NOW CLOSED Please take a few minutes to read Ofsted's proposals for changes to how they inspect schools and fill in their survey about it

[TheOtherHelenMumsnet]

Ofsted is currently running a consultation on how they inspect schools and potential changes that may be introduced.

They'd like more parents to take part in the consultation and have their say about how improvements can be made, and the steps Ofsted should take to help raise standards in schools.

Here's what Ofsted say about it: "In the consultation, we are focusing on the key areas of inspection that we believe will help those who provide education to improve children's chances of success. This consultation provides an opportunity to comment on proposals that Ofsted would like to introduce from 1 September 2012."

Ofsted would like you to complete their short survey, but before you do, please download and read the background info here so that you're familiar with the proposals, and are able to answer the questions in the survey. Once you've done that, please click on the link below to complete the survey (please note that the survey and questions look a bit different to others you may have seen on MN because it's an Ofsted survey rather than a MN one).

www.surveymonkey.com/s/ofsted-gefa-sch

This is an opportunity to have your say on issues which impact on children's education. If you can spare the time to take part, please do.

Thanks
MNHQ

It is possible to get better all the time.

Not in everything-you simply reach your peak.

*The government and Ofsted need to decide what a minimum acceptable provision is. Then they can decide if each school meets that minimum standard. It should be like when you take your driving test - they don't compare you to the national average driver, you are either good enough to be let loose on the road or you aren't.

Can we have a minimum standard for Government Ministers too please?*

This!

TheRhubarb
And if Ofsted want to know the name of that school I am more than happy to provide it.

I wouldn't bother. A good friend of mine rang the 'whistleblower' line to report SMT bullying, poor behaviour to the point of throwing scissors at staff and even falsifying records and putting her name to documents after she had left.

OFSTED wrote to her and told her to contact the Head to discuss her concerns! Erm. Well that'll be a no then!

It will be interesting to see the results of the consultation, and what there response to that is. I can't believe that anyone who thinks about it for more than a minute will agree it's a good idea to redefine the English language so that "satisfactory" means "unsatisfactory" and so force schools that are not only satisfactory but improving into a process of escalating inspections ending in special measures. Especially as it will mean lumping the schools that are basically fine into the same category as schools with genuine problems - which will make it impossible for parents to make informed choices, a major backwards step.

I mean yes, they will of course go ahead regardless because the whole thing is clearly a political exercise to give Gove the power to force schools into Academy status, and has very little to do with education. The question is how far the legal duty to consult means there's scope for a legal challenge to the process if everyone consulted disagrees with it.

"Are you living as the same gender as you were born in?" Relevant??? Typical Ofsted question!

I wonder what kind of an evaluation scale it is with ONLY two positive values and (an excessive) two negative?

I wonder also, why Ofsted thought that responding to comments on gender questions and misprints was more important than explaining the more pressing issue of mathematical possibility of every school being "better than average"?

Perhaps they apply the same criteria to rating schools - looking at the trees rather than the forest

Turquoise, it will be 2 positive, 1 negative, with negative being 'not good enough, requires improvement' and requiring action. But to be either of the 2 positive you have to be 'above average' and so 50% of schools will be in the negative category.

I do wonder if it is a ploy to force schools to become academies tbh.

I do wonder if it is a ploy to force schools to become academies tbh. I don't think there is any doubt about that

What does becoming an academy actually mean ?

Teachers are not covered by the STPCD mainly

STPCD?!

I think it may also mean that the local government, and therefore national government cannot be held accountable for the results. Because they are 'independent' of the LEA.

Becoming an Academy means dealing direct with the government for your funding rather than going via the LEA, and as a result having a bit more flexibility and you get to spend some of your cash directly rather than receive LEA services. It's a halfway house between private schools and state ones because you are state funded but the government gives you a lot more rope and then if you make a mess of it there is no LEA safety net to catch you. So I guess their theory is it's bringing the free market economy into the state sector without actually privatising it.

If you're a big school with a big budget, like a large secondary, that extra wodge of cash and the freedom to spend it as you please is a big benefit: even where the LEA make good use of the money it results in "one size fits all" services which sometimes end up not fitting any schools at all. But the extra accountability and the extra work it brings is daunting for a lot of small schools - not to mention very expensive, as you almost always need extra management staff in an Academy - which is why despite being heavily leaned upon by the government, so far most of the little primaries are digging in their heels. The govermnent can't afford any more carrots, they won't be offering to fund the extra costs that these small schools can't afford. Which is why they are telling Ofsted to get out the stick. If they can get Ofsted to force perfectly good schools into Special Measures then they have the power to force them to become Academies - ready or not, and sod the cost to the schools - and to the kids in them.

Lily, well there's "requiring improvement" and special mesures. So technically, two negatives.

I'm also worried about the word "average" - people here keep talking about "average" in terms of the top 50% and the bottom 50%, i.e. "average" here is arithmetic mean. But "average" also means "typical", "most common" so could be seen as mode, i.e. if currently say 60% of schools were rated satisfactory, 30% good and 10% outstanding, the "average" would be... 60%. Therefore, in a few years' time 60% of all schools could potentially end up in special measures!

A ploy to force more schools to become academies - absolutely.

STPCD = school teachers pay and conditions document.

it means that those who work in academies do not have to be paid the same as the national payscale for teachers.

Also affects things like PPA, directed time, working at weekends in school etc

Thanks .

Norfolk,
so it's logical to expect that some academies will be paying their junior staff less than LEA schools or possibly even putting them on supply-type contracts (only paid for x amount of hours worked, no sick pay or holiday pay, no pension etc), while the SMT will be sitting pretty. Whereas other academies will attract all good teachers and TAs in the area with higher salaries and conditions ending in all the best resources being drawn to academies while LEA schools will be left with mediocre teachers.

TT, I think a combination of the two is the most likely. From the school's POV, a lot of staff benefits cost the school more than they are worth to the staff. Sick pay is covered by an insurance policy: if no-one goes sick, your generous sick pay package still costs the school a huge amount to insure. If the school could bring the sick pay package in line with "average" sick pay allowance, the insurance cost would go down and the extra money could go on base salary, which would allow the school to attract and retain really good staff.

Tbh I don't think that is a terrible idea. Plenty of terrible ideas out there atm, but not that one.

Lily, well there's "requiring improvement" and special mesures. So technically, two negatives.

Not really, because if they stay at 'requiring improvement' for 2 inspections, then they will go into special measures.

The average thing is maddening. So stupid it makes my teeth ache.

The average thing is maddening - I agree nkf

The other thing I find frustrating about the new framework is the fact that inspectors are going to make judgements, by watching a lesson for 30 minutes about progress "over time". Other than asking the students "does this happen all the time?" or spending hours poring over exercise books (which I don't have - secondary Drama) I fail to see how a 30 minute observation is going to allow a perfect stranger to make a judgement about my long-term teaching skills.

As for the no notice thing - as long as inspectors accept that they might turn up to find the whole of Year 10 in a controlled assessment, all of Yr 7 on a trip and cover supervisors working flat-out, then fine. If they expect to find the level of detail in written and printed lesson plans that they tend to want, then they'll be stuffed. I write lesson plans, but they are for me - the amount of extra detail an inspector wants is unnecessary on a day-to-day basis. Also, I don't print my lesson plans out unless I know someone is going to be watching me and will want to look at a plan as we go along.

I'm in a school which has just come out of special meaures. Our final inspection was the week before October half term. Our lead inspector, who had been in and out of school for a year or so, and was a very decent chap, told the Head, before the summer holidays, that he would be back before October Half Term, but probably not before the end of September, and that we would only have 24 hours notice of his visit. The Head passed this on to staff, and the three weeks between the end of September and the start of half term were the most stressful of my life. Lots of notice is definitely not a good thing.

I think teachers will have their work cut out and Ofsted will just tell them that they have not done enough! Very helpful. Ofsted already seems to strike fear into the hearts of teachers. This only seems to make it worse. Imagine being a child in the class amongst all this pressure. Do we do this to any other profession? Imagine going into surgery and your surgeon had someone jump out with a clipboard and chekilst. Shaky hands? Possible mistakes? Gulp!!

Currently wide awake 6 wks pregnant :)

As a teacher of children with autism in a school for moderate learning and complex difficulties and autism (50%+) I am now teaching a class of 5 in an autism specific learning environment (basically a little 3 room unit within our special school). Some of the wonderful and intensely challenging children I teach are actually academically of lower mainstream level, but impaired in their social and communication skills, as well as problem solving skills (not maths problems, ie 'what do I do if I don't have a pencil, how do I communicate that I feel unwell') which understandably results in extreme anxiety and complex patterns of behaviour which need a psychology degree to interpret at times! (eg is the current repetitive scripting of Mario scenes stress, distraction or amusement?!)

My deputy head has been unable to give me judgements in observations following new guidelines due to to 'progress clause' as, following all current good practice guidelines for teaching ASD, many of my lessons rely on routine of activity, repetition and minuscule small step learning. More 'formal' lessons, 'knowledge based' as Gove wants (as opposed to skills based - how do you interpret and apply knowledge without skills?!) Can be very challenging as most are peripheral learners and may need to be drawing whilst they listen or have extreme lethargy and sensory needs that they may need to be flopping in a corner or skipping round the room. Progress therefore can be simply coming to sit in group (hard to predict if will be an issue and therefore set as an objective) or even the fact that many children with asd don't like to do what they can't do - so some lessons are short blue peter style this is how we.... and on the 3rd day they might do it. Or 2 hours later. Or, as we are finding at the moment a year or 2 later.

I have a child who in September would not come out of the 'calm room' would not read, would not write. He now likes to write 7 page long history books about the queen's jubilee.

The progress over 6 months has been tremendous. At his pace and never noticeable in 20 mins. I tend to judge my lessons on rollage percentage. Competing with the exciting and motivating world of Mario and sonic is tough, if theres little or no rollage I know I've got them! Stuff ofsted, I know I'm giving my kids what they need. Observed interactive role play for first time last week yeay! During maths.

Oh and send unwanted kj bibles our way, mine are partial to a little paper nibbling/ sensorial ripping. Do they do it in Communicate in Print?

Lol Clarella - if they do, it won't be available in the VI character set.