Governors help! We've had 'the call' from Ofsted...

[abgirl]

... and they're arriving next week (not saying when as might 'out' myself). I am a relatively new CoG and am confident in the school being rated well from the evaluation and monitoring we have already carried out. However I am worried about letting the side down when I am interviewed and would welcome some feedback about the questions you've been asked, particularly if you have had your ofsted inspection relatively recently.

All help very gratefully received...

Those who can do
those who cannot, teach
those who cannot teach join ofsted

they are not ogres, they are unreasonable tickboxers
nod and smile
nothing else you say or do will make a difference.

DH was at a school that had just missed an overall 'outstanding' on its ofsted because one of the playground fences was too low (child protection)
fine, but the fence belonged to Railtrack and tampering with it would have been a criminal offence
Another school were judged by ofsted on their raw data not value added - fine, but the school is one of the most deprived in a large area - not many infants have razor wire on the boundary walls.

Yes I realise it is all a game talkinpeace and we all play along, but I just don't want to let anyone down:)

Good Luck.

I'm sure you'll be fine.

abgirl
as you rightly guessed I was being sarky

but DH goes to so many schools and sees Ofsted inspectors several times a year, he and I are DEEPLY cynical about the whole thing.
As a former governor I know what a pile of utter hogwash the SEF forms are in some schools.
One of the reasons I quit was that I got utterly sick of "self appraisal"
sorry, but the whole point is that you send in somebody who can independently appraise.
Maybe I should get DH to apply to be head of OFSTED. He can smell a bad school in the first 30 seconds.
It has nothing to do with demographics, size, catchment, grammars, private
and EVERYTHING to do with organisation.

I'm an auditor (yeah, the nasty numbers kind) and I can - according to clients - "smell" the troublesome areas.
Its taken 20 years but now I'm pretty expert at giving carp news in a constructive way.
If only OFSTED and other government agencies had such staff retention, they might actually achieve something!