Like everyone else who has witnessed Ofsted’s attempts to clarify misconceptions and improve the inspection process over the last few years, I’m certain that those who led the organisation are genuinely well-intentioned and are actively seeking to do the best they can. The removal of individual lesson gradings was a triumph for common senses, and the attempts to learn from and engage with teachers to improve the system is entirely laudable.
Without going into any specifics around Michael Wilshaw’s latest round of announcements of what Ofsted will and won’t be looking for, I feel genuinely confused about one point.
Consultant and additional inspector, Paul Garvey offers the following advice:
Now, I’m always a little concerned when someone with so clear a vested interest makes these sorts of comments and gives the impression, intentionally or otherwise, that they are somehow speaking for Ofsted, but has he got a point? If ‘preparing for inspection’ is simply doing all possible to provide the highest standard of education for your students, then that’s sort of fine, but why call it ‘preparing for Ofsted’?
Is it just me, or does this imply there’s something headteachers ought to be doing over and above leading their schools? I’m pretty sure every Headteacher will pour over Ofsted’s latest guidance to find out exactly what they’re going to held accountable for, but should they have to? Do you have to use the Inspection Framework documents well in order to ‘take control’ of your inspection?
My fear is, you probably do. When Ofsted say jump, the default is to ask, how high? For most headteachers the consequences of running afoul of an overly opinionated inspector are just too great to risk simply doing a great job. My argument is that the necessity of preparing for inspection warps the system. Ofsted exerts a tremendous gravitational pull on schools as they strive to do what they think inspectors will want. School leaders will be pouring over these latest pages desperately trying to work out not whether they’re doing a good job, but to see whether Ofsted will think so.I’d rather that no one felt they had to invest time in appeasing the whims and vagaries of an inspector, but maybe I’m being naive? Paul Garvey certainly thinks so:
I’m not a headteacher and neither am I an inspector. I have no intentions of ever becoming either, excellent or otherwise, but this sort of argument seems to say, because of this I’m necessarily disqualified from being taken seriously.
An inspection process inevitably sets goals for improvement and organisations seek to demonstrate these are met. That’s fair enough. I spent the day today with a group of independent school teachers in West Sussex – many of whom had recently left the state sector and all of whom expressed their sincere gratitude that they were no longer subject to the auspices of Ofsted. Inspection per se isn’t the problem. They felt ISI were fair-minded and realistic in their approach and teachers often felt they benefitted from their interactions with an inspector. The contrast with the animosity to what they’d left behind was extraordinary.
Ofsted is not the only way. It doesn’t have to be like this. The stakes don’t have to be so high.
For what it’s worth I would much prefer no notice inspections which were difficult, if not impossible to explicitly prepare for – most like a mystery shopper who just turns up, checks out what’s going on and writes up their findings. Obviously, there are all sorts of organisational issues which will complicate this; no one wants random strangers wandering around in schools. But is it unrealistic for an inspector to pitch up, show their credentials, have a poke about, speak to a few people and then clear off to record their findings? Then the pressure is simply on schools to do the best they can, rather than to muddle around preparing.
But of course, this is just a point of view. Do please let me know your thoughts: should schools be expected to do anything other than what would ordinarily do in order to prepare for inspections?
Having recently gone through my first Ofsted, I was loathe to ‘play-act’ in any way, and in fact finding myself being more blase than normal. However, I do think that there is an argument that an Ofsted inspection is a bit like a job interview.
It’s a bit of a charade which everyone is in on. Everyone knows that you wouldn’t normally spend this much time preparing your day or neatening your displays. However, they expect to see what you are capable of when you throw the kitchen sink at it, in order to give an idea of what you might be like on a day to day basis.
You show them at your best, so that they can see the possibilities of your teaching and to also demonstrate that you care.
Yes, of course. But should that be the case? Wouldn’t it be better for them to take you as you are?
I managed relationships with the third-party auditor we contracted. We had audits twice a year and each year they certified our organisation’s management systems as effectively supporting and implementing the business plan, etc (our products were regulated by other QC regulators). I never gamed the system to renew certification (essential to trade with some customers). Instead I ran good systems, and implemented improvements identified in internal or third-party audits, or more casually.
In Education, SLT should be running their systems to ensure they can manage their school (top-down). It should be happening regularly – not pulled together for an inspection.
It seems Ofsted’s customer is the Crown/taxpayer and accountability is to the Crown? If an Ofsted handbook requires school leaders to deliver something and a School leader doesn’t think it necessary then they need to justify it to Ofsted and the taxpayer (?).
I think if schools are bending over backwards for an inspection visit there’s something wrong with the management/systems. If there’s a culture of fear there’s either a problem with the management, the inspectors, or even both.
Is Ofsted an external inspection to endorse and encourage a unifying standard of education that each child should receive, and judge how well that is being done (?).
In the last year, as a parent I have looked at 10 secondary schools (this is what happens when you lose trust in the system). As a parent I still have no idea how I’m supposed to judge the standard of education and behaviour management/safety on offer for the full 7 (10) years my child/ren will be in that school.
As parents we have five senses, and good old common sense. I do pay attention to scores on the doors but ultimately as a parent I judge on the ground. That requires access to the school: I get a ‘gut’ reaction during a school visit that isn’t accessible on the website, in the prospectus, or on the Ofsted dashboard. I, like an inspector, receive it when talking and listening to the teachers, observing the pupils, looking around the school, watching how staff engage with our child and how our children respond. In some schools the leadership team even engage with parents. However, there are also catchment areas, oversubscribed waiting list, and diddly-squat chance of getting our child into these schools it seems. It looks like I’m going to have to lower my standards again.
It’s interesting to note how many readers there are of this blog from outside the UK. I’m the ‘visitor’ from Bangkok on the live feed, although I taught for 10 years in two mainstream schools in the UK before leaving for an international teaching post last year. As an English teacher, I have to admit that one of the contributing factors to my decision to leave the UK was the mention of Ofsted in virtually every one of the three staff meetings we had each week. As a school that was judged RI for the 5 years I was there, the cosh was very much suspended over the entire staff body on a permanent basis to the detriment of the health of many. Colleagues were preoccupied with, as you say, preparing for an ‘imminent visit’ and working hard to respond to the latest SLT knee-jerk reaction inspired by the latest Ofsted publication (re-thinking how lessons were delivered so that teachers only spoke for a certain percentage of the lesson / rethinking their calculations in light of the news that it didn’t actually matter how long teachers talked for as long as students were seen to be making progress / working on new ways to ensure progress could be observed and measured in any given 20 minute period… ad infinitum), instead of concentrating on day-to-day planning, teaching and assessment. The imminent visit was a daily threat that lasted for over 18 months until they finally arrived and carried out an inspection that was actually fairly low-key and concentrated on poring over the data we had meticulously spent the last 18 months fine-tuning (and not without some degree of creativity I might add). We were judged as requiring improvement.
In the Ofsted-free world of international teaching, it becomes quite clear that students succeed from a sense of self-worth and an understanding of the value of education, not from constant assessment, micro-scrutiny of progress and the delivery of lessons from stressed teachers who have failed to plan properly for the lesson due to fatigue and disillusionment. I am fully aware that my current environment of dealing with privately educated students who have supportive parents is in stark contrast to the state schools in deprived areas I left behind (much to the disgust to some of my colleagues), but I strongly feel that teachers are scapegoats for the wider-social issues that affect so many schools that ‘require improvement’, and all the Ofsted inspections or forced academisation or Pupil Premium funding in the world isn’t going to help that (unless it paid for significantly more teachers and therefore smaller class sizes, but I’ve not seen evidence of it being used in that way to make any significant impact). However, parents (voters) do not take kindly to being told how to raise their children so the job falls squarely back on the shoulders of teachers. Seemingly supportive parents who explain how they struggle to make their child go to bed earlier as they ‘Can’t get him off his X-Box until gone midnight,’ are just as responsible for students’ failure as incompetent teachers – I’ve observed many superb, talented teachers pull their hair out in front of classrooms full of young people struggling to keep their eyes open.
I suppose I touch upon wider issues here than those addressed by David in his post above (and I apologise for digressing); however, after 12 months away from the UK system in which I taught for 10 years, I have come to the conclusion that there are many factors that contribute to the failure of dedicated professionals to ensure schools are judged as good or outstanding*. Many of these can be addressed by the school and Ofsted go some way to identifying these and ‘motivating’ schools to focus on improvement, but it has to be acknowledged that the failure of many schools to meet certain benchmarks is a result of much deeper issues that are so ingrained into the fabric of communities that there will always be flaws in the objective process of inspecting schools, regardless of the amount of notice given.
*I also know that lots of schools flourish in areas of a similar demographic – but if there are success stories of high levels of academic progress in deprived areas, why isn’t there a model for successful leadership rolled out in similar schools? I’m simplifying very complex processes, I know… just a thought!
Possibly time to move beyond inspection for the vast majority of schools. A look at the data (which still drives the outcome) suggests the school is clearly getting a lot right. Nice letter to the school thanking staff & governors, congratulating students and let them get on with it. Ofsted is having a disproportionate and perverse impact on schools. Great post DD.
The problem with the ‘look at the data’ approach is that there’s little transparency about how the data will be judged. As a HT you know your school’s data but you have very little idea what a lead inspector will think of it. We need some sort of algorithm for HTs to feed in a data set and be told its objective grading
Mentioned to Mike C last year the idea of an objective value added measure. Above it = no inspection.
If Inspections were impromptu, school would show what they really are and teachers would just be doing their normal lessons. Everybody would be on fair play field and teacher would not be so stressed, even for one or two days, trying to prepare unrealistic lesson plans and lessons.
Agreed with a lot of this. In regards to the responses, agree with the comment below that it’s all a charade and that they end up seeing you at a heightened level beyond day-to-day normality. As they’re used to seeing that, I would worry about the expectations during a no notice inspection. Would also worry about a system driven purely by data with no other means of accountability. In a lot of primary schools you could throw the kitchen sink at the core subjects at total expense of foundation ones and nobody would ever know. Some form of external accountability is essential.
No, they shouldn’t. And what’s worse, I’ve found, are schools who use ‘what Ofsted want’ as a reason to over-prepare. As you said, it’s being a good school.
I wrote this, which echoes what you’re saying, the other day: https://tobypfrench.wordpress.com/2015/06/15/leadership/
If schools play games then they must be prepared to lose when the rules change. The alternative is to make sure that teachers can teach well. I know which one I’d go for.
My classmates and I always knew when ofsted were in because the school heating was on, and the teachers were comically nervous. I think they decided that my school was a “good school” or whatever that means. Here is my issue as a student in all this: there is a sense of “it doesn’t matter what my teachers or friends think, it’s what ofsted thinks that counts”. If education is partly about thinking and conversation, it’s odd to me that these hallowed inspections seem to shut that down in many ways? Here’s a twitter thread I was involved in last month on the topic: https://twitter.com/KElwis/status/604564197217824768
Sadly, it is all too common for the pressures of Ofsted to be used as a weapon, all the way down the monkey tree, to “drive improvement”. I hate the analogy of “driving”, you “drive” a machine, but schools more closely parallel organic communities, and you don’t “drive” ecosystems, you NURTURE them. Creating an environment in which they (and individuals within them) thrive… In my personal experience, (including as headteacher) I have all too often been prevented from doing what will make the biggest difference by the imperative to tick other people’s boxes. It is imperative that we find the most efficient levers for improvement and maximise our energies on them – but just as our students find, peer pressure IS powerful, and it takes a brave person to swim against the tide!
Great post DD. We have gone from a system of minimal accountability to judging and weighing everything and everyone. I think we all yearn for some equilibrium and common sense that allows good practice to thrive and our children to reap the longterm rewards of a healthy education system. I am left wondering what difference Ofsted has made since it’s inception? I suspect, on balance there are still a similar number of poor and outstanding schools.
If I want my classes to do well I get to know them, build relationships with them, challenge their learnt behaviours and intellect and allow them the freedom to express what they are capable of. My assessment and data tell me if I am on the right track. Surely the problem with Ofsted is that the context is built around an unhealthy relationship – the absent, dictatorial and demanding parent who demands perfection without bothering to get to know the child. We all know where these relationships can lead – some step up to prove themselves, others rebel and others languish in the despair of ‘failure’. Until our relationship with the inspectorate changes and the dialogue becomes genuinely productive we will not get the best out of our schools. Nobody thrives in an atmosphere of fear – less so when the guardians that holds the purse strings put ever increasing constraints on how we go about leading and running our schools.
I am all for accountability but I can’t helping that the fear of the inspectorate is simply counter-productive in many cases.
I have always held that no-notice inspections are the fairest. As an independent police custody visitor (a voluntary position where you go and check on the custody suites and speak to some of those detained – which I am not comparing school inspections with but just as a description, two of us would turn up and do the inspection. Did the police officers like it? Not really but on the other hand we saw the reality of it first hand. We were not allowed to meet with the most violent of those detained but that is a matter for contention as to whether they could guaranteed safety, etc. However we saw more and got to see to the records and were able to make recommendations. As one senior police officer told us in our meetings, it was often the catalyst for positive change so while they did not like the no notice aspect of it, it did capture reality far more than an inspection with a notice. Also if it were no notice then schools could not send out all the poorly behaved children or hide some of the aspects of practice which are holding the school back.
A good post on the benefit of fresh eyes reflecting on real situations and practice which can lead to positive change.
In early years settings inspections *are* no notice and this means that you can’t ‘prepare’ for Ofsted, you just do what you do each and every day. Inevitably, last time round, the inspector turned up at the worst possible moment – our setting manager was out on a training course and there had been an event in our hall the night before, which meant we had done a full packaway (this means literally everything goes in a cupboard). But the inspector saw us as we are, which is fine by me, because that is the reality of the day to day experience for us and our chidlren.
We don’t actually do anything to ‘prepare’ for Ofsted at preschool. We don’t even use the Ofsted SEF format. It is possible to stop caring about what they ‘want’ and just focus on the experience for the children. Being a volunteer helps, because they can’t ‘sack’ me if we fail. Parents don’t choose us for our Ofsted grade, they choose us because we’re right for their children. In fact I can’t remember anyone even asking us what our grade actually is in the last 5 years.
Thanks Sue -that sounds very positive. Is there any reason you can think of why this model wouldn’t work for other phases/setting?
Hi David, When I’ve talked to primary and secondary people about it, the issue of handling the administration of an inspection comes up, because obviously the inspection team is bigger in those contexts. However, I think we should see that as Ofsted’s problem, rather than ours, and ask that they work around us rather than us working around them.
I wrote something very similar to what you’ve said above a couple of years back, which you might find of interest: https://suecowley.wordpress.com/2013/04/24/who-are-you-doing-it-for-anyway-or-why-we-must-all-stop-obsessing-about-what-ofsted-will-think/
We’ve been informed in a recent staff meeting about the changes to the Ofsted regime. In order to be ready for those one-day inspections, we will need to up our vigilance on working walls, dialogic marking and presentation in books. Apparently, this will necessitate an increase in work scrutinies, planning requirements and visitations from officials/SLT to make sure we are always ‘Ofsted-ready’.
I think your SLT are missing the point and channelling their energy in the wrong way.
Sadly, if you do well in an Ofsted inspection it reinforces SLT’s belief this approach is necessary. Although with this mentality it’s also likely that if you do poorly they will tighten things even more.
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