No Ofsted report available after inspection

[Listlesspenguin]

Name changed for this as it's specific and potentially very outing.

My childs secondary school had Ofsted inspection in October 2019. The results have not as yet been made public. Senior Leadership Team/Headmaster/Deputy/Governors have been approached and they are remaining very tight lipped. There are rumours that it's 'bad'. There doesn't appear to have been any major leakage on what it might contain. I can only presume that court action/a super injunction type thing must have been taken out by the Council/School and/or the information has been very restricted inside the school/local council

School is currently classed as good.

A parent has requested information via FOI and this has so far extracted the Inspection Data Summary Report (IDSR) which to my eyes (no idea how these things work! ) doesn't look too bad.

Attempts to get further information via FOI - from the local council - has drawn a blank /being ignored. The current status is that it's 'waiting for review' by the Council. This part of the FOI request has been going on since the beginning of January 2020.

Is there anything else we can do/paths we can pursue? It will soon be six months since the Inspection and we really just want to know now!

The school have 3 months after due publication date to launch a judicial review. Most reports are released even if they are subject to judicial review. You might have had a report due for release before Christmas but the three months isn’t up yet. This is a possibility. The fact Ofsted have not published means they have agreed not to, for a reason unknown. It’s a long time to wait and there should be good reasons for the delay. The Ofsted complaints process has been identified as needing revision by Amanda Spielman but I’m not sure how far this has been done.

My DCs secondary took ages to release their report, when it was eventually revealed it was inadequate in all areas....My experience is that delayed reports usually equal bad news.

I thought it was always available online and schools didn't have a say over when the report was released? What's the point in Ofsted doing a report if schools can suppress the results?

I'm an Ofsted geek/obsessive and as others above have said, expect a 'bad' result. The school have likely complained about the inspection which delays it.

With a five month delay, I think you'd be safe to assume it will be an inadequate judgement. I do know of one school where a complaint triggered an extra day of inspection at a later date and although the report was amended in light of this, the overall outcome didn't change.

Oh and an IDSR is a data dashboard that Ofsted will look at prior to an inspection. Will not tell the full story, particularly under the new EIF. Schools can be rapped for:

Off-rolling students onto alt provision--this is when it's for the school's benefit not the student

Narrowing the curriculum, for example SEN students taking extra English and maths at the detriment of French, music etc

Gaming the system, such as entering English speaking students onto a qualification designed for those that speak English as an additional language.

Using isolation rooms excessively etc.

Using alternative providers and not checking that their safeguarding processes are secure.

These are new ways schools are judged and lots of schools are being caught out.

I think we know it will be 'inadequate'. I just don't know what the Senior Leadership Team are messing about at - just bite the bullet, rip the plaster off etc!. I would suspect that it will be something to do with the schools specialisms - even a casual glance and you can see that the things that they were supposed to be 'specialist' at they are no longer providing. Off rolling will I'm sure will be a factor as will safeguarding and overuse of isolation. On a positive note the head has introduced a reward system - hot chocolate with the one of the SLT on a Friday afternoon.... And here was me thinking that they were a secondary school not a primary. I guess we just have to wait!

School ‘specialisms’ haven’t been a thing for a long time now.

That is a long time since October. I am aware of secondaries that have been inspected since the beginning of the year and had an inadequate report despite arguing strongly that the inspectors got it wrong.
For it not to be published might indicate that the school have at least scored a few points in their favour over the inspection, as Ofsted are not particularly noted for listening to complaints favourably.

This happened in a school local to me (Beechen Cliff) There was an inspection but no report published in the normal time scale. Then further inspection was carried out and the report explained that occasionally Ofsted will delay publication because they need to investigate further. As pp said it’s not good news - Beechen Cliff went from outstanding to inadequate.

I’ve actually started a separate thread about it last week because I’m now looking at secondary schools and wanted to know what other local people think.

Posted too soon

Listlesspenguin no one will say anything right now (hence tight lipped) because until a report is published the previous judgement will (technically) still stand. As pp say this is not looking good for your child’s school- it’s likely to be a bad judgement.

The key then will be how well the school does to address the issues and within what time scale. My concerns are triggered by this really. There will be ongoing support and “interim” ofsteds for an inadequate school. Beechen Cliff had an interim inspection of boarding and even a year on from the bad Ofsted there were things which as a parent really concern me- lack of accountability, boarding staff not appropriately skilled or monitored. Also over the last few years results have gone down (they aren’t bad but this is a school that used to get stand-out A levels and gcse) so that’s another worry.
Listlesspenguin it’s hard for you because your child is already in the school. I don’t know what i would do in that situation, fortunately we’re at the looking at schools stage. If it’s a school where they will take on board and deal with the areas of criticism fast then I would probably try to keep my child there because moving schools is a big thing. But it comes down to the staff they have doesn’t it. That’s my concern in my situation; a year or more on from the judgement they are still getting it wrong in really fundamental areas of school life