Moves to overhaul the way schools are inspected in England have been criticised by headteachers and teaching unions as “demoralising” and worse than the system they are aiming to replace. The changes by the Ofsted schools inspectorate would replace single judgments such as “outstanding” with a new report card for parents. They will be unveiled by Ofsted’s chief inspector, Martyn Oliver, on Monday alongside the launch of a public consultation. The leaders of England’s education unions have derided key aspects of the proposals, as did the family of Ruth Perry, the primary school headteacher whose suicide after an “intimidating” Ofsted inspection precipitated Labour’s pledge to scrap the use of headline grades.
Yes, this entire effort is driven by the fact one - ONE - teacher, who clearly was in the wrong job and must have had other issues, killed herself.
The new system would grade schools, nurseries and colleges in eight individual areas on a five-step scale, ranging from “exemplary” to “causing concern”, alongside a separate evaluation of whether safeguarding standards were met. Inspections currently look at four to six areas, including safeguarding, on a four-step scale from “outstanding” to “inadequate”. Despite months of discussion by Ofsted, many of the proposals have been rejected as bewildering and ineffective by union leaders, leaving the overhaul in disarray at the start of the 12-week consultation.
If you find this 'bewildering', are you maybe in the wrong job?
But Prof Julia Waters, Perry’s sister, said her fears that Ofsted was incapable of reforming the inspection regime had been justified. “Ofsted’s proposed new inspection model has some improvements but retains many of the dangerous features of the previous system, while introducing a series of changes with potential new risks to the wellbeing of teachers and headteachers,” Waters said.
Screw their 'wellbeing', they are there to do a job, and if they feel aggrieved at being judged on how well they do it, so what? We are all judged accordingly.
The new system - long overdue - should reduce the number of schools downgraded across the board because they fall short in diversity (what are rural ones expected to do; raid the nearest city to round up a flock of suitably diverse mixed infants?) or the safeguarding phone tree is out of date..
ReplyDeleteIn my experience, the biggest threat to the wellbeing of teachers during inspection is the pressure put on them by Heads desperately trying to put on a superlative performance at short notice rather than letting inspectors see the school functioning as normal. While there is extra time and effort involved in writing up detailed lesson plans for the inspectors (I was always more of a ‘back of an envelope’ sort) or collecting the required random samples of pupil work at short notice, I’ve known a neurotic Head demand staff pull all-nighters if necessary to finish putting up elaborate classroom displays and thematic cross-curricular exhibits around the school.
It’s not exactly an enjoyable experience being scrutinised and judged for an hour with so much at stake but, having twice had ‘outstanding’ verdicts on inspected lessons - neither of them specially prepared; just the usual stuff - I’m inclined to agree with you that anyone who has a problem with this process is probably in the wrong profession.