To think criticisms of the new Ofsted ratings are self-serving?

[SmokeRingsOfMyMind]

Obviously the suicide of Ruth Perry was very sad and distressing. But the teaching unions appear to be using that tragedy as a way to avoid proper scrutiny of school performance by Ofsted. The new, more detailed system proposed looks perfectly sensible to me. I'm sure Ofsted could improve inspection quality, but a lot of the commentary about how stressful it is seems nonsensical. All professionals need to be able to cope with external verification of performance from time to time, don't they?

What other professionals have anything similar to Ofsted, OP? Internal appraisals, yes absolutely. But an external body who swoops in for two days, delivers their judgement and then publishes it for the world to see? I can't readily think of another profession with a similar system?

Nursing homes, hospitals, prisons.......

When we have an audit at work, we get a set of actions to change. Not just a judgment.

We don't have to deal with lazy parents or those lacking in basic parenting skills.

The new system is better than a single word judgment, but will not do much to improve education, or change the lack of parenting which affects most schools, I expect.

What actually is the alternative though? You couldn’t have only internal evaluations, since schools are public institutions and therefore must be accountable to the public in ways that private businesses aren’t.

And as far as making the evaluations public, there would seem to be very little point in having the evaluations if they were not, since they are done to allow parents to make informed choices and hold schools accountable.

I do agree that the two-day snapshot model is flawed, and perhaps induces unnecessary stress for school leaders. It also incentivized schools to put on a “show” for the brief time when the inspection is taking place.

But an external body who swoops in for two days, delivers their judgement and then publishes it for the world to see? I can't readily think of another profession with a similar system?

You are joking?!?
Health and social care, housing associations, prisons...

Problem is that a school that wants to improve and is working hard at that, will find Ofsted a distraction to what they are trying to do.

A school that is oblivious to their issues, and hides any problems from parents/governors needs to have someone external to come in and help them see what is going wrong.

And you can't always tell which a school is.

I had a relative who often told me about their wonderful school their little ones was in. I was frequently thinking "that's not right" or "that's not good". The parent reacted badly if I said it out loud.
Well, they had Ofsted in and honestly it was the worst report I've ever read .. and I was nodding all through it thinking that I'd seen evidence of that etc.
School's reaction?
The head initially put out something saying how mean horrible Ofsted had come in just to be nasty and none of the things they said were issues at all.my relative swallowed it hook line and sinker.
Then the head and the governors put out a statement saying they resigning "in protest". Okay Ofsted had told them to go.
The parents that remained spent most of the next year objecting to anything that the interim head tried to do.
After a year of supply teachers who never lasting more than a fortnight for either DC, no work really done in a year and the ex-head and ex-governors stirring happily on the side lines, my relative finally saw the light and left.
They'd still tell you it was all because of nasty Ofsted. I'll tell you I had concerns from the first contact they had with school (first contact was a governor saying directly that they could make sure any child got in if ... Back handers implied)

Yes, I do quality inspections as part of a team in a different kind of service, and we don't 'rate' the provision, but we provide both commendations, conditions (things they have to do to make it up to standard) and recommendations. In practice it is pretty easy to tell how 'good' an outcome is from the balance between them, but I don't think it is necessary or helpful to sum that up in 'ratings'.

It doesn't look unreasonable to me either.

There is a tendency for people to blame everything on underfunding and/or the government (or previous Government). Of course that has a place to play but it's by no means the main story. My own local secondary school is far better now than it was when I was considering it at the end of the last Labour Government. As far as I can tell, the difference is mainly down to the quality of school leadership.

I am not a teacher but many family and friends are. Over the years most have talked about how stressful the Ofsted experience was - not because the inspections themselves were stressful but because for months in advance the leadership teams invented endless pointless and time-consuming things for them to do in order to impress Ofsted.

In complete contrast was my daughter's first experience of Ofsted last term. The head had told all staff he was expecting an inspection soon and told them not to worry about it, that they were all doing a good job and they should just carry on as normal and not do anything different. In my view that was the behaviour or a competent and confident leader (or possibly a deluded one)!

The inspection happened. My daughter had an inspector in one of her lessons and she also spoke to one about her wider role. She didn't find either experience stressful.

The school came out of the inspection with flying colours. It was assessed as outstanding in every category and the report described it as "exceptional".

It is a great pity other schools are not as well run. There are over 20,000 state-funded schools in England and the difference between the best and the worst is huge. Ofsted has an important role in trying to bring the weaker ones up to the level of the best.

Ofsted is flawed and always has been. It's horrible for teachers - the majority of who are hardworking and passionate. It's misleading for parents at best. The way it's done isn't in the interest of children or learning at all.

A proper culture of learning and continuous improvement is needed. Support from peers, LEA, advisory teachers, subject matter efforts, over a longer period builds greater improvements for schools and improves outcomes for children and teachers. There needs to be proper support for heads in particular - who are often excellent teachers but ill equipped for running a business which essentially a school is now.

I've read hundreds of Ofsted reports over the years - very rarely do I see one that reflects the schools I know.

Absolutely needs to be external reviews and assessment but Ofsted inspections are not the way to do it.

Yes, I entirely agree. I think the grid system seems very sensible and does allow for more nuance, while also being very easy to see at a glance. I am quite impressed with it actually.

I was also very uncomfortable with how the tragic death of Ruth Perry was used in discussions about Ofsted's future. It felt very opportunistic to me.

I do think that external school assessments are an essential part of the education system.

I work in the food industry and this is standard for food safety. External unannounced audits, with a single grade as an outcome which is publicly available.

As a school governor I've been involved in many OFSTED inspections at two different schools.

In one school the HT and the SLT ran around like squawking headless chickens right before the inspection, and put the fear of God into both the teaching staff and the children.

In the other school, the HT and SLT were vary calm, very organised and actually looked forward to showing the inspectors how good they thought the school was.

These things are often down to how well the school is managed in the first place.

Eerm, every other 'of' of any hue. Water, energy, financial, transportetc. Healthcare professionals have CQC plus professional scrutiny

OFSTED is utter nonsense. There should be mini observations, zero warning. I worked in a school who were awarded a 'good' result which was an absolute nonsense, because the behaviour of the students was appalling. During the inspection, extra staff were deployed in the corridors/lesson changeovers, because of the extremity of the behaviour. After 25 years of teaching, I'd had enough after 2 years,

I think it looks a better system and the move away from deep dives is good in my view.

I can't really work out whether publishing the results does lead to greater accountability or not.

Yep, they're called external audits 😁 The financial ones especially cause a bit of extra work sometimes but they're expected.

Ruth Perry's death was a tragedy for her family, but I've never accepted it as an indictment of the school inspection or rating system; it's probably an indictment on society that someone would feel they must prioritise their job over their mental health.

Unions seem shocked that school inspections will continue. tbh, as a parent I don't want to read pages of waffle. I want a maximum 20 word summary or simple infographic.

I think the people on here calling the profession’s discussion of Ruth Perry’s suicide in relation to Ofsted’s inspections “opportunistic” should say that to her sister’s face. The sister and educational professional that has been calm and measured in the midst of hideous loss.

It would be better if Ofsted inspections were supportive and collaborative rather than combative, coming in to find fault and catch providers out.

It's not just in schools but in early years too - childminders stressed out that Ofsted will come on a day they have a clingy baby settling in and will mark them down as the crying stopped them providing enough learning activities for the other children.

If Ofsted came in and looked at practice, pointed out things that were going well and gave advice and offered support in areas that weren't so good - wouldn't that be more beneficial to children than just slapping a judgement on the school?

So much time is wasted doing stuff 'for Ofsted' and 'for evidence', preparing for inspections etc when that time could be better spent.

I don't see why we need judgements at all.

So apart from local authorities, colleges, schools, hospitals, care homes, prisons, what have the Romans ever done for us...

The whole system is wrong, it's set up like education is a marketplace and parents need to be able to compare schools and use their financial or personal resources to get their kids into a good one.

When actually all schools should be good and children should be able to just go to their nearest one.

What's the best way to ensure all schools are good? Support, advice, practical assistance - not judgements, ratings and rankings.

It seemed to me that they’d replaced a one word assessment by 5 one word assessments

Er CQC for hospitals and nursing homes.
Ofsted for children's homes and local authorities.

Sorry beat me to it much wittier too.

Exactly. This is it. Either the school is well run or it’s not.

if you’re spending an insane amount of time primping and zuzzhing then your faking it, which is why it’s stressful.
At most it’s updating and making sure you’re on top of paperwork. But months of prep? A wider issue.

also lots of other professions have ofsted like inspections or audits especially any publicly accountable role. Teachers aren’t special.