Ofsted - 51 working days and not out yet

[LondonHOPDad]

Hello

The secondary maintained school our child is likely to go to next year is currently 'Required Improvement' based on the last Ofsted report in 2017 (it had lots of financial issues then leading to huge teacher departures which it seems to now be on top of).

It had an Ofsted inspection for 2 days on the 7th and 8th October last year, which by my count is 51 working days from today (excluding the 22nd Dec to 4th Jan), or just over 3 months.

Ofsted says reports are normally published within 38 days of the inspection.

I know the only real answer is to wait, but is this more normal with the new Ofsted grading system, or likely to be the school arguing over the rating it has been given?

I do realise this is probably not the most important issue, but in the middle of secondary school applications / waiitng to hear it's driving me a little crazy for some reason not knowing...

There are Ofsted reports that have come out today that go back to mid October so whilst it does seem a long time it is probably just the delays around COVID and Christmas.
You can sign up to the Ofsted website and get reports sent to you on a daily basis if you want to.

You can sign up to the Ofsted website and get reports sent to you on a daily basis if you want to.

Wow. That would be a way to fill my days with excitement!

I suspect that there are delays in the system due to Covid.
A relative works in an education and their OFSTED inspection took place in September and report was made public in December. The overall rating for this inspection was Good.
If there was cause for concern there would have been some changes in the school already e.g. a different Head teacher.

@admission

There are Ofsted reports that have come out today that go back to mid October so whilst it does seem a long time it is probably just the delays around COVID and Christmas. You can sign up to the Ofsted website and get reports sent to you on a daily basis if you want to.

Thanks - I'm already signed up for the relevant alert but will pass on getting each Ofsted report. This one is from before mid-October so I guess should be out shortly then.

Not sure Christmas comes into it as the 51 working days excludes that time period, but Covid might do, who knows.

@catndogslife

I suspect that there are delays in the system due to Covid. A relative works in an education and their OFSTED inspection took place in September and report was made public in December. The overall rating for this inspection was Good. If there was cause for concern there would have been some changes in the school already e.g. a different Head teacher.

Thanks - I guess that sort of timeframe links into this one. Not sure the head would change, it went from Good to Requires Improvement under the current head I believe, though as I say due to financial issues I don't believe were related so their own activities.

I'll come back and update the thread when it does come out for anyone else searching or wondering, and if the length of time resulted in a poor or good outcome also.

Well we are now 16 weeks in, or 80 weekdays. Taking 2 weeks out for Christmas still leaves us at 60 days, and in a week it will e near 4 months. I suspect, sadly, that something is not right. No further updates from the school (I guess they are not allowed).

Assume they are appealing - a, hoping the result will be out before March 1st when the school offers go out.

Sorry that should be 70 days...

The rules are that the school cannot inform parents until the report is published, even though there will be plenty of the staff who will have known the outcome since the inspection.
The reasoning behind the secrecy is that the report in theory can be changed up until the point where it is published. That is reasonable especially if you are correct in that the school is trying to get the report "uprated"

Well the report came out this week, 4 months after inspection. The Head sent a letter explaining the delay, which was effectively that they had appealed the result.

The school has remained at 'requires improvement'. At least they didn't end up inadequate which would have meant becoming an Academy and various unknown changes.

Everyone was expecting it to go to good, though I suppose maybe this isn't too bad, keeps them on thier toes improving.

Anyway, for anyone else with a long delay who searches, this is what happened here. At least it's out before the 1st March school offer day!