OFSTED sacked 1200 inspectors

[kscience]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-33198707

and super interview by Eddie Mair starting at 5:09 here www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05y178z

I am astonished that only the BBC has picked this up in the press.

Why is there no public outrage?

How many schools and pupils have been affected by these "unsatisfactory" inspectors?

They don't plan to replace many of the discarded inspectors though, they will only make about 300 new appointments - it seems to be more of a 'streamlining' exercise.

HMF1

Sacking these inspectors is the result of a serious review of the system, along with removing judging individual lessons and rewriting the handbook to make it clear that inspectors weren't supposed to advocate specific teaching methods (teachers used to get marked down for talking too much, or not using group work in a lesson).

The trouble is, after reforms of Ofsted - I think around 2005? they put a lot of inspection and training in the hands of outside agencies. They are now getting rid of those agencies, so that all inspectors will be "in house" and be trained "in house" as well. A lot of the "rogue" inspectors who weren't following the new handbook instructions supposedly were employed by these external agencies.

I think the managers at the top are trying to improve things, but whether they will be able to get control over the people on the ground remains to be seen.

I take your point Kesstrel, however whoever sanctioned the use of external agencies & then choose not to effectively monitor & hold them properly accountable showed a definite lack of leadership & that decision would have been taken at the top.

I understand that RISPs, the external lot, arrived as part of those 2005 changes that gave us the school grades and punished more traditional teaching styles in the classroom etc. Wilshaw started the job in 2012.

There are quite a few schools round here hat don't seem to have been inspected since before 2010. What is going on??

Are they "Outstanding"? They're exempt from routine inspection and their data probably has to take a dive to attract any attention.

They are yes and I knew that meant bigger gaps, didn't realise it could mean 6 or 7 years though

Oh I see you say exempt. So no more inspections until some thing flags up a warning?

I do audits at organisations and I can tell within the first 5 minutes how its going to go.

A good and experienced inspector will be able to tell a great deal about a school before they have even made it through the door.

Its just a shame that all of the LEA oversight of schools has been removed and not replaced with anything for the years and years between ofsted visits.

Academies are allowed to gloss over significant downgradings with no accountability

This was my issue - school was considered to have no bullying issues yet many children had been removed the previous year due to bullying. I was told that the inspectors would only look at the current situation, not at the "activity" since the previous audit. This meant for me that it was very easy for the school to not improve processes and the situation could easily re-occur.

Just wow. Our school had an Requires Improvement in 2012. Nearly destroyed the school, although we rose above it. Every person since (LA, school improvement partners etc) has said the report was unfair. We didnt want to rock the boat or challenge because we didnt feel strong enough. HMI inspector put his own complaint in. He said he was not happy with the lead inspector, that he had form for this and not enough experience in school.

I have just re-read the report and both the lead and other inspectors mentioned were additional inspectors.

sunnyday

We did complain, but it worked against us, because it delayed the implementation of the recommendations of the complained-about inspection team ......

We complained about a fairly recent Ofsted inspection due to sweeping statements made by inspectors, no evidence to support their criticisms and a whole raft of other problems, including neither inspector ever having had front line teaching experience! Amazingly the report was removed from their website, we had a grovelling apology, and it was overturned. We have since been re-inspected and received a fair assessment.

There is a confidential questionnaire for school staff to complete prior to inspection with direct questions regarding behaviour, bullying, teaching and management - are staff reluctant to complete these honestly because they don't want their school downgraded? Or perhaps they are very honest and reveal things the head would rather gloss over?

especially in academies

Clavinova

What Camelhump said. You would put yourself in a world of pain to bring that shizzle down on your head (as my son would say)

Understood!

Just checked our school's RI OFsted - all 3 inspectors were 'additional inspectors'. So cross. Reputation sullied by people not up to the job. What a mess.

Not necessarily citymum3 - apparently Ofsted have retained 1,600 of the 'additional inspectors' but signed them up as 'in-house' inspectors instead after a further assessment process. You might be able to search for the relevant names to see if they are still employed.

Where can you see that they are "additional inspectors? thanks