This article turned up on the BBC News website today: Click Here!
Now anybody in education, apart from perhaps many headteachers, will tell you that this is not a massive surprise. Ofsted often make their judgements before actually visiting a school. They are a political animal and will make judgements based upon government policy, despite Chief Inspector Wilshaw's apparent best intentions and statements that teaching is "Christ's work on Earth".
The "scandal" centres around two primary school reports from the same company to which Ofsted outsources inspections, Tribal. Both inspections were headed by the same person and due to the fact that some of the statements in the reports read exactly the same, there seems little doubt that laziness has crept in and a higher agenda has influenced the reports. In my local area an academy, which I know quite a lot about for one reason or another, has just received "outstanding" gradings in every category when it apparently deserves none. One has to bear in mind that government (and therefore Ofsted) are keen to make every school an academy, and with education being such a vote winner, political decisions are bound to be made by inspectors.
Ofsted inspectors are usually former headteachers who want an easy life and something to boost their pension pot, or they are failed educators who have "befriended" the right people. An Ofsted inspector is paid around £60,000 per year, a pay cut for most headteachers, but a wage that is far higher than those they inspect. This should mean that inspections are done properly and written from scratch every time.
What the report seems to imply is that the inspectors write the reports and make a judgement, but Ofsted central office re-words things to ensure that the wording fits the grading. This would also suggest that grading can be made whimsically by inspection teams and the words written to fit that grading. Hardly a robust system, I'm sure you'd agree.
Ofsted, and their Fuhrer, sorry, leader, are not fit for purpose, and nor are their bosses - the Department for Education. No educator has a problem with standards being checked so that they remain high, but the current system is essentially corrupt and worthless. Not to mention demoralising.
You clearly have no experience or understanding of the inspection process. To begin with you need to consider the difference between an 'additional' and a 'HMI' inspector. My partner has been an HMI for some considerable time and without exception is always thanked by the school after an inspection, for the fairness and help shown during it. On many occasions schools have made contact for additional private help (which they are not allowed to do) even offering to pay good money (again something an HMI is not allowed to do) for private additional help. Over the years I have seen a school close due to a head being a bully to pupils and staff and the inspection identifying this and closing the school (much to the praise of the parents and Local Authority) Many inspections show pupils being years behind where they should be and my partner always says that the job of an inspector is to 'make sure a child gets a fair and good education", 'They are not there to massage the teachers ego only to report fairly and honestly". In 20 years I have only seen evidence of very good outcomes from the inspection process. Of course there will be those who like to make out the whole process is bad, generally from what I have experienced they tend to be the ones inspection is trying to improve.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure your partner does a terrific job "Anonymous", but not all inspectors do I'm afraid, hence my assessment that the ones I have met are a boil on the backside of education. With Wilshaw and his mucker Gove continually moving goalposts and making whimsical decrees regarding education in this country, I;m afraid that Ofsted is being taken less and less seriously by those who actually do the job and know what they are talking about. My last experience of an Ofsted team contained an "expert" in my subject who had never taught a lesson in that subject in their life. Parents have no idea who to believe and just assume all inspectors know what they are talking about, however not all do, no matter what colour your glasses are. If a teacher is rubbish, help them improve and if that's not possible (for whatever reason) then they need to find a different career. The trouble is that whoever replaces them is not guaranteed to be any better, as many schools have experienced - the grass is not always greener. And you can't tell me that Ofsted/HMI inspectors help teachers improve - they see 20 minutes of a lesson where, frankly, anything could happen. A poor teacher could appear brilliant in a snapshot and vice-versa.
ReplyDeleteWhen you tell me that I have no experience of the inspection process, I can retort with the fact that I have suffered (yes, that is the correct term) 3 full Ofsteds and a departmental HMI inspection in my career, none of which have led to any improvement in anything. The inspectors have turned up to lessons late and been unable to give feedback other than "They are a nice bunch" or "That seemed to go Ok" - explain how that is going to help me?
What Ofsted and their boss (Michael Gove, not Wilshaw) will eventually do is drive down standards for the following reason:
All the decent teachers will leave/retire only to be replaced by brand new teachers, some of whom may be good, some not. All these new teachers will get so fed up by the constant political interference that they will leave before they are financially stuck in teaching, leaving a demotivated workforce and therefore send standards falling.
But you continue to believe that everyuone loves Ofsted/HMI inspections, because that's what your partner tells you. How many years is it since your partner actually taught a full timetable? If it's more than 10 years ago then they have no idea; if it's more than 5 years ago they have little idea; if more than 2 years ago they have a vague idea; if it's within the last 2 years (since Gove came to power) then I stand corrected and they know what they are talking about.