Goodbye one word OfSted judgements .....

[Mischance]

Hooray!
They were always a nonsense and I am glad the new government has taken swift action.

All we need now is proper support for struggling schools ... I will keep hoping ...

I don't know that it's such a good thing. I think it will make it harder for parents to judge a school.

Will it actually change anything though?

I saw on another thread a teacher saying it would "take the pressure off Ofsted inspections" but will it?

Parents will still want a quick summary of the strengths and weaknesses of any school they're considering. And inspections still need to be rigorous, although I would be supportive of guidance for Ofsted to be less "abrasive"

Ofsted judgements are a farce. My school was honestly much worse when it was outstanding than it was when it was satisfactory as we were stopping kids from choosing subjects they wanted to take in order to "demonstrate" higher grade results in the "bucket" subjects

Also kids were not as happt

But you are assuming that the one word judgements are an accurate reflection of what is going on in the school, which they cannot be on the basis of a "fly in -fly out" inspection.

Parents cannot judge a school on this basis and that is why these one word judgements have to go. They gave parents a false sense of security that they really knew what the school was like.

@Mischance Then the ofsted inspections aren't fit for purpose. The single word grading isn't the problem.

The inspections never have been fit for purpose.

It seems a bit like reading a movie review but the critic isn't allowed to give a star rating anymore.

Arguably, if parents now read every ofsted report in detail, it could be far more damaging for a school than a simple one-word summary.

I think some pressure on teachers is helpful. We teachers are paid for by the public and schools should be accountable to the public and Ofsted is an accountability mechanism. Teachers have a responsibility and we should feel this responsibility and pressure to teach well.

No, it will help them to judge a school more accurately, because they will have to look beyond the headline and read the report.

"Outstanding" schools won't be happy...

Star ratings for movies aren't particularly helpful either.
Parents should read the reports in more detail rather than just looking at the rating. It's insulting to sum up a school in one word.

I'm not sure, might encourage them to actually scrutinise the schools a bit closer - read the Ofsted reports more thoroughly, speak to more people who currently send their kids there etc - rather than just going on 'good' or 'outstanding'.

Had a couple of examples of local schools not performing well but were coasting on a good local reputation from outdated Ofsted reports (and vice versa, one school which had a terrible rep but had quietly become excellent at SEN provision over time, took a few years for the Ofsted report to catch up though)

This is fantastic.

Far too often I've encountered parents with the mistaken belief (in fact on this thread!) that you just need to find an "outstanding school" and thats the main criteria when choosing a school. But having worked in a school, like the others, would agree it wouldn't really factor in my choice of school!

It tells you very very little about a school. Especially as it's usually very out of date and just a snapshot of time. It doesn't actually tell you the important things about what it would be like for your child.

Its just that some parents want to gravitate to "the best" and feel an ofsted rating does that work for them. Spoiler. It doesn't.

Pressure is there a-plenty. What is lacking is support in all it's forms: financial, resources, training, respect.
IME most teachers are dedicated and hard-working but are under seige from unnecessary pressures - data collection, paperwork, policy writing etc.
Inspection is fine in principle and necessary. But it needs to go hand in hand with SUPPORT. It needs to have a positive element .. a problem is found and help to overcome that should be forthcoming. In that way an inspection can result in true improvement.
Barriers to good teaching need to be ripped apart and teachers given the proper respect and support needed to free them up to do the good job that they want to do.

A headteacher killed themselves over an Ofsted inspection. In the Prevention of Future Deaths report, the coroner said that Ofsted inspections needed to change.

Teachers are under far less pressure from Ofsted than the school leadership. And it was too much pressure.

The reality is that most parents won't bother reading a lengthy school Ofsted report. They'll either rely on previous one-word judgements or someone will write a website that summarises everything and ranks each school.

All parents want is an easy way to compare schools and make a good choice for their kids. Don't be so naïve as to expect them to read bundles of old Ofsted reports.

As for the teachers, I have no idea why labour thinks it's necessary to change an entire school inspection system because one SLT found the pressure too much. Accountability isn't easy and the answer isn't to hide from it behind a long PDF.

That's exactly the problem tbh.

Parents thought a one word report summarised a school. It didn't. And hence the issue for schools once labelled differently.

If anyone thinks accountability rests on a one word judgement once every now and then they don't really understand accountability...

And "an easy way to compare schools" again is exactly the problem... Gosh all the reasons why this was needed on one parents post.

Ofsted reports are not fit for purpose
particularly at secondary level
I have found that many of the reports for the outstanding schools are outdated.
I chose a school rated ‘good’ rather than ‘outstanding’ for my ds because after visiting both schools I simply thought that the school rated ‘good’ was a better fit for him.
I am not against the inspection of schools, I remember my secondary school being inspected in the eighties. However, as other posters have said, inspections should not simply be box ticking exercises there has to be more focus on supporting teachers and senior management

In reality parents decide on schools mainly via word of mouth recommendations - my friend's child is happy there and they recommend it, so off we go.

No-one is saying that there does not need to be accountability and monitoring, but it used to be via the LA education department (you would be hard pushed to find one now due to funding cuts) and the inspectors developed a relationship with schools, got to know their strengths and weaknesses over time, and were able to put in support to address any weaknesses. How very different from what we now have. How much better it would be to invest in that sort of positive system rather than pour money into OfSted and their failing system.

This

What does one singular word tell the average parent though?

Enough to make an initial judgement. Word of mouth isn't as popular as many folks on Mumsnet seem to think, not least because many parents don't know those with kids already in school.

I always understood that suicide was complex and it’s unhelpful to blame someone’s suicide on one thing but everyone (not only the poster I am quoting above, but the media etc) seems quite comfortable to say this head teacher killed herself 100% because of OFSTED. It might have been a factor but surely not the whole story. And potentially presents what she did as a reasonable response to a poor OFSTED.

Also that particular school got a poor OFSTED because of its inadequate safeguarding. Something that should be a priority for OFSTED and that I’d want to know about frankly as a parent.

And in case my comments above make anyone think I’m heartless, obviously what happened is tragic. And I think the world would be a better place if that head teacher was here and I wish she hadn’t killed herself.

I find it quite funny that teachers don’t like their school being judged with a single word. But they perpetuate a system where pupils to get labelled with a single number for their GCSEs.

They don’t seem to realise that most professional jobs will end get some kind of annual evaluation. But they think they should be exempt .