Feel rather sorry for the teachers at DC's school who've just told to expect OFSTED next week

[purpleturtle]

The last inspection at the end of June resulted in the school going into Special Measures, so the 'threat' of OFsted returning within 6 months has been hanging over them all ever since. I think by this stage in the term they were expecting it to be the beginning of next term now.

Everybody - staff and pupils - have worked extremely hard this term. They're still properly working in class this week, and had loads of fun stuff lined up for next week. Now that Ofsted are coming the parties and cinema trip have been rescheduled, thankfully to later in the week.

I know the kids will still have their fun, but the poor teachers must be beside themselves.

I agree with trickerg what schools should be doing and what OFSTED expect to see are two different things

flossie - that's interesting. Will your report, therefore, be based on the SEF alone?

We were expecting OFSTED next term but they turned up this week. We got a call late MOnday morning they were there on Thursday

I'm not sure what you mean by SEF (sorry). I know they only foound out they were coming at 8am that day , but all must have gone quite well as the staff seemed quite smiley yesterday. I think they would have been much less jolly if things had gone badly again.

morosky - how many times were you observed?

Spudmasher - are you serious? Compose their own carols???

DD has been turned into a minor celebrity in school today, because she took her flute in for a practice for next week's performance. She had to play a bit for her Y4 class to show them how it works.

Flossie - the SEF is the Self Evaluation Form written by the headteacher, which has Ofsted ratings (made by the headteacher). The inspectors come in to validate the SEF.

I have to say that a friend of mine wrote 2 plays while at primary school, and we produced them, rehearsed them and performed them to acclaim with a very subtle amount of adult help. Ds's school don't seem to do that.

I must say though that she is now a professional playwright. I'd always assumed it was unusual!

[ponders]

trickerg- i'm not sure , but if it is she will have given herself a very good SEF, as she is not in touch with the real world.
She expounds to be the best ,but in my experience of her what you see is not what you get.
Saying that she did inherit a crock of shit big problems from the last incumbant.

I can't believe a HT isn't sharing SEF information with the staff! We had governors join staff to write parts of ours. (We'll still only get satisfactory/good - but at least we're all asked for our contributions!)

I teach secondary and was observed once for about half an hour. I was told that they ask to observe staff who have recently been graded outstanding in their performance management, but I am not sure it is true.

Thanks morosky - what about you flossie - how often were you observed?

I teach in Primary. We were all observed at least once. Teachers in years 2, 6 and the foundation stage were each observed twice. They tend to pick on the teachers at the end of each keystage if the previous inspection showed low achievement or inadequate progress.

That's encouraging LF (!)

What about the SEF? Did you feel that inspectors were VALIDATING or CHALLENGING the SEF? (I'm just wondering how important it is in the current inspections!)

Did you do OK? You must have been stressed beyond belief in the last next to last week of term. You poor things.

We are waiting for it to be announced formally but we were graded outstanding.

Well done morosky. That will make a good Christmas!

It is such a good feeling, the process is so emotional. There were lots of tears when it was announced

Oh yes, Morosky. Congratulations! Do you have to wait till next term to announce it?

Yes I assume so. It was the result we were expecting but it is still a relief

Trickberg - just to make you feel better, we were about 55% L1 writers last year (and I'm in Y2)! The Inspectors agreed with all our SEF grades, except one, where they thought we were higher than we had indicated. It felt like a validation, rather than a challenge.

We are very happy. We came out as satisfactory, with many good features. Whilst this may not sound great to many of you, we have an enormous number of children with huge behavioural difficulties (9 in my class alone) and are in an area of extremely high deprivation (eg. 60% of our parents have literacy difficulties themselves). Last time, we just scraped a satisfactory, so we know that we have made progress.

Morosky - many congratulations. That is fantastic. You must all be feeling very proud (and tired!). Enjoy your final week of term.

We are looking forward to cracking open the glitter pots, doing lots of singing and making things in our final week, knowing that we can relax a little, with a clear conscience.

Well done, Littlefish - you must be very relieved! Have a lovely Christmas!

My understanding is that OFSTED wont be very forgiving.

Our school got notice to improve early last year and SM is now a real threat given that it seems little was done to improve the situation until September.

We have the threat of an inspection over us early next year. I spend most of my lunch breaks/evenings/weekends in tears, have severe chest pains and accompanying bouts of dizziness.

I haven't taken my DD to see Father Christmas for the first time this weekend with her brother and dad because i'm working.

The goal posts are constantly shifting and our xmas works do has been cancelled because no one feels like we have much to celebrate. I'm looking forward to 2 weeks of juggling work and christmas without any respite and I'm really beginning to wonder if i made the right choice.

Yep, ofsted are definitely doing wonders for the learning of chn in my school!

We've been led to believe the same tm2009, hence my questions about Ofsted validating or challenging the SEF. We have all been given the new standards to read, and the goal posts just keep changing.
My 1st Ofsted criticised lack of spirituality. By the next one they'd moved on to criticising the exact number of hours you were spending on geography per year. By the next one, we'd got a creative curriculum, so that didn't matter any more, so they criticised the dearth of boys' books and teaching in KS1. Now it seems they're going to quiz children (vulnerable children, at that) about what they've learnt in a lesson. Hmmmmm.... what an encouraging thought.....

They have to speak to children classed as vulnerable as such children are statistically less likely to succeed. They interviewed our "vulnerable" children.

ds's school is waiting for the next Ofsted inspection which is due any time, with 48 hours notice. Apparently they are really focusing on safeguarding this time around. I'm a governor and we've been double checking all our policies are up to date and don't have any spelling mistakes(!).