Ofsted outstanding - approx 300 schools not visited in a decade

[whotheeff]

This makes be so angry and confirms my suspicions that people paying higher property prices for an 'outstanding' school are having the wool pulled over their eyes.

I've often said failing schools being turned around, with new management and leadership, or 'good' schools are often far better bets for our children than and outstanding school resting on its laurels for 10 years with no fear of further inspection.

apple.news/Ah6rk6LQXRXew3DTWIrK1ag

They wanted outstanding schools to convert to academies so it wouldn’t make sense to say ‘if you convert to an academy you’re back in the inspection cycle’ surely?

My school was outstanding and was only re-inspected post academy conversion because it was outstanding under the old regime were you could be outstanding without T&L being outstanding.

Maybe it should be a sliding scale -

Inadequate - 6 months
Requires Improvement - 1 year
Good - 3 years
Outstanding - 5 years

Then caveats such as

Two Headteacher resignations within 2 years - within 3 months
Turnover generally passes 30% - within 6 months
Overall grades drop X% - within 1 year

We didn't join a MAT though Lola. We were in the first wave which noble mentions : the outstanding schools encouraged to convert, back in the days when to become an academy you had to be at least good!

We were also in that first wave of stand alone academies and still got hit within 18 months. Maybe we got really unlucky.

It goes to show you never know.

It's still concerning though that post conversion decent (or assumed to be decent) schools could join a MAT, have whole leadership change and not be seen for years post conversion. Much as all MATs aren't equal, some of these large ones can really change a school for better and worse.

Good schools in good areas tend to remain good.

Newly good schools in more challenging areas tend to be the work of one or two inspirational people, with cash behind them. Once they move on and up,the schools stand a real risk of dropping back.

This is why OFSTED, cashed strapped as they are, tend to focus on more struggling schools. Poor OFTEDS can equal cash.

Parents who do the research, pay the house price premium, comb the results stats, talk to the local primary heads, know the parents of kids currently at the school, see those kids walking home every evening, attend several prospective pupils open events, question the kids we meet, see the local news reports about what kids are getting up to at the school, OR have happy children at the school, performing at least to their innate ability, if not beyond....tend not to need yearly OFSTEDS to assess the school.

Also, if I'm honest, we're not stupid. Many of us have seen remarkably average 'local' schools getting 'great' OFSTEDs - where the parents of pupils actually attending go 'Outstanding? Rilly?'

OFSTED has its place, but it's been ridiculously politicised.

Where I live, verbal reasoning and non verbal reasoning are part of the 11 plus. Children might be tutored in these. They are not Sats papers so there is no impact. 11 plus doesn’t necessarily mimic the curriculum. Also our grammar schools are full of high achievers. Some secondary moderns have 30% high achievers too. I don’t believe these DC have all been tutored. In fact I know they haven’t! Some parents are relaxed about it or cannot afford it.

Even at secondary, results staying good can be down to invested parents and parents who will buy in tutoring if necessary. Having a proportion of kids being tutored gives the school a bit of a buffer in terms of results and progress 8.

Equally, a school can get good results and still have major issues - such as off rolling or sweeping issues like drug use under the carpet rather than dealing with them properly or having a serious bullying problem. Whilst results and teaching and learning are very important, they are not the only thing that matters in a school.

Whilst results and teaching and learning are very important, they are not the only thing that matters in a school.

Exactly, but Ofsted are making a decision whether or not to inspect historically outstanding schools on the basis of their results - and this (except in the case of someone submitting a qualifying complaint) removes the opportunity for teaching and learning, off rolling and behaviour to be scrutinised by inspectors.#

Ofsted inspections are not perfect - but they are a better level of scrutiny than no inspection.....

@cantkeepawayforever I think you've misinterpreted the tone of my post- I agree outstanding schools should be reinspected and under the same level of scrutiny as other schools! I was talking about how a school could develop problems and no longer be outstanding, without there being a real dip/impact on results.

Sorry, yes Sansa - clearly we are violently agreeing!

Like that school in Bath that was covering up racist incidents.