Ofsted report delay?

[DebbieFiderer]

School had Ofsted in over a month ago, no report published yet - is this unusual? Previous inspection was 'Requires Improvement', had been Satisfactory for a long time before that. Feeling among parents/parent governors seems to be that improvements have been made but that this doesn't show in the results yet so uncertain as to whether they will manage a 'Good' this time. Also, not sure if it is related, but DD says they have been told they have to be on best behaviour tomorrow as visitors are coming - could that be Ofsted coming back in prior to publishing the report?

According to Ofsted, reports should be on their website within 15 working days unless they are placed in a category in which case it can take 28 working days. It is unlikely to be ofsted back again, but could be LEA inspectors, school improvement partners, potential academy sponsors, or just random visitors!

It's definitely been more than 15 working days, even if you discount half term, not quite at 28 working days yet though. I hope that doesn't mean there's a problem :(

Reports can sometimes be delayed if the school appeal the decision so that is a possibility.

When my sons school Ofsted report took an age coming out I emailed Ofsted and this is what they emailed me

" Unless the school has been judged ‘inadequate’, the report is normally sent to a school within 10 days working days of the end of the inspection, and published on Ofsted’s website within 15 working days of the end of the inspection. Where a school has been judged ‘inadequate’, the report is usually published within 28 working days of the end of the inspection."

My sons school Ofsted was eventually published and it had indeed gone from Outstanding to inadequate and is now in special measures !

While a delay doesn't always indicate a problem I think its highly possible there is some sort of issue .

Hmmm. I really hope it hasn't dropped to inadequate, apparently the inspectors did say to the school that they could see improvements had been made/measures had been put in to place. Hopefully just down to an appeal

I think you probably are looking at a problem. Either because the school are querying some part of the report or because the report isn't good.

Sometimes they get a sort of quality assurance, but I'm not sure if that changes the amount of time they take to publish.

Ours is late too. I'm sure the inspectors were there weeks ago.

In the case of my sons school even though key stage 2 results are still above the national average and even though all the negatives flagged in the ofsted had already been identified by the relatively new head and were already being dealt with it was deemed as too little too late by the inspectors .
Like I said the school was previously Outstanding but hadn't had an Ofsted since 2008 and while we were all aware things had slipped somewhat we were not expecting anything below requires improvement at the very worst with the general opinion being it would scrape a good ! With all the reports of government targets wanting more schools to be forced to become academies and more schools being classed as inadequate ( which means they are almost certainly forced into academy status ) it does make you wonder if theres something else going on as well ( or maybe that's my own paranoia !! ) Hope things work out ok for your childs school

Results being above average can be a bit misleading. It's about progress as well. You can still have above average results, with less than steller teaching and with children making less than expected progress.

yes you definitely right - one of points raised was concerned with progress

The results in poor level of attainment terms are part of the reason why the school was previously outstanding in all probability but in the latest Ofsted framework there is more emphasis on progress than there was before and it sounds like your school was coasting on the basis the raw results were OK.

If the report is later than 10 to 15 days then I think you need to assume that it is not good news that is coming your way. I would be worried by words like the school has improved but it does not show in the results yet. The school should have internal results which do show that things are improving. If they said that to the inspection team but did not have the info to back those statements up, then that would not have been well received.

It won't just be about results. Ofsted are looking for children to make progress and for teachers to use all the strategies to ensure this happens. For example they will look at marking and comments in books, assessment informing lesson planning, a rigorous assessment procedure so each child's progress is monitored, the use of pupil premium money to raise standards, interventions where children are not making progress, and the quality of leadership, including Governance. Lots more too!

I think I'd agree about being worried about the phrases the school are using. It's a bit of a red flag and quite commonly used by schools with their head in the sand. One of ours is currently making a huge song and dance saying something similar and querying a minor point in the report. Even if Ofsted concede it isn't going to make any difference to their grading of inadequate given the content of the rest of the report.

It will probably convince a few parents they've been unfairly treated though.

apparently the inspectors did say to the school that they could see improvements had been made/measures had been put in to place

If that ^^ is true, it could be the reason for the delay.

At the end of the inspection, Ofsted will divulge the content of the draft report to the SLT and the chair of govs only.

The SLT are not allowed to tell anyone (including staff) anything in that draft report. The chair is not allowed to tell the governors either as the draft report is strictly confidential, until the final report is given.

I'm a chair of govs and I was told by the Ofsted inspector that when details were leaked in the past, the school had to be inspected all over again.

But having said that, there was a delay in the report from my son's senior school because the Head disagreed with some points in it, so the inspectors did have to go back to clarify/sort the discrepancy.

The thing is, as far as I can tell, all the things that MillyMollyMama mentioned seem to be happening. Children all know their targets and next steps, are being challenged, etc. I think the results thing was that it hasn't fed through to sats results yet.

Does the 28 working days include half term? If so, even that deadline will be up by about Monday.

There are two sub categories of inadequate - serious weaknesses and special measures. It may well be that an inadequate school with a new head has not had time to make the necessary improvements. A school might had leadership as good, but attainment could be inadequate.

It is horrible when your child's school goes into a category, but its rarely done lightly. Hopefully the LEA will throw lot of money at the school to improve it.

I feel deeply sorry for the staff at the OP child's school. They will be in for a very rough ride.

When this happened at dd's school it was sm. there is more time allowed for the publication of these reports as they are double checked by hmi. It is going to be bad news I think.

It is also extremely difficult to know, as a parent, if lesson planning, assessment and teaching quality is good throughout the school. Usually you just know about your child's class. You are also very unlikely to know if the school is spending pupil premium wisely to make an impact. Schools should have detailed tracking of progress for every child and, if this is only just starting to happen, and lessons are not based on attainment and it has not been quick enough to affect SATs, then RI is a possibility. However, leadership could be good and the school nay well have the capacity to improve. With a good head, it is not all doom and gloom. Many schools who were previously satisfactory were not good enough for all their children so there is now much more forensic evidence required from schools to prove that every child is being taught well and is achieving well.

It is impossible to know if your child's school is good if you have no other school to compare it with.

Quite rightly satisfactory is not good enough and I feel that that "requires improvement" is better. If the leadership is good then the RI school will improve, otherwise it is time for new leadership.

RI wouldn't be a surprise, it would be a shame they hadn't managed to get to good but it would be fair. I think if it is inadequate then it will be because they aren't confident in the head so will probably get a new one, not sure if that would be a good thing or not.

I don't think they would have got to good unless they had made significant changes that they had evidence were making a difference, and much of the teaching was judged to be good. And rightly so.

It may well depend on the head and whether they think he has done enough and made enough of a difference in the time given.

Have you has a look at the Data Dashboard for your school? It's on a link from the Ofsted page. It shows the results and performances.

Ours is dreadful. Our Key Stage 1 were in the bottom 20% nationally two years ago. Those are the last published results. Yet the head tells us she is constantly turning down requests from people trying to get their children into our school because it has such a good reputation. They obviously don't do much research. It's there on the schools own website for all to see. Can't see it maintaining that reputation. Wouldn't be a bad thing, they're a bit overstretched as it is.

The issue the school had though is you can't get repeated RI ratings. If improvements aren't made its category. Having been through it my opinion is that there are advantages and disadvantages to category. Broadly the school will be forced to become an academy so you are reliant on who takes it over. I think we've done ok out of it fingers crossed.