Ofsted - should schools receive any warning at all?

Ofsted. Just the word itself is enough to throw a school into complete panic. Displays get refreshed and repaired, planning folders miraculously appear fully updated and the children have never been so well behaved and attentive.

But this can surely only happen if the school has some notice from the inspectors before they arrive. Currently, ‘Schools are usually notified the working day prior to the start of a school inspection. However, Ofsted has powers to undertake inspections without notice in certain circumstance – for example, in response to receiving qualifying complaints or other evidence about standards or safety at a school’ (source;School Inspections in England, Ofsted, 2018).

However an exclusive article has just come out in the TES (16th April 2018) announcing that the Chief Inspector Amanda Spielman is again raising the controversial idea of arriving in all schools unannounced, in response to a poll carried out by parents. In the past, parents raised concerns about this method of inspection as they felt they would not be able to make their views known before an inspection, but a new survey carried out by Yougov now suggests that the majority of those polled support the idea of unannounced Inspections.

Why should this news horrify a school? Inspections are currently carried out in a variety of ways, governed mainly by the previous rating given to the school by Ofsted. If the school is judged to be ‘Outstanding’, inspections are generally not carried out unless a concern is raised. If ‘Good’, then an inspection every 4 years (either a quick one day inspection or a full one if concerns have been raised) is normal. If judged ‘Requires Improvement’ or ‘Inadequate’, then follow-up inspections can vary but normally within 30 months of the previous one. Whichever rating the school has, surely it should be clear that the purpose of these inspections is to not judge the school unfairly and hope that it proves lacking but to encourage the everyday running of the school to be of the highest standard possible and push the school to strive to be the best it can be?

But the flip side to this is the stress and exhaustion that many people who have dedicated their lives to education feel with the constant worry that any slight anomaly or change in who is onsite or why something is not running smoothly might affect the result of a snap inspection. How unfair that the one day the Inspector drops in the headmistress is at a funeral, the cookers have broken down just before lunch and two teachers are off sick with supply staff frantically trying to settle a distracted and rowdy class?

“I always believed that in the absence of the child's parents during the day, it was mine and my staffs' duty to provide the best possible care we could and that's what we did. The problem was that if one little thing was not perfect on the inspection day, that would then have remained on your report for all the world to see for the next four years” (quote from the ex-owner of a private day nursery). Many people who have been in education for many years remember when Social Services used to send Inspectors in, where “an inspector's role was also to help guide and advise you on best practice. I am afraid those days are long gone, and not for the better” (Source; ex-owner of private day nursery).

Amanda Spielman goes on to say “We are trying to find that balance, of making sure schools aren’t completely caught on the hop, and you don’t turn up to inspect on a day where the headteacher is out of school, where the chair of governors is on holiday and where you can’t have the right conversations. It is balancing that with making sure you get a school as it actually operates with all of the children who are normally there so that you get a true picture of behaviour and the school culture.”

Ofsted has a reputation that needs a bit of an overhaul. While it is obviously vital to inspect schools, perfection should not be what is expected. Schools are living, breathing and working environments - full of so many unpredictable variables (children being the most unpredictable of them all!) that any judgements made should accommodate a certain degree of common sense. Surely any competent inspector should be able to see past the disorganised, short-staffed or rowdy lesson and recognise the eager, joyful children learning through a variety of methods - fun should be paramount, as should the desire to learn, compassion of staff and care of all children. Box ticking and form filling risk destroying the joy of teaching and this is a tragedy waiting to happen, if not too late already.