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?

They only have their power and influence because parents want outstanding rated schools for their DC. If parents were less obsessed with ratings , schools and teachers could dismiss Ofsted ratings and focus on more important things.

I used to work for a regulator in healthcare (not the cqc) that got overhauled for being really aggressive just as I joined. The new approach was much more of a partnership where if services were getting it wrong we worked with them to improve - sometimes with mentorship and support, sometimes with making it clear to other agencies what they needed. We also worked with them to build clear action plans and support them to achieve it.

I don't think focusing on individuals- either as super stars transforming schools or framing them as the problem - is the right way. Its about making the system work. Noone should feel like this about an inspection

You can hardly blame parents ,if we are told that’s how schools are rated how are parents to know any different?we only know different because we’ve had 2 kids go through 3 different schools so know not to only assess a school by its ofsted (and to realise that outstanding schools in middle class areas can end up resting on their laurels because they’ve not been inspected in a decade).

You can adapt fire doors to make them childproof at very little cost so I suspect your preschool was looking for an excuse to close.

That said, Ofsted has way too much power, and the inspectors, in my experience, are bitter, angry people who derive pleasure from making others squirm. I have yet to meet a normal one.

Ofsted are harmful and disgusting.

I lost faith in Ofsted when they downgraded my kids’ nursery after an un-announced inspection. They came in a day or two before Xmas - most nurseries were already closed for the holiday but this one made a real effort to keep closures to a minimum - and so had a lot of temporary staff. It was central London and had very multi-cultural staff and children.
One comment in the inspection was around staff not being familiar with the Prevent programme and children were therefore not kept safe from religious radicalisation. This was 1-4 year olds!
I bet that Ofsted wouldn’t have criticised a mainly white / less diverse nursery in the same way. It smacked of racism and it felt that the nursery was punished for trying to stay open during the Christmas holidays, and bringing in temporary staff to do so, in response to demand from working parents.

DS'S school has just been inspected. I'm terrified as to how it's going to come out.

Over the last few weeks we've had to complain about a few issues but it's been the child and their parents causing the issues. The school has historically, even by national standards, been exceptionally poorly funded. My son's class needs a one to one for this kid but because the parents are being arsed over it, the school hasn't the funding. The kid probably shouldn't be in the school with the level of behaviour he's been displaying.

But I do feel the school has largely done their best under the circumstances.

It's apparently like this in several other classes - it never was precovid.

I know a number of people who work there. The majority of the dinner ladies (who now double as TAs post COVID) are on the verge of quitting by all accounts. I know several of the dedicated full time tas are on the verge of leaving.

My son's class apparently wasn't inspected. Tbh I don't know how I feel about this. His teacher is amazing and is fire fighting with this kid. She's told me frankly that this class is the most challenging she's ever had. She previously worked in an inner city school which is about as far removed from DSs school as it's possible to be. I don't know if this is a relief and a bullet dodged or whether the inspected missed crucial things. It didn't escape my notice that normally on a certain day the teacher has a few hours out of the classroom but the week of the inspection she was firmly in the class.

My fear is that a school that has already lost a number of experienced staff in the last three years is about to lose more. Last year DS had a newly qualified teacher. And which she was lovely, she was fecking useless on SEN stuff and she pretty much set up the bullying and crappy stuff that's ensued this year because she expected various kids to manage the behavioural issues of this other kid.

I am aware of two parents complaining over their child being expected to manage this child even though he was routinely physically assaulting them.

But the schools hands are also tied because there's no where for this kid to go and they can't kick him out at this stage until there is a major incident (which school are deseparately trying to avoid).

It feels like a rock and a hard place. If the school are marked down then it only gets worse, but if the school retain outstanding I'm not sure it will get better either cos they've got away with stuff they probably shouldn't.

I rate the school. The teachers do all genuinely care. But there's just so much bullshit going on too. The whole system from top to bottom isn't set up to help the child to be safe and maximise all their potential. There's no money for the kids that need support, if parents play the system there's no teeth to address it for the benefit of the other kids, there's no consequences for outrageous behaviour.

Everyone is just being failed.

My suspicion is that things are going to go from bad to worse with moral in the school. Even if it retains outstanding.

I fail to see what the inspection will actually achieve tbh. Apart from more problems.

It didn't escape my notice that normally on a certain day the teacher has a few hours out of the classroom but the week of the inspection she was firmly in the class

Our PPA is always postponed to later in the week when we have Ofsted.

I also hate the management’s joy when we go from Requires Improvement to Good. If we don’t accept the crap result we should not celebrate the good ones.

This

Agree with @Nightlystroll It is beyond tragic that the HT felt suicide was the only way out but you can’t mess around with safeguarding. The expectations are
clear and the whole school should have known exactly what to do with any given incident. It was always going to be an automatic inadequate if safeguarding measures were not up to scratch. It’s not just a bit of paperwork, it’s the safety of adults within the school, safer recruitment, you name it, there is so much training available. Whether there is a better method of assessing safeguarding is another issue but the inspector will have had no choice but to award that rating given the current criteria. All that said, utterly utterly tragic and such a loss. Incredibly sad.

Unless you work in education, I don’t think anyone realised the toxicity of Ofsted. As I’ve said, I’ve been through 5 in my career - and like a PP - a HMI when the first school I taught at was graded inadequate. The HMI were great! Really supportive. I was a NQT at the time (23 years ago!) and I remember an inspector saying to me at the end of a lesson, “you were a pleasure to watch, don’t ever lose that enthusiasm”. Ofsted inspectors on the other hand, are rude and abrupt, and in my opinion, have made a judgement about the school before they inspect and are looking for evidence to confirm that judgement. At my last school the deputy head was an Ofsted inspector too - awful woman.

In my area, parents plan their two house moves years ahead to get close enough to their desired primary and then secondary school. They know exactly what they want and so I do partially blame parents for driving this obsession with ratings.

I don’t think you can say the reason the HT killed themselves was the Ofsted report. It’s not fair to the HT or to the plethora of reasons as to why their mental health was so fragile. It would have been a contributory factor, perhaps even the final straw. But not the only reason.

Yep. I'm not in a teacher bubble at all. Most of my friends have professional jobs that involve oversight/inspections/audits/licensing checks, but they're all appalled by the way OFSTED works, as their experiences of their own inspections/checks are very different.

It's really hard to describe what it's like to anyone who hasn't experienced it.

It's a decades old saying in manufacturing industry that you can't "inspect quality into a product", you have to "build it in". OFSTED would be more effective if it was given the task, the responsibility and judged on "raising standards" by working with and supporting failing schools. Having worked as a supply teacher for 3.5 years at about 60 different schools I found there often really isn't any palpable difference between an outstanding school and one in special measures - many problems lie in the paperwork, the documentation and the processes of gathering and acting on data. TBH the study schools in my experience were Catholic schools where teaching was interrupted at short notice when someone from the church decided to drop by unexpectedly.

I agree with this point. I left teaching a few years ago as I knew that I did not have the mental strength any more and I was close to the edge. It's not uncommon in teaching in the UK and many teachers leave each year because of this. It is becoming such a draining job and, in many schools, in a terribly toxic environment.
Such a tragic story.

This is a really important point..what other professionals are inspected with such short notice to such an extent ? increasingly more and more is falling to schools...its endless and relentless and the cultural impact of this is not positive for education , staff or children. The government do not trust schools and teachers to do their job so have them scrutinised relentlessly......yet few government ministers would send their own children to these schools.

We’re in Wales and I think we have Estyn here, do Estyn scrutinise in the same way as OFSTED?

This is so awful to read, it makes me so sad for teachers. I knew schools were under pressure during inspections but had no idea they focussed on such pointless things.
As a parent, I want my children to be happy in school and nurtured. I love my kids school, the teachers are wonderful, the Headteacher and deputy head are wonderful people, are very engaged with the parents and children. The school is a massive primary but has a lovely warm feel to it.

To be fair the independent caterers at school have unannounced inspections. So other fields do have inspections at short notice.

(I am not saying ofsted is good. Its not a good system at all)

Anyone still holding onto the idea that Ofsted behave in any way like normal compassionate human beings in the way they treat school communities need to explain why the Ofsted report contains this line, in this way.

This is appalling.

As an aside, Independents are inspected by the ISI which is a much lighter touch and better experience for all concerned.

I worked there for a spell. The most vile place I’ve ever worked. Really nasty people in senior positions.

What really surprised me, is how horrid the Inspectors were with staff. Not all of them, but a significant amount seemed generally unpleasant.

that meant school staff would have worries over the weekend - some even going into school.

Oh no! Imagine having to work over the weekend if you have not managed to do your job when you were supposed to.

While what happened with this HT is indeed sad, why does an inspection warrant all the Potemkin village activity? Surely if a school is run properly then that won't be needed.

Imagine having to work over the weekend if you have not managed to do your job when you were supposed to.

You don't have a clue what you are talking about.

If schools knew what ofsted wanted then it would be less stressful. Also, if children were controllable variables then that would reduce the stress.

One of the issues that arose in our mock ofsted last month was that Year 1 children failed to recall a list of books they had studied in the previous year or tell the inspectors about their key learning from the history topic they did 6 months ago.