It’s an absolute disgrace. The system is a shambles. I can’t see how the state sector of education is going to improve without major overhaul and a major Ofsted transformation. They should be there to help, not rip apart. They’re looking for faults, never mind what they say.
I would never want to be a Head. I’ve seen how nasty some parents can be. I’ve seen how children are becoming more aware that they can do what they want and schools powers are becoming more and more limited. The budgets are way to tight. Ofsted want the impossible. When I was working in Nursery settings, you could look up the grades your Ofsted inspector has given to settings on previous inspections. Our one had never once given an Oustanding, and any setting she visited that had been Outstanding previously, she had always pulled them down to Good. Clearly this women couldn’t ever be satisfied. She even used the word outstanding to describe some of our elements of the visit but still found the tiniest of faults. Ofsted are nothing but a power trip.
They should be sued for this. The stress they cause. We need a major government clampdown, like that will ever happen. And maybe schools should be marked on Value Added, progress attained and general safeguarding and well being rather than putting every child in the country against the same criteria regardless.
My old Head was a Head for exactly 18 months in her career, before sending the school into Requires Improvement and resigning to become……an education consultant and Ofsted Inspector. Think that says it all. Half of them are people who couldn’t / didn’t want to handle the job themselves. Sorry if that sounds harsh.
That poor poor women and her family. Life’s too short for this. Any teacher and school staff feeling suicidal, or anyone who has a job that’s making them feel this way, leave. Your life is worth so much more.