Is it a long time for the result of an Ofsted inspection?

[TheRowdyChicken]

Secondary school in Hampshire, 12 weeks and counting, that's longer than expected, right?

Not if they are contesting some of it

It's a bit longer than average but Ofsted don't work over Easter and bank holidays which can cause delays. Possibly the school has complained or there's some other delay but that's not necessarily a problem for you.

Overall are you happy with the school?

I know the school you mean. They are contesting it apparently

Yes, it might mean they are appealing the decision. This happened with my DC's school. The appeal was successful so there was a second Ofsted visit.

Ofsted say within 35 working days so 12 weeks means they are complaining/appealing about something.

Knowing them they will definitely be trying to schmooze, talk their way out of it! (Don’t mean that disrespectfully, I think they’re good at that!)
I noticed they still had their Outstanding sign up

Far from it. We couldn't be any more disappointed. We've had to investigate an alternative school. DS had had to endure some sustained bullying which the school has failed to deal with and the teaching standard has been way below where it should be for his year.

I think it's very sad that they couldn't just accept the ruling from Ofsted and they felt the need to go and engage some lawyers to argue about Ofsteds findings.

But Ofsted is also far from perfect as we know from the Ruth Perry case. The school may have good grounds for appeal.

Very hard to overturn an Ofsted so if they're successful than there must've been grounds for it. 2 schools local to us, very sought after, appealed and lost. It's not easy.

However bad a school is, they deserve a fair inspection and if they've not had one, that should rightfully be rectified.

If we are talking about the same school (in East Hants) then just for balance, I am feeling overall very happy with the school and think the support and teaching for the gcse year (eldest) has been brilliant and she is on track to get great results. They’ve also been supportive with her asd diagnosis.

and overall I think they do a pretty good job with such a huge school and in what is a difficult climate for education,

But I’m really sorry to hear that there have been bullying issues that haven’t been dealt with effectively.

Then I would say carry on with that regardless of the report. If the report turns up tomorrow and is more positive than you expect, it won't change your DS's experience of the school. Equally a negative report doesn't mean things will suddenly improve.

I'm sorry your DS has had to deal with bullying, and I would focus on sorting out the school move for him.

In terms of the Ofsted ruling, for all you know there may be something genuinely incorrect in the report (wouldn't be the first time) or a significant problem with the inspection. Ofsted are a pretty flawed institution, in and of themselves.

Exactly as @Postapocalypticcowgirl said. Carry on as you are than. If they got an outstanding would that make you keep them where they are? A good school can fail a child. It's not fair but it's true. Ofsted seems a little irrelevant here and hoping a whole school fails seems a little vengeful. I've seen some crap schools, but every single one has at least some staff that really care and work really hard.

Our school contested an Ofsted report. It took several months and Ofsted anulled the report as a result. So it's worth doing if there are grounds for it.

Be careful what you wish for. An RI or Inadequate commonly results in the departure of the Head, Deputy Heads, half the Assistant Heads, the majority of the Heads of Department, half the teachers and around 80-100% of the Governors.

Which then means the next academic year is full of rapidly changing staff, more cover supervisors, vast numbers of SLT but no new Science teacher, frequent changes of policies and procedures and things like stricter behaviour penalties for things like uniform/having pencils, less consequences for things like bullying, disruption or kicking off (as more in detention looks bad on reports = don't give detentions, behaviour has clearly improved because nobody gets detention, same goes for suspensions and permanent exclusions), children leave to be replaced (because the school is undersubscribed) by those with the greatest vulnerabilities/multiple exclusions/poor behaviour at other schools...and then you could add in forced academisation, meaning anything from no discernible change to full new uniform, nobody able to process free school meals applications, increases in prices for everything and experienced teachers who care replaced by cannon fodder ECTs and attempts to offroll anybody who is vulnerable, has SEND or is in some way irksome to the new leadership.

Your ineffective school could easily turn into a barely functioning one. But they'll claim it's all because of the previous management (and pick up a shitload of money for directors in the process).

If it's the same school I'm thinking of, the report was released today and is pretty glowing (although overall downgraded from Outstanding to Good).