Transforming Inspection for Good

[InspectorCalls]

I'd like to alert mothers with children from age 2 to 25 that Ofsted, the school inspectorate, has launched a consultation document about their plans to change how they inspect all the settings for which they have responsibility from nurseries to Primary and Secondary schools, academies, FE colleges, and initial teacher education. The problem is that, although it will make a few welcome changes, the others planned will, in my opinion, make the demands on teachers and their leaders unreasonable. Indeed some Ofsted inspectors are now complaining that the proposals are "unmanageable." A major storm is brewing and I hope mothers will reply to the consultation in any way they choose. I'm a fan of accountability, but the proposals will make a bad situation worse by intensifying the crisis in teacher recruitment and retention. Ofsted in the 30 years of its existence has failed to raise standards. If you disagree, I'd love to discuss the issue with you.

Mothers with children from 2-25? Why that criteria? Is it for a news article?

Just mothers? The views of widowers / divorced fathers who are the resident parent or who have joint responsibility for their DC / fathers living in a two parent family, with normal parental responsibilty, etc, are not considered of value?

What about grandparents or others who have responsibility for decisions about a child's education by virtue of a Special Guardianship Order?

Okay, you may think I'm being a bit flippant here, but do you genuinely mean that only mothers are allowed to express an opinion?

Why on earth should the failings of schools be hidden from parents? Plenty of schools were hopeless. Who actually knew or cared? Ofsted has brought about significant school improvement and made schools focus on being good schools. Obviously some people won’t know what they were like before! Unaccountable and poor in many cases. At least parents became aware of what was not good enough and so many schools have improved. Overall they are necessary. A more collaborative professional discourse with schools is probably the way forward.

@InspectorCalls don't panic - it's a consultation, not a done deal. Ofsted know they need to get this as optimally "right" as possible. They will be getting lots of (hopefully) constructive feedback from school leaders as well as teachers and parents. As with any consultation, it is the quality of feedback that is most influential, not the quantity. It is not a referendum.

My answer to FleaDog and MarchingFrogs is that my thread was aimed at Mums because that is the name of the organisation. The clue is in the name. I have also written to MPs, the Select Cte, teacher unions, academics, researchers etc. I am trying to reach as many people as possible. To TizerorFizz can I say that international research has shown repeatedly and convincingly that Ofsted has not raised standards in schools. If you think it has, what evidence do you have? To Clouding, can I say that Ofsted is not bound by the consultation and is, in my opinion, unlikely to change the proposals that it has spent so long in developing.. I have been suggesting ideas for improvement in inspection to Ofsted for over 20 years and it has turned down every one. My experience is that of many, many commentators. Ofsted has a long history of being highly resistant to change except for change that it proposes itself.

@InspectorCalls Mumsnet has a range of contributers, not just mums. Are you a mum yourself? (Not that it matters, other than to prove a point if you're not).

Secondly, many of us parents remember our own school days well enough to compare them with current standards. My own observation is that state schools have very much improved overall. Whether that is to do with Ofsted or not is obviously arguable, but if we have no inspection regime at all then standards will not be visible or measurable.

Have you tried applying for the job of Chief Inspector or Education Secretary? If you have the right sort of skills, perhaps you can find your voice that way.

If not, then you are just one voice amongst many.

My reply to the most recent post is to say that an observation by one individual about his or her experience of school does not constitute data, that is reliable and valid by being based on a representative sample. The latter is what I was referring to when saying that the international data (eg PISA) shows that standards in reading, maths and science have flatlined for the last 25+ years.

Also education is too important and expensive NOT to be accountable. So I am arguing for a transformation of inspection not for its abolition. It is the ineffective model that Ofsted uses that needs to be changed, but its latest proposals will only make matters worse for teachers and parents.

"My reply to the most recent post is to say that an observation by one individual about his or her experience of school does not constitute data, that is reliable and valid by being based on a representative sample"

I would agree. But your premise for this thread is to encourage many individual "mums" to respond to the consultation. You didn't include any links to the evidence that you cited. This implies that you are trying to generate heat rather than light.

Pisa rankings fluctuate and most parents would not judge a school by Pisa rankings. So for parents it doesn’t matter.

What most parents want to know is are dc well taught. Is the curriculum interesting and delivered with some imagination. Are dc safe in school? Are bullying and poor behaviour dealt with appropriately? Do dc actually pass the exams at the grades they should and has the teaching enhanced their life chances? Is slt up to the job? What needs to improve and how the school can do this. What the school thinks about itself should be published. Where do they think there should be improvements? Then parents have more information to consider.

These days dc and parents should also consider if schools are pleasant places to be. Parents might wish to avoid strict schools. Who tells them this? No one. Not all schools even publish individual subject exam data, %of dc excluded each year or staff turnover. It’s very difficult to unearth the true ethos of a school.

You cannot judge a school, any school, by results from PISA as it it deals with representative samples from a number of countries. So all we can know from its data is how we are doing as a country, not how any individual or school is doing. If as a country, scores in reading, maths and science have flatlined for decades, as has happened in England, I think parents should be worried. After all, Ofsted costs us around £150 million a year which could be better spent on a more effective model of inspection.

As to the other comment, I didn't include a link to our website because mumsnet said I couldn't. But I will now try to post it on its campaign platform.

Also our Pisa results have not flatlined. The sampling was extended in 2000 but covid caused all sorts of issues. We are not useless and probably don’t want intense education that some countries prefer. There are so many variables in this data, not least sample size and which schools are involved. Do we cherry pick? Do other counties do the same?

Essentially inspection is not going away. Many of the inspectors are former heads. They are not all monsters. Most parents do want to know where a school could do better and the school you are looking at will never tell you. Yes, there’s government data but schools don’t publish what their areas for improvement are. Although I have just seen one on a private school web site. It missed out what success would look like but it was a decent enough start. Schools have this info but prospective parents never see it. They get an out of date Ofsted report.