To think the school knows the date of the OFSTED inspection?

[Vinvertebrate]

My DS7 has SEN (autistic, ADHD, dyspraxic, SPD and a slew of other acronyms). He has 1:1 in class. There are a few other children in his year with milder SEN or who are just a bit disruptive. He goes to a naice OFSTED outstanding C of E school.

DS and a few others have been "selected" to go on a non-educational trip that is being organised by the school for a date coming up in the next couple of weeks. Places are supposedly randomly allocated, but it seems to be all the children at the less compliant end of the scale. He's really excited but I am a bit uneasy because it's so....unusual.

OFSTED is also due. I always thought the date was not known to anyone in advance, but now I'm doubtful. AIBU to think the school has advance notice of the date and is getting the challenging kids out of the way?

More likely they are doing this trip as evidence for OFSTED to show how they support more challenging children.
Someone has suddenly though, shit we are not quite meeting this requirement, what can we quickly do?

School governor of school which is awaiting ofsted - as others have said, we have no idea. All
You can do is dot is and cross ts. Trying to work it out based on other schools in the area etc is like someone in a casino trying to work out what number will come up next on roulette.
If you do have any feedback for ofsted as a parent, it's entirely appropriate to share this with them, good and bad.

If its the Panto then there are lots of these doing relaxed performances where they sant the audience to be comfortable for children who may be noisy, restless or need to leave due to disability or SEND so its possible that whilst framed as random they have been selected precisely because this an ideal event for them?

Unlikely they think this will save them from a poor SEND rating, however. Heads know exactly how inspection works and it's not about a single extra-curricular trip for a small group.

More likely they've been offered funding for it .

They can anticipate the period for the inspection but not the actual date.

Don't believe anyone who says that schools send pupils they dont want ofsted to see on trips on the day of the inspection. It's nonsense, no one can arrange a trip with hours notice nowadays.

They'd barely get the parent forms sent out never mind all the risk assessments, transport arranged, tickets bought. It just couldn't happen imo

when Ofsted first started back in the day, can’t remember when the first one was, we had 6 weeks notice! It was ridiculous, frantic six week build up so everything was “ perfect”. Except no one knew then what the inspectors were actually going to do/ask/want to see/not like etc. I can remember feeling sick with anticipation for the whole 6 weeks.
The inspectors spent 4 days in classrooms and the fifth day writing reports and feeding back. I was the music and RE manager at the time and was asked to show the schools artefacts for our “ second” religion. We hardly had any as it was such a new thing we were supposed to be covering. The early inspectors were extremely intimidating and didn’t speak to anyone as they went about their business.
Not sure what’s worse, a long build up but knowing the date, or sudden and immediate.

No. Ours target different trips at different groups. Kids with ehcps at mine are off bowling next week at a charity run event

They won’t know until the day before, however if they were rated an Outstanding school before September 2011, they will know they’re going to be done by Jan 2024, so will have a rough idea, but not the actual week!

They don’t know. Schools know they’re over due an inspection and that schools which are slightly more over owe have been assessed recently so they have an idea for a few months that they will next. But this isn’t fool proof and schools/teacher are in state of high anxiety for months and sometimes years for Ofsted. Lots of school monitor internet traffic to their website and if a none London based school suddenly gets lots of traffic from London they often think they will get the call in the next few days. The headteacher is called at lunch time the day before the inspectors arrived and is interviewed for about an hour.

Also, even if it were possible, inspectors wouldn't be fooled by a whole cohort conveniently kept out of the way.

How far in advance was this trip planned?
We get about a weeks notice here in Wales.

It's absolute madness to me that you don't get told I'm Engaland. We had 2 weeks notice and had their entire plan told to us.

Nope, we do not know in advance!

I worked with schools in England for 30 odd years. They do not know. Currently they get a call the day before the inspection, between 10.30 am and 2.00 pm. If they have serious concerns about a school they can arrive unannounced and go straight into the inspection.

That's bollocks.

They don't know ...honestly !,

Whereabouts are you?

Why? We get notice here in Wales. We had ours about 6 months ago and spent 2 weekends in work getting things ready.

The poster said they are in England. In England schools get the notice I stated. (I'm in a really good position to know this). 😂

1993 the first one
Id had my last child 2 years previously and had gone back 2 days a week. I remember not sleeping Sunday night and getting to school before the caretaker had opened up - the caretaker couldn’t understand what the panic was about, “ what they going to do? Say you have to close down?
30 years of teachers being stressed out by Ofsted. And what has been achieved by it?

They don't know for sure but...
I believe there are services which monitor website traffic etc which can flag up to a subscribed school when a pattern of traffic fits with inspectors doing their previsit research.

No, schools don't know. I work for an LA, in a senior position supporting schools and we don't know either.

The notification comes to the school, from Ofsted, usually between 10.00am and 11.30am the day before the inspection. This includes a formal letter of intent to inspect. At the same time, the LA are notified.

The first meeting, by telephone, between school leaders and the Ofsted inspector takes place that afternoon. The inspection starts at 8.00am the following day.

Due to all the extra staff a trip requires for supervision (particularly if the pupils have challenging behaviour) they'd probably rather NOT have an inspection on a day they have a trip happening. The staff involved would be much more useful in school, showing how well (hopefully) the school works with normal staffing levels...

No I didn't there was a typo.
In Engalnd.

We absolutly get 2 weeks notice in Wales.