Earlier today I posted an outraged spume of invective directed at a recently publish Ofsted inspection report. Since then Sean Harford, Ofsted’s National Director for Education, has been in touch to say that the report has been taken down and arses are being kicked.

To be clear, I don’t want or expect Ofsted to change its judgement about the school in question – I am in no way placed to make any kind of judgement or even comment on what the school in question might be like – but I do want and expect the report to be changed so that it better reflects the spirit of Ofsted’s policy on marking and workload. For all I know, the school are doing a terrible job and should maybe consider improving the way teachers are asked to mark work. If an inspection finds a school wanting then it should point out areas of weakness and expect school leaders to effective positive changes. But it should not dictate what these changes should be.

Sean confirmed that inspectors should be checking whether teachers are complying with the school’s policies.

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Based on this, the lowest risk policy is for school leaders to say, “Teachers are trusted to plan, teach and assess as they think is appropriate.” As long as this trust is complemented with intelligent accountability systems, all should be well.

Needless to say, I’m pretty chuffed with all this. The power of social media is humbling.

I’m also very aware that while blogging can make a difference in holding the powerful to account, I’m accountable to no one.