Genuinely I think all parents are for better schools/ higher standards - but I think to keep schools 'honest' we need a system of inspection that isn't well signalled, that isn't just about a snapshot of carefully stage managed lessons/ activities/ children/ parents/ governors - but is about getting to the core issue of whether the school is doing enough to ensure that every child is getting the best possible education.
WE DON'T NEED GIMMICKS LIKE FINING PARENTS FOR NOT SUPPORTING HOMEWORK - BUT SCHOOLS TO BE PROFESSIONAL IN THEIR DELIVERY OF WELL-DIFFERENTIATED, PURPOSEFUL/ USEFUL AND, frankly, ENJOYABLE HOMEWORKS THAT CONSOLIDATE SKILLS AND STRETCH/ CHALLENGE PUPILS, regardless of level.
We need schools focused on supporting achievement: supporting the parent of a child who is already showing talent in a sport (organising make-up work for missed classes, getting homework to them digitally - rather than lecturing them about how their child is missing too much school and they can't expect the school to provide extra work/ homework in advance. If you want high caliber athletes as a nation you have to accept they need to start young).
supporting parents of struggling children - provide advice on how to help, recommending workbooks that might help/ websites that might help/ etc.... giving suggestions that parents can put into practice. Recognising that some children have to overcome illness/ parental illiteracy/ innumeracy, chaotic home lives - and that as a society it is worth investing in such pupils with homework help clubs (before/ after school/ at lunch) to attempt to help them out of such circumstances.
supporting parents of more able children - keeping them engaged and interested in learning, ensuring that they aren't left to doodle all day at school, ensuring that their ability is fostered. (Why aren't LEA's obliged to offer brighter pupils - that top 5% in ability - G&T level teaching in KS2 Upper - when brighter pupils may have exceeded curriculum support for ordinary primary schools? Why can't the organise for area schools to go to a local secondary for special maths/ science/ English lessons - stretching and challenging these pupils. How on earth do you expect to produce 'great thinkers'/ scientists/ mathematicians without such support?)
OFSTED should be focusing on an inspection system that produces reliable results - not surprises which are instantly overturned (e.g. rating several of the Trojan horse Birmingham schools OUTSTANDING in 2012 and in less than 2 years later reporting they are NEEDS IMPROVEMENT - whilst simultaneously rating long-term locally outstanding schools (both well-respected secondaries) NEEDS IMPROVEMENT in 2012 - the same calendar year as these OUTSTANDING verdicts - and forcing them into academy status). It's hard not to see these 'odd' verdicts on Birmingham schools in 2012 as anything other than political.
Parents need to understand what the flaws are at a school and we need to see that the schools are addressing them - part of this process needs to be for more transparent admission on the part of the schools for their shortcomings and continuous information to highly concerned parents that these are being addressed/ improvements are being made. And without the spin/ euphemisms please.
Parents need to see substantive examples of how exactly governors are holding schools to account. We need a system where when parents complain they aren't fobbed off by a long-winded system - raise with teacher - raise with head - raise with governors - raise with LEA. Or that old nutshell - we can't deal with individual cases. Are you really saying that if a school fails to notice a child is missing after a field trip that parent can't complain about poor systems on outings? If a parent complains that there child has had no homework for 12 weeks and the school homework policy is weekly homeworks - are you saying that isn't a valid complaint?
Inspections are a chance to actually see first hand how children are doing:
Simple gimmicks like asking a Y4 cohort to take a pop quiz on addition/ subtraction & times tables. If >50% don't know this stuff - that's a problem, because they should. That's not OFSTED being unfair - that's OFSTED revealing the school isn't performing their duty by these children.
Asking a sample of Y5 students (ask teacher to select 3 each of various ability - high/ middle/ low) to calculate the perimeter of a non-uniform geometric shape with not all information on lengths provided, but using pre-existing knowledge of standard geometric shapes (i.e. a rectangular has two equal short sides and two equal long sides/ an isosceles triangle has two equal sides but the third side will be a different length).
Asking Y1/Y2 pupils to read from books OFSTED brings in which wouldn't normally be in school purchased reading schemes. If more than 50% struggle to read to the inspectors - that's a problem.
Asking Y3/Y4 pupils to discuss what they're currently reading with you - to determine how comprehension skills are developing. And asking them whether their teachers discuss this kind of thing with them or not.
Ask some searching questions - do you spend more time on maths than assemblies during the week? What do you learn from your field trips? Do field trips relate to what you're studying? Do you do work in school related to your field trips?
Reviewing school work/ but also feedback. Our school has had years (and continues to do so) of just ticking the work (i.e. yep, the kid's done this assignment - no further effort there). Given the homework is photocopies of workbook sheets (so let's see 5-10 minutes effort there - possibly just for the TA and not differentiated) - OFSTED should be sampling homework journals/ in class subject workbooks and picking up schools on quality of homework/ feedback. This kind of poorly thought out homework from schools is missing opportunities for struggling students (who find the homework too hard so stop doing it) and for high achieving students (who regularly finish the homework in a few minutes often during packing up time at school).
Yes, yes - observe some lessons, talk to hand-picked parents/ governors who've been chosen to help put the school's best face forward - but also walk the playground before/ after school and talk to parents. Are they worried to say anything. Are they ranting about failings of the school. What's the school's atmosphere? Are parents openly cynical about the Head/ Deputy walking the playground on the morning of the inspection - which they haven't done for years (as was the case at our school).
If teachers have been doing their job well - pupils are achieving well, school is reasonably well organised, lessons are reasonably well planned - inspection should be a formality.
Finally, as a parent who's witnessed her child do nothing in Y6 except prepare for SATs - OFSTED needs to ask Y6 pupils what they've been doing and school's that are hot housing cohorts for KS2 SATs need to be SLAMMED for it. It really is 11th hour panic to be doing this and smacks of a school that has missed opportunities and avoided hard work for years. Frankly this should be on parent view - so parents fed up with miserable Y6 children can signal their frustration with what is in effect poor management of the delivery of primary curriculum.
Year 6 should be an ordinary school year where learning is progressing and children aren't endlessly reviewing. The damage in terms of poor attitudes toward school/ teachers sets in at this stage because too many schools are handling KS2 SATs in this way.
Perhaps it is time to make KS2 SATs short-noticed and the content of the exam highly variable and, therefore, unpredictable.
If schools had no idea when Y6 SATs would be administered - January - May and couldn't easily predict content they may feel more inclined to ensure they're doing their day to day job of getting the vast majority of pupils (floor standard 65% now) to NC L4 or better. Schools should be rewarded if they achieve this for NC L5.
Again, sorry MN & all for the ongoing rants - but I am beyond livid at the drip drip drip of wasted opportunities DD1 has had at her school and the fact that allegedly professional teachers were content to do next to nothing in school to resolve fundamental problems with early reading/ addition & subtraction skills until Y3 at the earliest. I felt the OFSTED inspection of our school was a farce - too well signalled (letter previous school year indicating inspection would be sometime in the coming year) - and OFSTED were uninterested in examining too deeply serious gaps in the provision of outside of school learning opportunities (homework) - didn't query or dwell on the fact that bug club/ my maths were newly purchased and that moodle (a VLE) was newly purchased. They rewarded the school for their plans and good intentions and gave them a GOOD - I hope having seen all this fall by the by that when OFSTED return they give the result this school deserves - NEEDS IMPROVEMENT.