To think most Ofsted inspectors seem devoid of human emotions

[Amammai]

Yes I know really it’s just their job.
Yes schools do need to be held to account.
Yes someone has to do the job.

But honestly, are there any Ofsted inspectors on here who can share what actually drives them to do the job? Does being so harsh and often abrupt to people not keep them up at night?

I work in a school. Despite all the promises of taking into account staff mental health etc. I am yet to have been through an inspection which actually truly did this.

if you make a complaint, Ofsted investigates Ofsted. There is now external body for investigation.

So,

YABU - Ofsted inspectors are just doing their job and school staff need to crack on

YANBU - Ofsted inspectors are a certain type of person who thrive on belittling people

Some of them are awful though. I’ve experienced a dreadfully sexist lead inspector and the inspector we had our deep dive with was clueless. Thought that doing A Christmas Carol in a year 7 was too easy they had ‘done Dickens’ in primary. Ignoring that it’s a GCSE text and that English isn’t hierarchical in that way!

Ofsted is a massively expensive system which has not resulted in improved standards. Why not make inspecting other institutions part of a head teacher's job. This could easily been arranged and wouldn't cost a penny. Every teacher knows head teachers have a lot of spare time on their hands.

Just as teachers are shackled by the national curriculum, SATs and testing, so the inspectors are shackled by their rigid protocols.

Bring back the days of LA schools inspectors who developed a relationship with local schools and whose brief was to look at failings and provide support to improve.

Support? Improve? ... just a joke under the OfSted system which is a tickbox exercise for everyone, both schools and inspectors.

My recent experience of Ofsted inspectors has been v positive. That's not to say it wasn't enormously stressful. The stakes are so high, but that is a function of the system. The inspectors were interested, respectful and helped us to understand what they were looking for.

Ofsted didn't even remove single word judgements after the suicide of Ruth Perry. They didn't even pause inspections.

It was the new Labour government who ended single word judgements and who are implementing the report cards (per their manifesto) and are changing whether inadequate schools are academised, not Ofsted.

The extra support for headteachers, depersonalisation etc are things that Ofsted had to do because they were ordered to in the coroner's prevention of future deaths report.

As for Ofsted's 'Big Listen', they don't appear to have learned anything. They still inspect schools in the last week of the Christmas term despite being told how horrendous this is for schools, for example.

Ofsted were found to have contributed to the suicide of a headteacher and there was a Prevention of Future Deaths report with lots of amendments that needed to be made to the system to lessen the chances of other headteachers committing suicide.

"Handwringing".

I work in the business side of a school. This means I have auditors in every year as well as ofsted on their cycle. They aren't the same thing in terms of impact.

A poor ofsted can impact house prices, student numbers and staff recruitment. It is meant to mean support to improve standards but it can just result in a more difficult school with less funding, and a more difficult intake.

We have CQC inspections in the hospital. It is stressful, especially for senior management and I resent how much NHS money and time goes into preparing for these visits.

However, I don’t see individual doctors and nurses for example getting quite so stressed as teachers about the visits. We are very much told to carry on as normal during the day and we do so.

We have patients to look after, and can’t take time out to worry as the nature of the normal day is so busy and unpredictable. I think amongst the stuff where I work, there is a rather philosophical attitude. An understanding that we can only do our best, with the resources that we have. We cannot control everything. And we are not going to pretend for the inspectors either. They can see us as we are, warts and all. I am always honest when interviewed.

So it does not feel like there is the same level of emotion around the inspections. We have to get on with keeping patients alive and try and get them better. Perhaps staff in other Trusts get more anxious, I don’t know.

It sounds like in schools, it depends on what kind of Ofsted inspector they are. There is zero excuse for being rude. You don’t get the best out of people, or an honest picture.

Ofsted dont just inspect schools. I've been in various different jobs and have been part of an inspection many times but I've never been employed by a school.
We have had some really nice compassionate inspectors.

It is good to see on this thread that some of the inspectors try to be kind and polite during what is a stressful process. There is nothing to be achieved by them being punitive and hostile, when the education system is already under so much pressure.

So it still lead to an overhaul then. Splitting hairs really but as you were...

Teaching/education is absolutely an industry. They take in raw material and produce a finished product.
^When a car is produced, the bits don't go home every evening to live another life.
HTH.^

When a car is produced it becomes a machine capable of carrying people at high speed on roads. If something has gone wrong, lives are at risk.

HTH

When a teacher is observed they are judging your skills, it’s a bit like a theatre critic reviewing a performance. Apart from the ticklist of content, behaviour management etc. they are watching you and it’s quite subjective just as one reviewer might love my Hamlet and another does not. That’s without adding the unpredictability of children who often love to play up to the new and obviously important visitor. It’s very personal and really not like car manufacture!

It's not an overhaul.

Small adjustments that make barely any difference to those on the group.

Ground

I do think the inspection system needs to change and I'm sure there are bad inspectors out there but I have to say my experience of Ofsted inspectors has been positive.

The issue is that if you had an Ofsted type inspection in oyur workplace, someone would come to observe you working for 10 minutes and based on that, without much knowledge of what you are doing (I have not been observed by a subject specialist ONCE in 5 Ofsted inspections, and some were not even teachers and never stepped in a classroom) and then make a blanket statement of what your work is generally like and that of people who are working in your department. And then you are stuck with this judgement for 2-3 years and not guaranteed that the next inspection is going to be any better.
No other industry has such a shitty body scrutinising it.

It's a bit crap they have to be explicitly told to consider mental health instead of knowing it.

It really isn't a snapshot staged for a day or two…

The SEF is evidenced by leaders continually, submitted to LA’s ( if maintained) and checked through LA visits. Inspectors check out the evidence shared in the SEF. They also have access to the IDSR for outcome data, cohorts, staffing etc, also year on year.

Pupils are the greatest gift! It is very easy to back up ( or not) a view of the school overtime from what they do and say.

Similar happened to a school I did supply in. One of the Ofsted inspectors was even already telling the Head which academy chains he would recommend before the inspections was halfway through.

I am not surprised. People think that Ofsted are independent inspectors but actually they are also enacting government policy.

Phillipson has said that too many schools are rated good, so expect that to filter into inspection outcomes regardless of whether standards are maintained.

People always go on about how other workplaces are audited and teachers aren’t special but I’m struggling to think of any other inspection reports that have a direct and documented impact on house prices in the community?

Had ofsted in last 6 months. They were incredibly nice, friendly and encouraging to all. They did ask questions and ask for evidence but in their final feedback they showed they'd understood the school and its strengths and weaknesses in an impressively detailed way. They bent over themselves to ensure they were of any vulnerable staff members.
I was impressed.

While I understand your comment you fail to realise that these data leaks are for children that are not my own. So it doesn't just affect 1 child it affects several. Some of which are being excluded from school activities due to blatant disability discrimination.

Ofsted don't deal with data breaches, the ICO do. Did you report them?

The word 'inspection' is judgemental in itself. Safeguarding should be audited once a year, with LADOs visiting schools in an area not their own, so it is separated from teaching and learning, in my view. Grades are judgemental too. One is to be replaced with multiple later this year. Poor schools.

Some countries eg Finland, have a process to support continuous improvement in schools, with the teams of people visiting schools being seen as collaborators and staff their visits as opportunities to improve their practice. Now that would be a real step forward.