Ofsted inspections mean nothing

[devongal1975]

Does anyone else feel Ofsted inspections and grades mean nothing? My DS attends a supposedly 'Outstanding' School. He has been beaten up 7 times this school year, and despite reporting it each time, the school have done essentially nothing to help and the daily bullying has gotten even worse. All my friends whose DC attend the school have the same story, in theory there is a huge bullying problem that the school brush under the carpet and hide from Ofsted to protect their reputation (which isn't even that good anymore judging by what my friends think of the school.) The behavior in lessons is appauling, the kids run the class while the teacher sits there drinking coffee doing nothing. The teachers are very poor at teaching, they do not assist anyone when they ask for help, and many do not know their subject very well. Some teachers also swear in their lessons as well. The school is a bullying infested mess with a victim blaming culture and surely should be in special measures? Does this not demonstrate how Ofsted reports are a load of rubbish? Or does anyone feel that this school truly deserves to be outstanding?

Why are you allowing the school to persuade you to stay? Why are you worrying about the meaningless ofted grade when you should be looking for a new school?

EXACTLY this!!! I've seen the HT of a secondary school near us crowing on Twitter recently about their amazing ofsted (ungraded but inspectors said 'could' be outstanding)... guess what... she's a former inspector and knows exactly how to play the game. I have visited many schools that should be outstanding but are not and vice versa. The whole system is bullshit and not fit for purpose.

Everyone knows that ofsted inspections mean nothing and grades are random, this isnt news

Why would you phone the Head to discuss moving your son? Just send an email to the office saying you are deregistering him and asking them to take him off roll.

The sun total of what you seem to be doing OP to address this situation is posting on mumsnet on threads about how shit the school is that your son is at.

I will let you in on a secret… that’s not going to do a single thing to address this situation

What a silly comment. Inspections, whatever your view of their validity or reliability, mean a huge amount. What is news and has been news is the devastating impact of inspection grades have on all involved.
Furthermore, research shows that grades are not random. There is a correlation between levels of disadvantage within the student population and the grade given.

research has shown the grades to be random most of the time.

Are you a teacher?

Ah yes you are a teacher

let me guess - one that got a shit ofsted grade

@Nimbostratus100

on another thread you listed the ways ofsted was useless and included….

Reprimand me for not having the gay students highlighted in my register, and not teaching my maths lesson in a "gay inclusive" way.

Penalise my colleague for ticking work left handed

Bull shit

oh and

It has been shown that ofsted judgements are random in well over 90% of cases, ie, the throw of a dice is as good an indicator of ofsted judgement as anything

you think in 90% of inspections, the hundreds of inspectors across the UK all collude and essentially toss a dice. Seriously? 😂

Research shows there's no correlation between exam grades and whether a school is SM, RI or Good. There is a small correlation with better grades and Outstanding schools. Another example is the fact infant schools are many times more likely to be Outstanding than a junior school - it is much harder to get a decent rating as a junior school than as a primary and much more so than as an infants.

What is news and has been news is the devastating impact of inspection grades have on all involved.

whilst this may be true, without inspections highlighting failures a failing school can have a devastating impact on generations of children.

OP report the assaults your son has suffered to the police and move schools.

How do you know the teaching is rubbish? Are you a teacher there? If not then you don't actually know if the teaching is rubbish do you? Nobody should pay attention to ofsted- they are not fit for purpose. Bit like the govt they serve. Ofsted costs 200 million a year to run- it doesn't improve schools so that money should be ploughed into schools for better support services. Parents need to stop attacking schools and protest instead to have schools better funded.

Nobody should start a sentence with "Research says that ...' without providing a reference.

It is obvious why there is a correlation between outstanding grades and good results - pre Sept 2019, under the previous inspection framework, only schools that could demonstrate outstanding progress could get an outstanding grade. This has now changed - ofsted gradings have now been decoupled from exam results. But relatively few schools have been re-inspected since the change was made.

Since Sept 2019, the inspection framework has focussed on curriculum quality, behaviour and attitudes, personal development and leadership. There has been much coverage of the fact thst many previously outstanding schools have been downgraded to Good or lower, but less coverage of the fact that many previously RI schools, with a disadvantaged intake and lacklustre results have been upgraded to Good. There is one in my area, which has never been better than "RI/Satisfactory" under previous frameworks, but is now Good. But it also has a passionate head who was working hard to improve the school's local reputation. That is the key ingredient - schools need special people to take risks on them, and teachers are often as wary as parents of doing that. A young person I know, who will no doubt be a fantastic teacher, recently finished her "Teach First" training working at a school with a deprived intake and walked straight into a new job in an outstanding school in a leafy area. Why wouldn't she? There are no financial incentives to work in deprived schools, so unless teachers are especially noble, they will always look at schools with a similar eye to parents and pick the ones that either seem most successful, or catch their eye for some other reason. Ofsted judgements are one part of their research for that decision. So even if a Good/Outstanding judgement is out of date, or plain wrong, it can have a positive impact on bringing teaching talent to the school, making it more likely that they will retain a positive rating next time. In contrast, RI or inadequate schools will lose talent and not attract new talent, so their negative grade becomes embedded too.

OP, I hope that when your school is re-inspected it scores badly on the Behaviour element at least!

Ofsted do get feedback from kids and parents online. They ask about bullying and judge schools on it. I know of schools that have been downgraded to inadequate due to bullying or harassment being ignored. One is a grammar that went from Outstanding (2016) to inadequate (2022)

I don't think they mean nothing but I do think it's problematic when schools get an Outstanding rating then don't get looked at again for 10+ years, they tend to rest on their laurels and think "Well, we're outstanding" My old school got a shock recently when they got a Good rating for the first time and a "Requires Improvement" for the Sixth Form. Similarly I worked at an absolutely dreadful school that had been rated "Good", was told by all the staff that I was the problem because "This is a good school", then the October after I left Ofsted came and gave them a complete drubbing resulting ultimately in an inadequate rating and the entire senior staff losing their jobs.

I think I know the school the OP Is on about based on their previous posts. Uffculme? I sent my child there and they had an awful time with bullying so I Took her out eventually. My friend worked there before leaving 2 years ago . they were reeled in by the school's Ofsted report but soon she realized it was awful. the behavior from pupils to her was terrible and most teachers were nasty and didn't teach very well , Some had no problem admitting they were in the job for the money. The culture was incredibly toxic and did not suit her at all. The old headteacher was a bully apparently and made her feel bad about quitting so she stayed for years. Eventually she got fed up and quit but the new headteacher she worked there under continually criticised her for the decision and made her feel terrible. That school has always been dreadful and it is criminal that Ofsted allow unsuspecting parents who think the school will be great to send their children there. They deserve to know the truth. agreed with other posters, get your boy out of that horrible school and don't allow the headteacher to belittle you. cut the school off and then expose them afterwards. Good luck

I'm pretty sure i'm not 🙄. The OP has a different username for a start. The reason I may come across as the OP is because I share similar views. I just detailed my experience with the school I believe the OP is on about as they have mentioned it in local threads I too have posted on. I wanted to reassure them that they are not alone in their views

Oh come on, it's MN. Google is easy to use if you want to check something, but I'm not going to start using Harvard style citations. I personally think it is surprising that's there's little correlation between results and whether a school is SM, RI or Good. I'd definitely expect, despite Ofsted's faults, that on average Good schools would get better results.

Probably because since it's a small area, there will not be an awful lot of people on Mumsnet who mention these things. You are bound to encounter people with similar views

My sc's go to a school that hasn't had an inspection since 2008!

Coming on MN and sock puppeting about a school is not going to do anything at all. It's not going to have an impact on the school.

If you do have a child at a school you are unhappy with, you should move them.