Really impressed by head's respose to OFSTED report - is this usual?

[Knottingley]

I had a long career in the private sector (not education). We were inspected/assessed regularly. Usually the report went in a drawer and was forgotten about until we felt the next inspection might be due when there would be some flapping about trying to make it look like we'd taken some action for a few days, then after the inspection things would go back to normal.

I now have a very lowly position in my DC's school. For years it has been "Satisfactory" TBH I didn't fully understand just how bad that made it and if I knew what I know now when I sent my Dc to the local school I'm not sure I would have done so.

However, 3 years ago a new head was appointed. According to the remaining staff (he had a good clear out) he had tamed the "zoo" in about 6 months. The last Ofsted recognised that big improvements had been made but was still Satisfactory. We've just got a GOOD!!

There are two areas identified as preventing the school from being outstanding. We got the report on Monday and he has already booked training and resources to address them. I am so impressed. Would most HTs react like this?

In the state sector, yes.

To a certain extent yes, be impressed, but if he's an affective head who's accurate with his self evaluation of the school, he should already know what the school needs to do to improve without ofsted telling him.

DH is part of a senior leadership team. Prior to ofsted coming in they already knew their weaknesses and were working on an action plan for them. The ofsted inspection bought up the same concerns and had no surprises. They got a good with a note on some outstanding features rating.

er - yes

Yes, that's pretty normal for a school. I expect as they were so close to outstanding the head really wants address those few issues quickly.

"For years it has been "Satisfactory" TBH I didn't fully understand just how bad that made it" - interesting quotation ...

Satisfactory schools under the old rating were NOT bad schools. Schools requiring improvement under the new ratings are not bad schools. Managing a school to meet Ofsted's demands is what HTs have to do. I just hope they don't forget the actual pupils whilst they're doing that.

I don't have any experience of other schools Northern but it sounds like this school had truly awful problems with discipline which has improved markedly under the new head. It was also very badly mis-managed financially and had more than it's share of poor teachers.

The new head has obviously been good at "playing the game" and making changes which make a difference to the OFSTED rating but he absolutely does care about the children and all his changes have improved their lot immeasurably IMO. He loves being with the children and will take every opportunity to take a PE lesson, cover PPA time, go on a school trip etc and takes the particularly difficult boys under his wing personally (which is unusual for a HT IME - often they're teachers who wanted to get out of the classroom?)

OP, your head sounds wonderful.

OP, that's exactly the sort of thing that distinguishes a good head from a bad one. When my local equivalent school was recently inspected, and got a "requires improvement" rating, the head's (public) reaction spoke volumes ... it was everybody's fault but his, and they were the victim of circumstance, and of course "requires improvement" used to be "satisfactory" so its not as bad as it seems etc etc. That sort of reaction doesn't fill you with confidence that the school will engage in the necessary improvement measures.

Yeah, but. It would still have been better if his first response had been to buy everyone a bottle of wine as a thank you and his second to book the courses.

LOL Half - he did buy pizzas the evening before the inspector arrived