Give them a break !

Josieann

Safeguarding and Fire Safety are the two main issues which can severely downgrade a school or even fail it.

I would agree with this when I taught,unkown a perimeter fence had been broken so it would act as a gate by local vandals.
We were marked down, never mind if the children were happy, making progress and it had only happened the night before.

There is a lot of criticism of Ofsted and the tick box culture, some saying it does more harm than good.
My D works in a college constantly graded excellent. When Ofsted come in they cause extra work, chaos and stress.
There does need to be standards but the tick box method may not be the best.

I agree GSM and I say this as someone whose service was inspected by Ofsted and other incarnations of inspector ate before Ofsted. I often got good with outstanding features but never outstanding (the gits ) I still understand the need for Ofsted.

How else are standards maintained? The Ofsted rating gives parents an idea of quality of education which I would have thought was a good thing.

Through my job I go into numerous schools and early years provision. It is often impossible to tell the difference between good and outstanding, I have never yet been in a setting deemed inadequate where I was surprised.

Safeguarding is not box ticking. If they are inadequate with regard to safeguarding the issue is not Ofsted.

Safeguarding and Fire Safety are the two main issues which can severely downgrade a school or even fail it.

The two teachers in my family are not fans of Ofsted. They say that they make things more stressful for already overworked and stressed staff.
My D told me that an excellent teacher had been marked down by Ofsted on the basis of one 50 minute lesson that they sat in on. She said the class she had were the worst in the college and were awful for all the teachers. Ofsted weren't interested in the excellent exam results from her other classes.

Because Ofsted have to justify their existence.
One of our local pre-schools was deservedly graded Outstanding during one inspection cycle.
The next time round their inspection took place on the second day of the autumn term.
They were downgraded because they "didn't have sufficient feedback from parents..."
Not all of the children were even attending yet as they operate a staggered start to settle the new three year olds in.
Ofsted don't care and don't make any allowances.