Ofsted Inspection & publishing of Reports

[PrimaryConcern]

Inspection was over 6 weeks ago, no report available yet from school or Ofsted website. Previous inspection was RI, I would be amazed if it got higher than that this time too.

Ofsted website seems to say they will be published within 28 working days at the maximum, which has passed. I assume school has some right to appeal, are there any timescales that have to be stuck to?

Our school was told on the day (communicated to parents on the day) the results - but this was Good to Good. Report/letter from Inspector not yet out- but only been 2 weeks. I would expect it soonish.

Have you asked the school? They will know the results and should really have communicated at least the grading to parents.

It can take much longer if school is disputing the report. It can go back and forth several times until everyone is happy with it .

It is fairly safe to assume this means bad news - an inadequate rating.

It's not a good sign. All will be revealed in due course and it won't be good.

Thanks for the replies. I haven't asked them directly as I have an ongoing complaint(!), so I do not want to be seen as being difficult.

I'm guessing they are fighting against the absolute worst rating and the one above, on the basis they have now appointed a Head of School (was a combination of an Executive Head from the Trust and the Deputy Head after the HT retired in the summer term). The Executive Head remains, but the Deputy left at half term, which has meant the Year 6 children now have a temporary teacher until January, so things are actually as bit worse than when were inspected. I also know a couple of other teachers are leaving the school at Christmas.

I wonder how long they can keep refusing to accept the report before Ofsted go ahead and publish something?

The school is told on the day but are warned that they should not tell parents until the final judgement is confirmed

Schools appealing usually have no effect on publication timescales. If it is special measures, the delay will be because the levels and layers of checking within ofsted are more stringent and obviously take longer.

They are massively short staffed. A percentage of reports get selected for Radom QA by ofsted. One of ours where the inspection was this sept took 9 weeks - good and stayed good.
As pp said - the result doesn't delay publication and you can't appeal the findings anyway. You can lodge an appeal about the inspector's conduct but you can't appeal what they find. Apparently they are perfect and never get it wrong

*random - have no clue what Radom is???

Right, so Ofsted will publish it when they are finished with it, regardless of any school appeal. That does make sense, and I can see for this school why that may be a bigger task, as it joined an Academy trust after a Special Measures judgement, then judged RI as an academy in 2015, then 2 monitoring inspections and now the full re-inspection. Add in staff shortages and a possible random QA I just need to be patient I suppose!

Thanks everyone.

Also, the half term is excluded from the publication timetable.

Also, the half term is excluded from the publication timetable.

The rules are that whilst the school may know the outcome of the inspection, they are not allowed to divulge the result until the date of the publication of the report.
The reason for this is that there is a level of moderation of the inspection, essentially that the evidence collected by the inspection team does justify the grade and actual content of the report. This does take some time and the grade can change during this period.
If the school was RI last time then there is a fair bet that the reason it is slow is that it is RI or worse this time.

Our school had a big delay on their report a couple of years ago. It took 2 -3 months. I believe they were arguing the results and even had Ofsted come and do a second visit. I think that is pretty unheard of. The school must have won the argument though as they went from satisfactory to good.

The school will get the final report 5 days before it is published on the Ofsted website. This is so it can be shared with staff and governors and parents before everyone else can read it on the website.

Have a look at recent reports on the Ofsted website and it gives you an idea about current timing in your region but is does vary considerably. 6 weeks is not unusual.

It can take much longer if school is disputing the report. It can go back and forth several times until everyone is happy with it .

Not so much any more. They cracked down on that. It doesn't go back and forth. You submit your factual accuracy using a form online. Sometimes they contact you and say they are accepting/rejecting them, sometimes they don't. Sometimes the final report is just changed.

Thanks for the further posts. Searching by area (thanks for the tip) reveals all but 2 primary schools in our area had their report published within a calendar month including an RI judgement for a school inspected a week after ours. The 2 exceptions were within 6 weeks (1 RI and 1 Good).

Admin & communication have gone somewhat awry with the school recently, so I won't be holding my breath to get a copy before it goes online.

I probably seem obsessive, but I just really want to know what the plan for improvement is as I have preschool DC as well as current attenders. I assume it has to be really, really dire for Ofsted to say just give up and close it?!?

Well the report came out from school. Inadequate. It's a dismal but unsurprising read.

We were inspected mid Oct and us staff haven't even been told yet let alone the parents. We're assuming the worst obvs

Sorry about the Inadequate. Happens.

Having been in a school which was served with a Notice to Improve, I personally think an Inadequate rating is better in the long run. Your school will get more support and financial help up front than it would under a lesser NottoImp. And I believe it's easier to move an inept Head on under an Inadequate than a NottoImp.

Good luck, OP.

Hope you find out soon hippyhippyshake. It must be hard on morale to have the judgement hanging in the air.

Thanks EweWereHere. It wasn't a surprise but the only area they got RI was leadership and management, everything else was inadequate. Tbh I am a bit at the leadership rating as I would say that was quite generous!

What I can't tell is whether it is in Special Measures or Serious Weaknesses which are the 2 options for inadequate. I'm guessing at Serious Weakness as they are saying leadership is RI, but the report doesn't actually say unless I've missed it.

They're making all the right noises and holding a feedback meeting, but, I am very uneasy at sending my preschool DC as the Early Years is particularly abysmal.

Is it an academy, OP? If not, I think it will now have to convert to academy status (as part of a sponsoring MAT).

It's already an Academy following a Special Measures judgement. It's first inspection after converting was RI, and now inadequate.

It may have to move to another MAT, then. How stressful for everyone involved.

We had Ofsted SEVEN weeks ago. The head teacher, SLT and governors know the result. They are not allowed to tell rest of us staff or the parents until the report is published. We are checking every day! However, as staff we know our head very well and it is very clear what our result is so we are all happy 😎