Middle managers are running around like headless chickens with reams of data falling from their sweaty palms. The headteacher amazingly hasn't got meeting after lunch every day, new furniture that arrived weeks ago is being hastily assembled and put in place and flowers have arrived in reception. It can only mean one thing: Ofsted are coming.
We had the call on Monday and they are in on Wednesday. We've had the profiles of the inspectors, which makes interesting reading. It appears that none of the 5 illustrious people have taught for a number of years, with the Maths, MFL and Music "expert" (what a bizarre combination) having never been a teacher. It's difficult to tell with a couple of the others' profiles as they are vague, saying something along the lines of "has worked in education for 37 years and inspected lots of schools in the state and independent sector". I am writing this at about 5am because although I'm not that stressed about it, I had this nagging in the back of my mind that I should find another quiz for my form to do in tutor time, even though I know I've got plenty. I opted to download a Toy Story trivia quiz from the site (www.quizardry.com - try it, it's brilliant). Not sure how well that will go down with our illustrious inspectors, as let's face it, when, or even if they were teachers the internet probably didn't exist.
I know that all schools do it, but Ofsted inspection teams never see any school in its true light. If they were really serious about inspecting schools, they'd just drop in to them without telling anyone, not expect to see lesson plans (which are a total load of waffle) and see how the school runs from day-to-day. I did duty at lunch yesterday (the day before the big arrival) and it was carnage. There are normally a number of assistant heads out there (we have numerous) but there was only me and 1 colleague to cover the entire outside space due to number crunching and general panic attacks in various offices around the building.
A colleague said to me yesterday that the importance of Ofsted has been made very clear by the length of time it takes. When Ofsted inspections started they lasted 5 days; now they last about 1.5 days. It say a lot really.
Just remember fellow teachers, as your pensions are being cut, contributions to it are increasing and retirement age being pushed further away, Ofsted are spending £200 million per year. Reassuring, don't you think?
Anyway, I can't sit here blogging all day, I have mini-plenaries to plan!
No comments:
Post a Comment