ofsted reports -are they worth the paper they are written on?

[sausagesandwich34]

DCs school had ofsted in recently and the report that came back is brilliant

however the best children were picked to read to the inspectors & talk to them in a group

they also discussed with their teachers what they would discuss with the inspectors before hand

why don't the inspectors just walk into a class and go 'you, you and you' rather than let the teachers pick

-this isn't a teacher bashing thread by the way, I love my dcs teachers and also recognise that when my RM walks in at work there is a flurry of activity to make sure he sees the best side of everything

I was just wondering because some parents put so much emphasis on ofsted reports when picking schools

I am learning my way around the British system of education so have been visiting a lot of primary schools. So far my impressions are broadly in line with the OFSTED reports. Outstanding school was full of lively and yet very purposeful children with great variety of topics. Good was slightly more chaotic but children looked like they knew what they are working towards. Good with outstanding features had a scarily active PTA. I haven't been to schools considered poor locally, largely because they don't seem to have a system of prebooked tours. As far as I remember there was an advice that you need to read OFSTED report from the end (letter to pupils) and then look at K2 levels. I am gobsmaked that our nearest school which has English and maths levels below any national standards scored good for everything including teaching.

the teachers may have chosen which children were going to talk to the teacher but the 'type' of children will have been specified by ofsted. the teachers don't just puick the most articulate kids! ofsted will say 'i want to talk to a year 3 boy with sen and a year 2 girl who is of middle ability.' for eg

they also will choose to read with children from certain categories.

No.

alcofrolic - he was chosen randomly using the register number system. But even when they knew about his dx they persisted in taking him along and also wouldn't allow the class teacher or myself to go along, thus making him even more stressed and unresponsive. I have no idea what they made of his lack of communication, no feedback given - bar a not very happy little boy at the end of it. Was not impressed.

When we were inspected, our experience was similar to gymboy's. The inspector specified in detail the 'type' of children that he wanted to speak to, and we then chose the precise child. The level of detail in the specification was sufficient that we probably had a choice between 2 or 3 children in each case. There were probably 4 or 5 of these group 'talk to children' sessions - readers, oldest year in the school, school council, SEN children, then a general series of 1 to 1 chats with selected children. He did also take every opportunity to talk to children more informally- had lunch with them each day, went out into the plaground and talked to them, spoke to them as he passed them in the corridor, chatted to several children in each class that he observed, was in the playground at the beginning of each day - so there was very little chance of us 'controlling' who he met.

I would dispagree with the poster who said that a school management capable of 'strategically playing the Osted game' will also be capable of producing a good experience for children in the school. It's a metter of time - a leadership team which spends all their time focusing on the needs of Ofsted, analysing data, checking paperwork, ticking boxes may not be able to spend that time in the classroom, creating the learning experiences that actually create a love of learning in the children, or in planning really carefully to meet the exact needs of e.g. individual SEN children. It's a bit like the whole Year 6 SATs thing - many schools choose to use the time that they have in Year 6 to coach to the test (because it is high stakes and affects the school's position in league tables) rather than teaching new and inspiring curriculum content. The same thaing can easily happen in the pressure to 'meet Ofsted's criterai'.