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Original poster

Have complained to OFSTED about them!!

13 replies

lottiejenkins · 18/01/2011 18:21

I have posted in AIBU too. This has made me so cross!!
My ds goes to a residential boarding school in Kent, three hours from where we live. OFSTED sent me a form/questionaire this morning. They have asked that it is returned by 1pm tomorrow (they are inspecting tomorrow and Thursday)I rang them up and asked how most parents were supposed to get the forms back in time. The lady i spoke to said "we expect most parents to bring the forms into school tomorrow"!!??!!
I then asked her how 90% of parents were supposed to do this when their children are weekly boarders? She had to admit then that i had a point! I am lucky that i have a fax machine so was able to fax the papers this afternoon. I know OFSTED can't give a lot of warning but surely there must be some way round this. I have emailed them to follow up my complaint and copied in the schools head and deputy. Depending on what they say in response i am thinking of contacting the Department of Education. They are not going to get a balanced view of the school from the parents perspective if they cant get the forms back!!! They will only acknowldege forms that are returned by 1pm tomorrow!!!

OP posts:
Pancakeflipper · 18/01/2011 18:24

That's very poor. We got given the forms on the Friday and had to return them Tues. And they did read them and they did talk to parents....

Let us know what they say.... Sounds like an admin slip-up.

Original poster
lottiejenkins · 18/01/2011 18:30

One of my friends works in a local primary school, she made a good comment. She said "wouldnt the fact that you live in Suffolk and your son goes to school in Kent give them a clue that he isnt a day-boy!!" Wink

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jenandberry · 18/01/2011 23:14

It is poor show although in slight defence of the school the questionnaire needs a quick turn around and you get very little notice of an OFSTED visit. But if pancake's school can manage to give parents a few days so should yours.

Some schools do, rather foolishly, go into panic mode when Ofsted descend.

gingeroots · 19/01/2011 07:12

My son forgot to bring home his Ofsted questionnaire recently ( it was given out in class while he was down the other end recording data relating to an experiment and multi tasking is not his forte ).
I emailed the school to ask if they could email me a form or advise me and they replied about 2 weeks later .
In the end I downloaded a copy from Ofsted site and sent that in .
But ....why can't schools upload info on their website ,or why can't we email direct to Ofsted ?

Original poster
lottiejenkins · 19/01/2011 07:39

Im not blaming the school at all. The school didnt send out the form. OFSTED sends them out. The date on the letter from OFSTED said 17th January.

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mumof2girls2boys · 19/01/2011 08:24

That is very poor, my kids school sent all the parents an email version of the form to return, whether you kids were boarders or not. The only draw back is that the forms are supposed to be confidential. If OFSTED are inspecting the school then they will know the background of the school and should allow more time for parents of boarders, I would complain as high up as you can, although we all know that OFSTED are a law unto themselves and their reports are not actually that helpful. My other sons day school sent the forms home with the kids and asked them to return them in their book bags, surprisingly when I slated their OFSTED outstanding school for a few things that I had concerns over (bullying by pupils and staff being the main one) he got called into the office and asked to explain why his mummy had written nasty things, on an anonymous form.!!

QuintessentialShadows · 19/01/2011 08:30

They should send a letter with a link to an online questionnaire, in addition to forms with fax numbers and email address to return to.

Very oldfashioned way of doing things.

purits · 19/01/2011 09:13

The way that they operate at the moment means that they will get a disproportionately high response from Day student families.

Complain that it will make their findings statistically flawed, that there will be systematic error. That might make them sit up and take notice!

gingeroots · 19/01/2011 09:18

I think it is the school that distributes ( and crucially -see mumof2girls- collects )the letters ,not Ofsted .

Original poster
lottiejenkins · 19/01/2011 09:18

Ive said that already! I just hope the school are furious with me!! Blush

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Original poster
lottiejenkins · 25/01/2011 21:32

Just to follow up on this......... School are very happy i contacted Ofsted. Ofsted went in and remarked that they had had corespondence regarding the lack of time to fill in parental forms and they had extended this. They have also responded to my email and forwarded it to Ofsted complaints!!

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LatteLady · 29/01/2011 20:10

Ofsted now only give a couple of days notice to the school that they are inspecting... although they can turn up on the day without any notice whatsoever. It is the school that has to photocopy the questionnaire, collect them in and hand them over to the RgI and team. So in reality they do not have a lot of time to get the questionnaire out and returned.

However that being said they only write an outline report by the end of the inspection - this is always given to the Head, SMT and the Chair but with the caveat that it can be changed. The school then has a couple of weeks to seek to get evidential changes made to the report, it is then inspector peer reviewed to make sure that the grades match the evidentiary findings and can be substantiated.

You have certainly done the right thing by pointing out to Ofsted that not enough time was given to parents and it should have been explained to the school that the report would not be completed until the questionnaires have been collated.

gingeroots · 30/01/2011 09:24

I appreciate that paper copies etc need to be available for those who are not on line ,but surely more use could be made of technology .
Parentcall messages to mobile phones ,links on school website to a questionnaire .
I did make this point to Ofsted recently ,when in similar position .
They replied

"I should explain that, once schools have been notified of an inspection, they have a statutory duty to distribute parents? questionnaires to all registered parents and carers of pupils at the school. In order to meet this requirement schools provide their pupils with paper-based copies of the letter and leaflet, to deliver to their parents. Schools may choose to upload the documents to their website, but this is not currently a requirement and would not fulfil the school?s duty.
Ofsted is continually looking at ways to gather the views of parents and learners. You may be interested to know that we have been piloting the use of online questionnaires to see if it would improve the take-up rate amongst parents."

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