Dozens of “Outstanding” schools downgraded after not being inspected for years

[noblegiraffe]

Prospective PM Michael Gove in his wisdom as Education Secretary decided it was a good idea to remove Outstanding schools from the inspection cycle.

Years later it turns out that might not have been such a good idea.

“Ofsted revealed yesterday that inspections of exempt schools carried out between September and December last year, before it was ordered to step up its efforts, resulted in just 23 per cent maintaining their top grades. Of 117 schools inspected, more than one-third were rated “requires improvement” or “inadequate”.”

The DfE says that this means their system of triggering inspections when concerns are raised is working - but this relies on concerns being raised and acted upon, and given that some schools went from Outstanding to Inadequate, for how long was this decline overlooked? This is especially concerning in the case of flagship teaching schools who would not be getting funding and resources had they been reinspected sooner.

schoolsweek.co.uk/ofsted-downgrades-dozens-of-outstanding-schools/

The primary my DD went to was Outstanding...last inspected in 2007! So much has changed, - the Head, and nearly every teacher is new. Kids are typically being tutored from year 4 onwards. Everyone is waiting for them to be inspected, I think they'd do well to get Good now. They were certainly terrible with SEN, to the point that the Deputy said, at perspective parents evening, 'we don't believe in Dyslexia'.

No inspections until grades crash, or there are complaints is a terrible idea.

Noble - yikes!

Bonnes

Girls school starts with a P?

The ofsted inspection framework is chcanginf from Sept so all schools will be reinspected. I imagine there will be quite a few changes - not least because the criteria are now all different...

The inspection framework has changed before without schools needing reinspection.

DD's school is an outstanding school, that hasn't been inspected for ten years!
But, I wouldn't care what Ofsted rating it had, because it's absolutely the best place for her, and she is thriving.
I know others schools that are "good" where the pupils are extremely happy and successful. Jumping through Ofsted hoops isn't the be all and end all.

It’s easier to say that jumping through Ofsted hoops isn’t the be all and end all when your DCs’ school doesn’t have to.

Any school not in that position knows well the tedious INSET that starts with ‘what Ofsted will be looking for is...’

One of my DCs' schools. The others are in "good" schools. I've been through Ofsted six or seven times now, so I am fully aware of what that entails.
As a parent, it isn't the Ofsted rating that attracts me to a school, it's about the best fit for the child. And I really believe schools are all different. Schools with the same rating can have a very different ethos, and a very different feel about them.

All school governors that I know do training on Ofsted inspections! Whether we think there is going to be one or not. Our school leaders keep trying to improve the school whether Ofsted are coming or not. We maintain high quality governance and leadership. We feel we must all keep up to date.

My school is “merely” Good and quite frankly it’s so far above RI, there is a huge gulf. I do think the new framework will be better for most schools.

Of course all schools should have had a maximum period between inspections. However the assertion that Good isn’t good enough is just ridiculous and yes, there is room for improvement and yes, we are working on it!

I took my ds out of a so called Outstanding school and put him in a school rated ‘good’
by Ofsted
The behaviour in the outstanding school is terrible and pastoral care is almost non existent
I truly believe that most of the Outstanding schools rest on their laurels and stop making an effort
I would urge parents to focus on other aspects of the school and not rely solely on the Ofsted rating

Ooh actually Ofsted have just published today (hope not April Fools!) an update to their risk assessment for inspection.

They will now also consider how long it has been since the last inspection, and what framework a school was inspected under, when deciding whether to inspect exempt Outstanding schools.

Those Outstanding schools who haven’t been inspected in a decade should now be thinking ‘shit’.

There’s one primary school near us that got an outstanding ofsted result in its last inspection. That was 12 years ago. The head teacher has changed at least twice since then.

I don’t really see how you can trust that the “outstanding” result is still valid after so long and after the staff changes.

There will be outstanding schools that are still outstanding. You make the incorrect assumption that all schools rest on their laurels and don’t seek to improve. Plenty do. Some don’t. They certainly will not all be thinking “shit” because they will have expected an inspection at some point and dynamic leadership will have prepared. Very many schools don’t do extra for inspection. They don’t need to and often ufvwould be too little too late anyway. Many currently outstanding schools will have everything pretty much sorted anyway but will be working on improvement, as they should. There is always something. What is required is embedded in the school and getting into a flap isn’t needed at all. Any school that gets overly concerned knows it has unresolved issues. The worst school is the school that doesn't recognise or even know it has issues to be addressed!

The outstanding schools I know are regularly monitored and advised by LA partners who are both previous heads and OFSTED inspectors, so their self-assessment is very rigorous. I don't know any schools that rest on their laurels. There may of course be some, but most schools that got an outstanding rating were excellent when they got it and usually work hard to maintain it.

But only 23% inspected last year maintained it and over a third went to RI or Inadequate. Clearly we shouldn’t be relying on internal monitoring.

Well my child's (outstanding 8 years ago) school does rest on its laurels. I know this because my other child attended a school rated good which was an amazing place, the outstanding school is nowhere close. There are other parents on this thread with similar experiences.

Though I suppose if the internal monitors are OFSTED inspectors they ought to be consistent in their judgements. And it could just be that my LA is particularly good at monitoring, as the schools almost all get the judgement they have been internally assessed at.

I guess some, if not the majority, of the 23% of schools that did not maintain their judgements had results or other factors that triggered an inspection, hence the outcomes.

However, I don't think internal assessment is sufficient, which is why we have OFSTED. I was just pointing out that not all schools rest on their laurels and many schools do try to assess their performance as accurately as possible.

We have nursery nearby that boasts that it has 7 consecutive outstanding ratings, they have had inspections every 2-3 years. And our primary had a very quick reinspection (about 3 months) when it slipped from good to satisfactory a few years ago (it went back up again so presumably it was a straightforward issue to sort out). So can schools request reinspections themselves?

There's another local outstanding school that hasn't been inspected for 11 years. People who have gone to open days etc haven't rated it but the village it is in is considered very desirable because of the school.

Very many schools don’t do extra for inspection.

I work in a very heavily regulated industry, we have multiple audits by customers and regulatory agencies a year. We regularly get told we have the best systems the auditors have seen and we work at a high standard all the time. But when it comes to the 'big' audits we still do extra work to prepare for them.

You get no notice of an Ofsted inspection so prep for it is impossible. They are not every year so you don’t know when they are coming. You have to know what you are doing and have excellence embedded to get close to Outstsnding. Your data has been submitted. Ofsted know a lot about you before they show up. It’s too late to be flustered on the day of the inspection you only knew about the day before.

I too think the low level of maintenance of Outstanding is due to Ofsted looking at the data and choosing the schools that are below average in attainment, progress and value added. It’s easy to pick these out first. The ones who are maintaining excellent results, progress and value added have been left alone. I rather suspect the new framework and the fact that many very good schools have not been inspected may well push the percentage up in future.

You get no notice of an Ofsted inspection so prep for it is impossible

Hahahahahahaaaaaa. You know when you’re due.

Not if you're Outstanding, you don't. You can be due for 10 years! Which tends to supportBubblesBuddy's point about truly outstanding schools embedding excellence.

If you’re Outstanding, you’re not due at all, that’s the whole point of this thread.

What I thought was interesting was the school mentioned in the article in the OP (I think) that went to inadequate. It still got outstanding for teaching and learning, it was safeguarding that made it inadequate. So schools could think that they are monitoring the right stuff, but actually have a terrible blind spot.

My sons old school hasnt been inspected for 11 years....

My child’s outstanding primary hasn’t been properly inspected since 2008. It’s a bloody good school though so I assume it’s not triggering any worries.