ofsted poisoning our school

[marchgrove]

I posted this under 'the staffroom' but hope here more of you will find it and comment...
My local primary has just been labelled 'inadequate' by a recent inspection. I do not recognise this description. It is a lovely happy community. My daughters are both doing well, they love their teachers and the head teacher, who I believe is a great headteacher and highly respected as well as loved by the children. Whenever I have been through the school, I have only seen a hive of learning, children happy and busy.
Ofsted came in with a narrow agenda, failed the school on ONE criterion - 'below average attainment at KS1', and this meant all other achievements were totally irrelevant, and school had to deemed inadequate overall.
Ofsted has become a poisonous and destructive arm of Michael Gove's privatisation agenda. The meaning of words has been skewed reminiscent of Orwell, so that any school that finds itself in the 50% below national average in any one area MUST be labelled inadequate, however fantastic it is in all other respects. Michael Gove is determined to find victims for his privatisation agenda. He cares nothing for the impact this kind of poison has on our schools and communities. I for one, am not going to take this lying down!

[montmartre]

"Otherwise they just ramble on and it doesn't make sense"

Just like my prev post! sorry, doing far too many things at once. Will go and concentrate more on the ones that are important...

[Fairenuff]

my point was though that it isn't purely literacy- they have numeracy every single day, they do have science, at, music etc

They have numeracy every day but science is incorporated in 'Topic'. Each term there will be Topic work. At the moment we are growing plants and doing lifecycles. But Topic also includes geography and history, so science is a third of that subject. Makes for very little science in KS1.

Home support is absolutely essential I would say, for children to really thrive in education. Yes, there are lots of activities which parents can do with their children. But not all do.

There are seven year olds in my class who cannot tie their shoelaces or ties. This is something that could be taught at home. In numeracy we are learning how to tell the time. Again, this is something that could be taught at home. There are so many enhancement activities which could be done at home. But many, many parents don't do them so school has to.

Because of the demands of Ofsted, schools have to concentrate most of their learning on literacy and numeracy because this is what they are 'marked' on. So, no, I don't think the op is 'embroidering the truth'.

[muminlondon]

'schools are creating a new, higher 'average', so criteria must be changed.'

ipadquietly is this related to the new floor targets - 65% will need to achieve Level 4 plus measure/averages for 'good' Level 4 (4a? 4b?)?

If Ofsted they have their hit squads, the DfE academy brokers sound even more intimidating and often without a paper trail. It seems convenient for the government to encourage confusion between Ofsted and these brokers so that teachers blame Ofsted and Gove can call them 'enemies of promise'. In Lancashire the Tory council leader is backing schools threatened with forced conversion to academies and ordering them off the premises. I wonder who these people are? Are they self-employed or on a contract?

[Elibean]

The thing that worries me the most (in the bigger picture) is motivation. If there really is a political motive to push all - or even just the bigger, shinier - schools towards Academisation, then bang goes any trust whatsoever.

And sadly, a lot of people in Education seem to suspect the motives behind Gove's policies, and the way Ofsted is being 'guided' these days.

Scary.

[stressyBessy22]

If the school has faile OFSTED purely because its results are below average, then 50% of schools must be failing OFSTED.They aren't so there must be more to it than this

[marchgrove]

Stressy wait for the new figures. The new framework came into force in January, so I expect as the results will start filtering through only now.

See also www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/secret-memo-shows-michael-goves-plan-for-privatisation-of-academies-8488552.html

[marchgrove]

and if you haven't picked up the link posted by muminlondon (above), don't miss this www.lep.co.uk/news/education/lancashire-council-leader-allows-heads-to-ban-officials-1-5497008