Topic: OFSTED

[Andy @ Allerton!]

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/mar/24/ofsted-chief-amanda-spielman-sorry-ruth-perry-death

‘Deeply sorry’ Ofsted chief rejects call for halt in inspections after head’s death

Amanda Spielman, the chief inspector of schools in England, said she was “deeply sorry” over the death of Berkshire headteacher Ruth Perry, and backed “legitimate” debate over how Ofsted inspects schools in the future.

But Spielman, in her first public comments since Perry’s family attributed her death to a harsh Ofsted judgment, rejected calls by local authorities and school leaders to suspend inspections, defending them as necessary to help schools improve.

“Ruth Perry’s death was a tragedy. Our thoughts remain with Ruth’s family, friends and the school community at Caversham Primary. I am deeply sorry for their loss.

“Ahead of the coroner’s inquest, it would not be right to say too much. But I will say that the news of Ruth’s death was met with great sadness at Ofsted,” Spielman said.

Ofsted inspectors visited Perry’s primary school in Berkshire last year, and told her it would be downgraded to Ofsted’s lowest ranking because of gaps they found in the school’s safeguarding administration.

Perry’s sister, Julia Waters, said her family were in no doubt she had taken her own life in January as a “direct result” of the pressure put on her by the Ofsted inspection, which downgraded the school from outstanding to inadequate.

Other heads have pledged to stage peaceful protests during Ofsted inspections, including allowing teachers to wear black armbands and display photographs of Perry.

On Thursday the National Education Union delivered a petition with 52,000 signatures to the Department for Education in London, calling for an overhaul of school inspection. Niamh Sweeney, the NEU’s deputy general secretary, said: “It is clearly absurd that the whole of school life is condensed into a single-word judgment.”

Perry’s family have also called for an urgent review of Spielman’s organisation, calling its inspection regime “fatally flawed”. One head teacher initially threatened to bar Ofsted inspectors from entering her school last week, while others have stripped Ofsted logos and inspection grades from their school publications in protest.

Spielman said: “The sad news about Ruth has led to an understandable outpouring of grief and anger from many people in education. There have been suggestions about refusing to cooperate with inspections, and union calls to halt them entirely.

“I don’t believe that stopping or preventing inspections would be in children’s best interests. Our aim is to raise standards, so that all children get a great education.”

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said the refusal to temporarily suspend inspections was “a terrible mistake,” describing Ofsted’s response as “tin-eared” and lacking in concern for the wellbeing of school leaders.

“Ofsted has completely underestimated the strength of feeling among educational professionals. The warm words and sympathy they have expressed are welcome, but they are simply not enough,” Whiteman said.

“School leaders want to see tangible actions being taken to reduce the intolerable pressure that the current inspection regime places on everyone in schools, and they want to see those actions now.”

Spielman suggested that changes were possible, saying: “The broader debate about reforming inspections to remove grades is a legitimate one, but it shouldn’t lose sight of how grades are currently used.

“They give parents a simple and accessible summary of a school’s strengths and weaknesses. They are also now used to guide government decisions about when to intervene in struggling schools. Any changes to the current system would have to meet the needs both of parents and of government.”

Spielman, whose term as His Majesty’s chief inspector expires at the end of the year, added: “We will keep our focus on how inspections feel for school staff and on how we can further improve the way we work with schools.

“I am always pleased when we hear from schools that their inspection ‘felt done with, not done to’. That is the kind of feedback I want to hear in every case.”

[west_london_red]

As a parent I just take the OFSTED rating at face value.

Will be interesting to see what the teachers on here think about them though.

[ScottScott]

This is going to sound callous but it really isn't intended to. If she killed herself after an OFSTED result then she more than likely had serious underlying mental health issues. The school was marked down for some serious failures around background checks so it's not as if it was some harsh result either

Are OFSTED fit for purpose? Maybe, maybe not. There is probably some work to be done there. But I think this is a disgusting tactic by the union to try and pin this death on them and use it as a tool to try and get it changed/removed

[Riquende]

As I worked in school IT support, my experience of Ofsted inspections was rather limited, but you could still sense the panic across the school when the call came, and teachers would work long into the evening the night before to make sure everything was perfect. For our part, for some reason they inspected the school website at the same time as their physical visit, so there was a list of things (policy documents mainly) we had to make sure were available and up to date. Having expired safeguarding policies on the website etc would be a critical failure.

Whilst the school does end up with a one word rating, it does actually break down into categories too. I remember we got Outstanding the first time I was there (whole staff got taken out for dinner for that), and the inspection after that we were downgraded to Good, but they rated the school leadership as Outstanding still. So the headteacher made sure that on all the school's published stuff it was described as "Good with outstanding leadership" for the next few years.

So maybe the focus should be taken away from that single word summary, because it ends up reflecting things about the school in question that likely aren't the case. Safeguarding is critically important, and issues there should absolutely be noted and rated accordingly, but if you end up labelling the whole school as 'Inadequate' then parents will assume issues with the teaching and learning too.

[Jshooters]

Agreed. The phrase ‘inadequate’ being labelled across the whole school when it may be only an element of it that isn’t up to very high standards needs to be changed.

[CraigDS]

From my experience, as the partner of an ex-teacher, it probably isn't that fit for purpose. For one because a lot of schools game the system by preparing well in advance for an inspection, even employing ex-inspectors to come in and make sure that the things they look at are in shape so it hides other issues which may be apparent.

Her old school was preparing for 12-18 months for an inspection (they hadn't had one for a while) before she left, and they eventually got inspected a year after, so that was 2-2.5yrs of prep to game the inspection rather than a broader intention to improve aspects of the school which actually really needed it. It was laughable when the report came out how it specifically mentioned how well the school was doing at things my partner knew they were failing at (both from her time and from still being close friends with teachers still there).

[TepidT2O]

The problem is the grading system.

Get rid of that and focus on what needs to be improved. The grades are erratic and not consistent and you can get variation just by the day of the week they turn up on.

I’ve known quite a few ofsted inspectors and they have all been fantastic people. They do a difficult job, and sometimes it goes wrong.

But I think it has improved schools. Since the last inspection framework there has been a big focus on looking for evidence based practice … which seems sensible. And we HAVE to inspect schools for safeguarding .. kids deserve that

[TheKid.]

And we HAVE to inspect schools for safeguarding .. kids deserve that

Which makes it all the more strange when schools like my sons primary (which I’ve never been impressed with) school hasn’t been inspected for 13 years when it was judged as outstanding. Makes a mockery of it, but then being a catholic school and unlikely to be acadamised and put into a MAT, I’m not overly surprised it hasn’t been inspected…

[TepidT2O]

Which makes it all the more strange when schools like my sons primary (which I’ve never been impressed with) school hasn’t been inspected for 13 years when it was judged as outstanding. Makes a mockery of it, but then being a catholic school and unlikely to be acadamised and put into a MAT, I’m not overly surprised it hasn’t been inspected…

Yes, agree, safeguarding inspection should be every year for every school

[Jiminy Cricket]

I am unconvinced that grades should be published. A properly regulated and monitored system should be able to spot inadequacies and take the necessary steps to improve matters.

When did they start publishing school inspection reports? (Looked it up - 1992, it would seem):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ofsted#History

The government of John Major, concerned about variable local inspection regimes, decided to introduce a national scheme of inspections though a reconstituted HMI, which became known as the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted).[7] Under the Education (Schools) Act 1992, HMI would supervise the inspection of each state-funded school in the country, and would publish its reports for the benefit of schools, parents, and government instead of reporting to the Secretary of State.[8]

Has publishing inspection results and school league tables really helped? Kids (poorer kids) still attend failing schools. Failings schools need help, more resources, and sometimes a change of leadership/staff. But I am unconvinced that publicly labelling the school and vilification of staff as failures helps matters. In general, I expect that poorly performing schools end up there for many and complicated reasons.

[TepidT2O]

I am unconvinced that grades should be published. A properly regulated and monitored system should be able to spot inadequacies and take the necessary steps to improve matters.

When did they start publishing school inspection reports? (Looked it up - 1992, it would seem):Has publishing inspection results and school league tables really helped? Kids (poorer kids) still attend failing schools. Failings schools need help, more resources, and sometimes a change of leadership/staff. But I am unconvinced that publicly labelling the school and vilification of staff as failures helps matters. In general, I expect that poorly performing schools end up there for many and complicated reasons.

OFSTED know that grades are unhelpful for schools.  When they last reviewed the inspection framework, they surveyed parents and kept the grades as parents found it helpful.

Which must lead us to ask what ofsted is for?  Is it really for parents to read a one word summery of a school?  Or is it to inspect standards at schools so that they can be upheld and extended.
Tricky one to answer.

[Jshooters]

It is indeed a tricky one. I’ve worked in Education sales for over 10 years now and have attended vast numbers of conferences, networking events and the like. My overwhelming experience is that people in front line education are continuously striving to improve outcomes for the children that are in their care. Does being beholden to ofsted make them more driven? I’m not sure. I think that the majority of them want the best for the kids regardless of them being judged by their efforts.

As a thought experiment though, does the fear of being judged somehow motivate the minority who don’t have that zeal?

[Charlie Adams fried egg]

This is going to sound callous but it really isn't intended to. If she killed herself after an OFSTED result then she more than likely had serious underlying mental health issues. The school was marked down for some serious failures around background checks so it's not as if it was some harsh result either

Are OFSTED fit for purpose? Maybe, maybe not. There is probably some work to be done there. But I think this is a disgusting tactic by the union to try and pin this death on them and use it as a tool to try and get it changed/removed

In one.
How the fuck can you even attempt to judge someone’s mental health?

[ianburns252]

It is indeed a tricky one. I’ve worked in Education sales for over 10 years now and have attended vast numbers of conferences, networking events and the like. My overwhelming experience is that people in front line education are continuously striving to improve outcomes for the children that are in their care. Does being beholden to ofsted make them more driven? I’m not sure. I think that the majority of them want the best for the kids regardless of them being judged by their efforts.

As a thought experiment though, does the fear of being judged somehow motivate the minority who don’t have that zeal?

The question should be around whether the approach taken is correct more so than whether there should be an approach.

As has been said upthread there must be a system for safeguarding and review to ensure standards are maintained - just as the audit profession has QAD visits each year and in some cases the FRC come knocking.

There is a standard set and there should be external oversight but the culture around OFSTED appears to be toxic and this is where reform should begin. How this is done though, that is another question

[Disregarder]

This is going to sound callous but it really isn't intended to. If she killed herself after an OFSTED result then she more than likely had serious underlying mental health issues. The school was marked down for some serious failures around background checks so it's not as if it was some harsh result either

Are OFSTED fit for purpose? Maybe, maybe not. There is probably some work to be done there. But I think this is a disgusting tactic by the union to try and pin this death on them and use it as a tool to try and get it changed/removed

As a teacher who's experienced an ofsted inspection that downgraded my school from good to inadequate, it's more likely (though not of course certain) that it caused her mental health to deteriorate. When it happened to me and my colleagues, I and many of them also suffered for months if not years after.

The teaching profession had notoriously bad mental health but I doubt that or attracts a higher percentage of people with a history of depression. It's the job that does it to you. You invest so much of yourself into it.

[LovelyCushionedHeader]

Wouldn't a pass/fail system be better in terms of a headline finding?

Why I think this is that a "good" rating is by definition good, but in actual fact I think most people would think otherwise given that "outstanding" is what is being strived for. No school will want to advertise "good" and will in fact see it as a failure.

[Jiminy Cricket]

Wouldn't a pass/fail system be better in terms of a headline finding?

Why I think this is that a "good" rating is by definition good, but in actual fact I think most people would think otherwise given that "outstanding" is what is being strived for. No school will want to advertise "good" and will in fact see it as a failure.

I think the greatest benefit from an 'outstanding' rating is that (at least in the past - I think this has or is changing) is that the school can avoid another inspection for many years. So, work really hard for an upcoming inspection, and then coast it.* The payoff can be worth the short-term and excessive effort.

* This might be a (partial) explanation of why so many 'outstanding' schools did/do poorly when they are eventually reinspected. Some have gone through a total reversal in their rating.