Join us for a webchat with Ofsted's Chief Inspector of Education Sir Michael Wilshaw – 11.30-12.30, Tuesday 9 September 2014

[VikkiMumsnet]

As the academic year in England, Wales and NI gets underway, we're pleased to welcome Sir Michael Wilshaw into MNHQ for a webchat on Tuesday 8th September, for an hour from 11.30am.

As Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools in England since 2012, Sir Michael's responsibilities cover every aspect of Ofsted's work, from inspections to exams, reporting on the quality of education and children's services at both local and national level. His former career includes 43 years in teaching, with 26 spent as a head teacher in London secondary schools – most recently as Executive Principal at Mossbourne Community Academy in Hackney.

You can catch up with Sir Michael's most recent views on everything from poverty to private schools here.

Post your questions for Sir Michael below, and be sure to join us live on the 8th, from 11.30am.

Ooh!

Hello Sir Michael.

My older son has just started at our local comprehensive, which has been satisfactory/needs improvement ever since the OFSTED ratings began. Frankly I'd rather he wasn't there, but I simply had no choice at all - I live too far away from other, much better comprehensives, whose waiting lists run to several hundreds of children.

Does OFSTED has a plan for how to address these so-so, underwhelming schools that seem to have such mediocre cultures and underwhelming expectations? Because for parents like me (who have absolutely no choice but to send our children there) they are just Not. Good. Enough.

Thanks

Can you do anything about school uniform costs? At primary we loved the cheaper supermarket options, but at secondary the bespoke, single supplier stuff is killing us. I think schools aren't meant to use single suppliers, but OH they DO!

Is it true that a school's Ofsted rating is based upon the latest exam results and is therefore decided before an inspector steps foot in the school?

So, a brilliant school with inspirational leadership and dedicated, hard-working teachers working in a challenging area can never get Outstanding if their exam results reflect the relatively low starting point of their students? Yet a coasting school with incredibly advantaged students (interested parents, out-of-school tuition etc) will get Outstanding, no matter how uninspiring or weak the actual teaching?

Why are some academies failing Ofsted inspections? I thought the whole point of academies was to turn around failing schools and release them from the yoke of Local Education Authorities?

Hi Sir Michael - saw your interview in the Evening Standard last week. When you were teaching / during the time you were a Head, did you ever have that conversation with parents you felt weren't pulling their weight to support their children's education?

My daughter's primary school is OFSTED inadequate. The new head teacher has cancelled anything fun like the school play, termly class assemblies to focus on progress. Opportunites for music, art or drama are now very limited.

Why does OFSTED not look at the wider aspects of education? To be sucessful in the UK our children need more than good exam results. I feel that an incredibly narrow education that focusses on SATs fails to develop verbal communication and interpersonal skills needed for the 21st century.

I want my daughter to have similar opportunites for developing her verbal communication skills that Nicky Morgan had at Surbition High.

(ReallyTired I suspect the answer is that curriculum is not within Ofsted's remit).

1. How do you feel about the use and value of Teaching Assistants?

What do you think about the model used by some schools whereby the budget that would have paid for TAs is instead used to employ additional teaching staff to support students instead?

2. Too many chiefs, not enough Indians. What is the value of a large Senior Management Team?

One Head, two deputy heads, four assistant heads. This is a primary school of just over 350 pupils which employs 18 fte teaching staff (inc. SMT). I cannot decide of this is a grotesque waste of school budget (that could be used on extra teaching staff) or if it shows the excellent quality of staff already within the school and a desire to develop leaders.

Could you put pressure on the gov to stop the decline in libraries and do you think they have been shortsighted regarding this issue?

The more you read the better you are at it,to read a lot you need easy access to tempting books.If we want literacy levels raised libraries surely must pay a huge part particularly for the less well off.More money should be pumped into them to attract readers not less.

Our library like many has had it's hours slashed so for children it's rarely open during out of school hours,stock is dwindling as are librarians trained to encourage children to read.

We now have to either spend £7 for a return ticket to the city library or pay petrol/exorbitant parking fees.We are lucky we can,many families don't have the spare time or cash to do so.New books are expensive for all and vast numbers are out of the budgets of many families these days.

Local libraries are crucial,many offer somewhere quiet for kids not lucky enough to have quiet study areas to work out of school hours too!

I was watching Educating the East End last night and it got me thinking about how the notion of inner-city schools can be a bit of a red herring in terms of opportunity these days - a child growing up in poverty is going to be at much more of a disadvantage attending a failing school in rural Wales than an outstanding academy in east London! Do you think we now need to see a renewed shift in focus towards less 'obvious' examples like this?

Vivacia
Ofsted assesses a school in four areas: "Achievement of pupils", "Quality of Teaching", "Behaviour and Safety of pupils" and "Leadership and management."

This very narrow focus meant that some of the Trojan Horse Schools were able to get "Outstanding" when they shouldn't have done.

I want OFSTED to add fifth category. Maybe it could be called "Wider Aspects of Education" that could emcompass "British Values" and non examinable aspects of education.

Oh and following on from Vivacia's post is it really impossible for schools with an easier intake to coast into Good now(we keep getting told on here it is)? The cynic in me thinks it is still possible,what do you actually think and why?

I visit a lot of schools as part of my job( plus various schools my children have attended & I've been a governor) some have a lovely nurturing environment and others are very unapproachable . The majority of schools that were nurturing and approachable were failing schools. Is this deliberate?

Also how important do you think information for parents from schools is and are you going to do anything to improve it and make it more consistent?Some schools seem to give out an awful lot more than others and school reports to parents can vary hugely.If it wasn't for MN some of us would be totally in the dark.

I'd like to ask about "spiritual, moral, social and cultural development". It seems to be quite a big thing for Ofsted, but the spiritual part doesn't seem to be well-defined anywhere. I feel it's quite a contentious thing as a person's approach to spirituality will be determined by their religious beliefs or lack thereof. Given that the concept of spirituality is tenuous and possibly even divisive, why do you think it's so important that it be taught in schools? Could we not have something like "moral, social, cultural and personal development", that would emphasise the importance of thinking about the big picture and developing self-awareness, without the connotation that we're trying to teach children to be religious?

Following on from Vivacia's comments, why can't ofsted rate a school on the levels of progress pupils make rather than exam results?

cornflake I fully support your question re religion but suggest that as Sir Michael attended a Catholic secondary & says this (quoted from the link):

The youngsters I’ve taught who’ve come from homes which are poor but have values — particularly religious values — do really well.

We are unlikely to see secular schools any time soon. Which is a shame.

Anyway, to my point. Sir Michael thanks for coming to talk to us & welcome to Mumsnet. I appreciate that other posters will have questions ranging across the whole of the remit of education in this country, & those questions will be measured, important & attach gravitas.

My question is smaller, probably insignificant to anybody except me but I find it consuming at the moment & your appearance here is timely for me :)

I have a choice of secondary schools for next year for my very bright son, the closer one is rated as Requires Improvement & the majority of my son's friends will be attending that one. Its had a dreadful reputation for the past 20 years & isn't improving. The other one is rated Good but is a bus journey away which will mean a bigger struggle financially as I will have to pay for travel & his new friends & after schools clubs etc will be harder to manage. I will visit the schools but in the meantime my favouring the Good school is based purely on the Ofsted report however I constantly hear from teachers that Ofsted is a box ticking exercise & doesn't reflect the 'real' school etc etc. I do not know how to decide for the best.

My question is this: In your opinion & with your extensive experience as a Head, is it true that an academically able child will do well regardless of the school?

Many thanks

School Governors

Governors are often not skilled in the tasks asked of them. Inexperience can mean governors to take the lead from the Headteacher and can therefore become a group of "yes men" to the HT, rather than challenging.

How do you see the role of school governors developing over the next 10 years?

Given that the teaching grade for a school matches the attainment grade in most cases, why bother observing lessons at all?

It is hardly going to tell you what teaching is like on a day-to-day basis at that school, and lesson observations are an unevidenced and subjective way of rating teacher performance. You have got rid of individual lesson grades, why not get rid of lesson observations? You know that a 20 minute snapshot across a selection of staff is fairly meaningless.

As a registered childminder I am DESPERATE to know why in your recent interview you said that the 2 year funded children should go in to school & NOT a " local childminder" your suggestion that childminders are not good enough is deeply insulting and I would like to know why you felt it an appropriate statement !

Why are you so disparaging about childminders, Sir Michael? We do a hard but rewarding job, cope with increasing demands from Ofsted and work long hours to complete paperwork when the children have gone home. Yet recently you said that children should attend nursery and "not the local childminder". Don't we deserve some respect?

Hello Sir Michael,

Do you think it's odd that some many schools that were consistently graded 'Outstanding' have been downgraded to 'Requires Improvement' without any obvious fall in pastoral of academic care from the parents point of view over last year or two?

I'll be honest, it looks political from this parents and many others perspective.

Please excuse my typing having a few issues with the mobile site.

Hi. Our place bases our appraisal on three grades lesson observations a year. Can you confirm that this shouldn't happen (wrt numbers ? And that OFSTED will not grade individual lessons?