OFSTED

7th October 2019

Many of you will know that OFSTED have been in the college this last week. We await their published judgements.

 

Those of us who work in education understand that we must be held to account for the performance of our children and young people. We may not like the OFSTEDs of this world but we are realistic about their existence and the demands that they will place on schools and colleges.

 

It is with this in mind that I read that 1010 outstanding schools and colleges have not been inspected for over a decade. I’m not sure what the word ‘Outstanding’, in the OFSTED context, actually means, however it cannot be right that we have a system which inspects schools and colleges over and over again, sometimes two or three times in a year, and then misses other schools and colleges year on year, and even decade to decade.

 

If we are serious as a system about ensuring that all schools and colleges are at a particular standard we should see all schools and colleges inspected regularly, not see some left to one side, as a consequence of an outdated judgement, made under a different framework. We either inspect schools and colleges or we do not.

 

I am not particularly keen on the ‘perception’ of what OFSTED might bring, and perception is often worse than the reality, however I recognise that the inspection framework exists and as school and college leaders we have to accept the way in which they work. What’s good enough for me should be good enough for us all though. Are we, by leaving some schools and colleges to one side, saying that circumstances haven’t changed, leaders haven’t changed, teachers haven’t changed, our pupils or students haven’t changed? It is inconceivable that the schools or colleges, which haven’t been inspected, won’t have seen a shift in some aspect or element of their work.

 

And even if inspected institutions remain ‘Outstanding’, then shouldn’t the system that exists for others recognise their continued excellence?

 

I don’t call for OFSTED and I’m not calling for OFSTED to come in and work with us – that ship has sailed, all I’m asking for is that for is that the system is not only seen to be fair but for the system to be truly fair for all schools and colleges.

 

This is surely untrue…

 

‘I never understand when people say, ‘School days are the best of your life.’ So it’s all downhill from 16? How depressing.’ Marsha Thomason