Shock OFSTED. What now?

[Chocovore]

I did post a while back about something fishy over our schools OFSTED. We finally got the verdict today - Outstanding to Inadequate in one fail swoop. How the hell did that happen? What happens now? Will the Head leave? It says they may be converted into an Academy. Just can't believe this is happening. Wonder whether we should jump ship now or hang on and see what happens? I have Ds2 due to start in Sept and feel like we have all been very let down!

Blimey. i would love to know what happened. Did you have any inkling at all?

Have you a copy of the report?

One thing for sure there will be structures put in place to ensure it improves by the review date. If you actually haven't been worried about what you child is being given in the way of an education I'd maybe wait and see.

(I'm assuming that there aren't hundreds of unused places locally and this school is on the list for closure)

Outstanding schools that have been coasting have suddenly been called to account?

I would be interested in how the school respond to the report. There will be a LOT going on and certainly no coasting. You need to find out about the 'Academy' talk and see which direction the school is going and if you are happy with it. Premature to jump ship unless your children and yourself very unhappy with the school personally.

As the OFSTED report a public document are you willing to post a link to it?

You need to see the report and find out in which areas OFSTED have seen weaknesses. There's a big difference between things to do with school management (safeguarding, record-keeping) and the areas of teaching and learning.

Obviously all areas will need to be fixed. But knowing where the perceived problems are may make a huge difference to whether you want your DC to continue there.

I would also agree that unless you are personally unhappy with the school you ought not to leave. The school may well be given additional resources to improve.

This has recently happened at our school. There are very specific reasons why (heavy emphasis on SATs results which were poor last year although predicted results for this year are back to schools 'normal' and there were issues with that cohort).

DofE is now really pushing for school to become an academy.

This seems to mean that either school will improve (action plan in place with LA after poor results prior to OFSTED) and this improvement will be credited as due to school becoming an academy or school will nosedive as parents pull their kids out but "the inadequate rating will no longer matter" and wont show up on OFSTED website as the school gets a new start as an Academy (explanation given by LA rep at parents meeting).

Oh and the new building we have been waiting for and were awarded funding for looks like its disappearing as we will no longer be a LA school.

It isn't a pretty picture atm, and I feel so sorry for the staff whose jobs/pensions etc. face an unfortunate future.

I agree with scaevola. Is it not an automatic Inadequate overall if there is a safeguarding/record-keeping issue even if Teaching and Learning is outstanding?

I think that's a myth, ilove. It's certainly a common belief that a safeguarding issue will cause an automatic failure, but I'm not sure it's actually true.

I think you need to read the report to know exactly what's happened before you make any decisions.

I think it is actually true - certainly we have been told so at governors meetings. There is a statutory duty to comply with safeguarding rules - if you do not then you cannot be good or outstanding no matter how good the teaching. However it will say as much in the report because teaching will have been graded at 2 or above and say something along the lines of "if it were not for x, y, z safeguarding issues then this would be a good/outstanding school".

There are 4 areas that Ofsted assess:

• achievement of pupils
• quality of teaching
• leadership and management
• behaviour and safety of pupils

What grades has it got for each of these?

The report is not on the OFSTED website yet, but we were given a copy today. There is also a 3 sided A4 outlining the schools complaints to OFSTED and also the private company? carrying out the inspection. Main complaints from the school go on for ever, but some interesting ones:

2 inspectors, one of which has only ever taught in secondary and had only done 3 inspections before (all secondary). He could not communicate appropriately with the children and seemed unfamiliar with primary reading. Inspectors were rude and intimidating to staff. When staff asked to speak to them told 'no time' or 'no point'.

One 2 junior classes were observed, one being a supply teacher. 3 lessons of the 10 were inadequate (2 of these by a supply teacher).

Not due to close, no. This is a school which had a major rebuild only 2 years ago costing £1M. They got 4s for everything apart from behaviour and Safety which was a 2.

The Head was absent during the inspection (no-one know why), year 6 were off site and other year groups were doing writing tests.

Definately sounds like something was 'off' op. I am a teacher and it's ringing huge alarm bells with me.

As stated on previous thread, there must have been an issue in the first place for Ofsted to carry out an inspection at all. The new policy is that outstanding schools don 't need to be inspected unless standards drop. Something has clearly been brewing for a while.

And hmm to academisation making it all better. Academies and free schools are failing too.

Hope all becomes clear, op.

Very strange the head being absent and a supply being inspected...

I'd wait for now unless dc unhappy. You haven't got the full story.

Yes, I am pretty sure there is more to it. What about the fact that a private company did the inspection though. Is that usual?

Not in my experience!

No nearly all inspections are contracted to a handful of private companies

Its always a company that does it on behalf of OFSTED. CfBT in the north of England & Tribal in the south of England but there doesn't have to be a reason for an outstanding school to be inspected - they also do random inspections of outstanding schools for quality assurance.
The quality & consistency of OFSTED inspectors is what teachers object to most about the whole inspection process.
The observations in KS2, absence of Yr6 & HT etc are all unfortunate but they look at teaching 'over time'. Its more likely to be the quality of teaching, combined with a lack of progress that has led to the decision.
Schools can appeal (I think - that's why it takes so long for an 'inadequate judgement' to be published).

Nothing strange about a supply being inspected. They will inspect anyone who is teaching, supply teacher, cover supervisor, whoever. Their job is to investigate the quality of the teaching in the school, if that teaching is being delivered by a supply teacher they need to be inspected.

As for head being offsite, well that can happen too with only 18 hours notice of an inspection. For instance, suppose the head was on a residential and couldn't get back in time. They had just better bloody hope their senior management team is on the ball. The inspection would go ahead anyway. Although in this case, it seems from what the OP has said that there is more too it than a simple explanation like that.

www.education.gov.uk/schools/leadership/typesofschools/bso/b0065134/approved-inspectorates/tribal-education-ltd

www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/9413309/Ofsted-school-inspectors-not-qualified.html

OFSTED criteria have changed. There is a far greater emphasis on making progress than in the past. My children's school has failed a mock inspection (done by the LEA) which has resulted in the replacement of the senior management team. My daughter starts reception and I feel sick with worry. The pressure on schools means that there is no ablity to change schools.

Changing school is not a trival thing as children have their friendship groups. I did consider changing schools, but decided not to bother as ds is in year 6.