Grr Ofsted are coming in THE LAST WEEK OF THE SCHOOL YEAR. And double grr, the school has cancelled the transition evening because of it.

[oliviaaah]

Transition evening is important to us as DS has ASD and needs all the help he can get to adjust to the changes coming in KS2. (He's just finished Y2). I'm pleased with his school, but this seems wrong to me. As if it matters more to the school that the inspectors are coming than actually doing their best for the students. I really do sympathize with them about the timing, but, loyal as I feel to the school, my son's needs come first. GGGRR Rant over.

As if it matters more to the school that the inspectors are coming than actually doing their best for the students.

Ah have a heart. The poor teachers. I had an OfSTED in the last week of the year and it is just awful. You can organise a transition meeting for the first week back surely.

Totally and absolutely ridiculous. I think it just shows how much Ofsted are attuned to the workings of a school. the teachers can't control when they come, and they are under great pressure when they are there.

As an example, we are due an Ofsted in the summer term 2012 and I mentioned to HT how we would deal with the 4 music concerts I had to attend last week (while colleague grapples with 2 classes with the support of TAs) in the even of an Ofsted. She said (reasonably enough) that all the concerts would have to be cancelled.

That would mean that the 59+ children in orchestra and choir would miss the concerts they'd been working for over months and months. Some of those children will be moving to secondary, and it may be the only time they feel valued.

I really think that Ofsted should transform into body of people sympathetic to the running of schools and what it's really like to work with children, rather than their judgmental how-much-has-that-child-progressed in the last 40 minutes agenda.

Ofsted wallahs, if worth their salt, should also be aware that children (and teachers) are not 'themselves' for the last 3 weeks of the summer term. Children are jumpy because they don't know what's going to happen next year, and teachers are already moving on in their heads after finishing reports, as they already know their new classes. So really.... why inspect in the last few weeks of the summer? Bds.

There is an assumption here by the school that you should somehow change what you are doing because Ofsted are coming. That is a totally erroneous assumption though I can see why the head would not want to allow the inspectors to see a double class being taken by one school teacher, especially if it was infant classes!
Any Ofsted inspector is going to know that there are end of term events and they should take place. Plus the opportunity to do lessons that are maybe not absolutely bog standard but actually allowing pupils the opportunity to shine would actually as an inspector impress me rather than disappoint me.

Have a heart. They will be stressed to the hilt as they are being judged, they have probably started to clear the class of displays and had lots of nice things planned for the children before the hols. Not to mention hundreds of excited children on countdown to the summer off.

The majority of parents use the Ofsted report when choosing a school yet then moan if it impacts on them or when they are not allowed term time hols etc.

Oh god, the poor teachers! How awful. OP, I know you want sympathy, but an OfSTED inspection is so, so, so mentally draining and exhausting. To have one at a time when you are already mentally drained and exhausted is really unfair.

At both schools where I've worked at OfSTED time, the school has been opened 24 hours for the teachers to come in- and yeah, some people literally stayed the night. No way could you have a meeting during this time.

Oh no! And their displays will have fallen down, so they'll need to put entirely new ones up. And I bet the kids' books will be in ragged shreds.

Urgh. Pity them.

We have just had a visit from OFSTED ( visit is such a misnomer, it sounds like coffee and cakes!) and all the staff were working 20 hour days-and nights! Simply the amount and variety of information demanded is impossible to keep on top off, let alone any evening meetings too. I'm sure the school will rearrange the meeting once OFSTED have been and gone

At my previous school Ofsted turned up during trips week. There were no children in the school either on residential trips or days out. The inspectors particularly liked the zoo!

There is no need for a school to change what it is doing because OFSTED are coming in, and I speak as a teacher in a school in Special Measures, where we've had visit after visit and ob after ob this year. One inspector sat in on part of a full-day school play rehearsal. Last time HMI were in, I was observed teaching a class of 5 as the rest were out on a trip. Schools shouldn't change just because an inspection is happening. And as for teachers staying in school for 20+ hours in the days leading up to it- utterly ludicrous! Our HT has been very clear about this during our year in SM- school is locked up by 7.

Thank you so much for your replies. I just want the school to stand tall and proud and be confident. I WILL back them and be supportive, but I'm disappointed about the 'panic-stations' attitude.

That is silly to cancel the transition evening. It is an opportunity to impress Ofsted on both transition arrangements and communicating with parents.

I would be fuming if I were you, you are right, they should be putting teh childrens needs first.

I would be making sure that I was one of the parents questioned so I could tell them exactly what they had done and deprived my child of.

My ds has ASD too, and I know how important these transition visits are.

It would be even worse for your DC if the stress of OFSTED and the working hours required to gather all the paper trail they will want become ill with stress and can't teacher next term (not unheard of). The school NEEDS to show what it can do; that the teachers are good teachers and that is no mean feat at this time of year. I know you don't need to change what you normally do for OFSTED, but not changing end of term activities into normal (i.e. notend of year) teaching could result in unsympathetic inspectors giving an unfavourable review = more staff workload and stress; staff stress related illness; good staff moving on, etc. THAT would be far worse for for ASD children.
Finally, yes your child comes first to you, and has a high priority to the school, but a school also has a legal duty of care towards staff well-being and maintaining reasonale workloads. Do you have any empathy for the staff?
If you want to moan, blame OFSTED, not the school.