Inspection article from The I

When John Viner began training to be an Ofsted inspector in the 90s, he remembers being told: “Never leave a school feeling worse about itself than when you went in.” He believes this mantra has now fallen by the wayside. “We’ve lost that idea,” he tells I. “I inspected for 17 years, and there was a feeling that we worked with schools, that it was more collaborative. There might have been seven of us, taking a few days to get to know a school, giving them weeks of notice.”

“That all started to change when it became more severe in the way it approached schools. In 2013, Ofsted?reduced the notice given before an inspection to?just two days, and things got tougher and much less friendly.

So I stopped being part of Ofsted in 2016, as I didn’t like the direction it had been going. The inspectors were being sent in with so little notice – often the afternoon before the inspection began – and were under huge pressure to come up with a judgement of a school in just two days. The inspectors themselves would have Ofsted breathing down their necks.”

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“I think Ofsted has effectively reached the end of its useful life. In the early days we probably needed this Domesday Book of school quality and there is no doubt that the old mantra that ‘Ofsted Raises Standards’ was true. But we have lived with hard-nosed inspection for a long time, schools know what is good and what needs to improve. Nobody is in the teaching game to do a bad job.”

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Viner, who has taught primary and secondary, and was a headteacher for 28 years, has experienced Ofsted from both sides. He has led five schools, from a tiny rural one to a large popular one, and his?last headship included taking a very large and challenging coastal primary out of special measures. He says that, with all his experience, he can see that Ofsted inspections create a culture of “fear and uncertainty”.

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The death of Ruth Perry, who took her own life before her school was judged to be “inadequate”, has raised questions about Ofsted’s practices. Last week, an inquest?ruled?that an Ofsted inspection, carried out in November 2022, was a contributing factor in Perry’s suicide. Perry’s sister, Julia Waters, has called for?urgent reform of the inspection system, warning: “What happened to Ruth could happen?again.” Following the tragedy, many headteachers and school leaders have spoken about the pressure they have felt from inspections.

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Viner says he believes that the culture of fear around Ofsted inspections contributed to three of his head teacher colleagues taking their lives. “We have paid the cost in lives like Ruth Perry’s,” says Viner, “but we have also paid the price in people leaving the profession at an unprecedented rate. Speak to many deputy heads now and they will tell you they no longer aspire to headship. Over time, I worry this will result in a generation of school leaders of declining quality because competition will fall and the person who gets the job will be the person who was available.”

Government figures show that as of November 2021, 12.5 per cent of newly qualified teachers were not working in the sector one year after qualifying, and 17.3 per cent had left teaching within two years of qualifying. Teacher vacancies are now at the highest level since recent records began in 2010.

Those outside the teaching world, who have pressurised, scrutinised jobs in other fields, might wonder what’s so particularly difficult about being a head teacher under inspection.

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“When you’re a head teacher and you get the Ofsted call,” says Viner, “you know it could be career-ending. There aren’t many jobs like that. You ring your family and tell them you won’t be home for a while. You don’t sleep much. The level of scrutiny is immense, and it’s all-encompassing. Some teachers get 24 hours notice, but it’s possible to get a call saying, ‘I’m in the car park.’

The inquest into the death of headteacher Ruth Perry has found the pressure of an Ofsted inspection was a contributing factor

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“The whole community is involved, and not only might you lose the trust in your school from the inspectors, you might easily lose trust of the parents, who know that all?they need is an Ofsted judgement that the school requires improvement and they might take their kids out. You, as a head teacher,?are?the school. When an inspection goes well and you’re upgraded, this can be very empowering. But it’s not worth it for the fear the inspections can create.

“The difficult thing is that actually most schools are doing a very good job, and everyone is trying really hard. It can feel, therefore, like Ofsted is trying to catch a head teacher out. It’s such a personal job.

“People don’t?stay in teaching for the money. They stay in teaching because they want to see kids doing well. They want to know that they’re making a difference. I’m not sure that’s being respected by Ofsted any more.”

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Viner, who is currently an advisor, teacher trainer and chair of governors, recently met a woman who teaches at a grammar school, and she said that just after they had the Ofsted call, the headteacher came into the classroom and said he was going to retire immediately, because “he didn’t want to go through the immense fear and uncertainty” of the inspection.

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The main issue, says Viner, is that?many teachers don’t trust inspectors. “We’re seeing the head and senior leadership team automatically take up a defensive position,” he says, “because there is a sense that these inspectors are coming in with an agenda, rather than to collaborate and improve things together.”

Viner also suggests that you used to know as a head that the inspectors themselves all had experience of being senior leaders in schools, but that’s “not necessarily always the case now.”

When the? I? ?put this to Ofsted, a spokesperson responded that: “it is a requirement that all of our schools inspectors must have at least?five years’ experience as senior leaders in good or outstanding schools.”

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But what’s the alternative? Teachers and unions who have spoken out against Ofsted have also received backlash from parents who feel their children are protected by Ofsted, and are concerned that schools won’t be held to account. That is not the case, says Viner, who believes that there is simply a better, less damaging way to keep making sure children are getting the experience they deserve.

“I?was involved in a project with some Surrey schools where schools would evaluate each other, and discuss what could be improved, what was going well. Both schools were then really prepared for Ofsted.

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“Also, pairing up schools with support from an adviser from the local authority or trust is incredibly effective. We don’t need Ofsted, if we’ve got a validated form of?robust self-evaluation. After all, nobody is in this game to do a bad job.”

Another issue, believes Viner, is the language used by Ofsted. In 2013, the term ‘satisfactory’ was done away with, and replaced with ‘requires improvement’. “We need to change that,” says Viner.

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“Parents want to know what’s good about a school and they will appreciate that?it is working on the weaker bits. They don’t need terms like ‘requires improvement’ or ‘inadequate’. That simply creates a rift between the parents and the school.”

The coroner in Perry’s case also highlighted the?current one-word Ofsted system, where the same judgement of inadequate can be given to a school which “is dreadful in all respects” and another which is good but with issues which could be remedied by the time the report was published.?

Responding to the inquest, Ofsted chief inspector,?Amanda Spielman, apologised “for the distress that Mrs Perry undoubtedly experienced as a result of our inspection”.?She said: “Ruth Perry’s death was a tragedy that deeply affected many people. My thoughts remain with her family, the wider Caversham school community, and everyone else who knew and loved her. Ofsted was?making several changes?to help reduce the pressure felt by school leaders, she said. As a first step, inspections will be delayed by a day next week.”

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As the debate over Ofsted’s future roars on in the wake of Perry’s tragic death, Viner is sure of one thing. “Whatever happens next, it can’t be this appalling machine that comes in?and tries to catch people out, and ends up destroying them.”

In a statement, Ofsted said: “It’s right that we inspect first and foremost in the interests of children, their parents and carers. But in the light of Mrs Perry’s sad death, it’s also vital that we do all we can to minimise stress and anxiety when we inspect. Our inspectors are all former or current school leaders. They have a deep understanding of the work that schools do and the demands on school leaders – because they have done that work themselves. We will continue to listen to heads and teachers, and to refine and improve the way we work, with school staff in mind.”?

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