the media is misreading this.

Why don't farmers spend all day on the internet moaning? Possibly because they work even longer hours than teachers, for even less return.

Plus living in rural areas, internet reception and provision is second rate (a hidden political issue in itself that we have broadband poverty). And where provision is poor, there's less awareness of how to use social media to your advantage...

Education was the last labour governments big policy. 'Education, education, education'. Politicians know control of education is about shaping the next generation and future political support.

Also, theres is nothing like a cute kid to sell newspapers / drive click bait. It's all about the money...

Whip things up into a frenzy and everyone will have an opinion on the subject (Jezza is proving this, with farming as it goes).

Farming needs to show cute animals being cuddled by children more and needs to recruit its own brand of NIMBY to fight on the media fronts. It will never compete with education though for one other very simple reason: there are a lot less farmers in this country compared to children and their parents. MN is bigger, has more journalists and politicians on it than FarmersWeekly Forum (or whatever the equivalent is). I suspect if you go on that forum you WOULD find a whole bunch of farmers 'whinging'. We just aren't aware of it on MN because the social circle isn't overlapping with media luvvies and ad sellers.

I wish people understood how media worked some days... and how politics is linked to the media.

Education was the last labour governments big policy. 'Education, education, education'. Politicians know control of education is about shaping the next generation and future political support.

Are you suggesting that education is somehow a political priority? Or a media priority?