Head teacher kills herself over OFSTED

Joseanne

Galaxy

The Ofsted inspectors I have worked with have generally been of a really high standard. I am as uncomfortable with the demonising of inspectors as I am with the demonising of social workers, etc.

This

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Do people not understand that even the regulatory bodies need to be regulated?

Without taking failings seriously there would be no standard of practice.

Without standard of practice, any poorly suited individual could enter any job and seriously screw up all sorts of lives.

This was a failure.
This went wrong.
This had a negative outcome.

Something needs to be done about that... "I'm sure everyone was doing theor best" in regards to social workers and the like does not protect others from being let down.

It is not about demonising a whole category of worker, it is about making sure every worker in that category is properly trained and vetted.

If you can't see that, I don't know where your empathy or logic have vanished too on this subject because there is no such thing as an acceptable percentage of loss in children or adult welfare

Yes every one who holds even a slightly different opinion to you has no empathy or logic.

Galaxy

The Ofsted inspectors I have worked with have generally been of a really high standard. I am as uncomfortable with the demonising of inspectors as I am with the demonising of social workers, etc.

The Ofsted report hasn’t been published yet and the inquest into this poor woman’s death hasn’t been held, so any discussion about either is really just speculation based on hearsay and media reports, as as the case with so many tragic events these days. And of course the Ofsted inspectors involved are human beings, who must be feeling terrible about the suicide, whether their actions had anything to do with it or not.

The demonisation of any group of people - teachers, inspectors, doctors, police officers - is harmful and wrong.

What are you on about VioletSky
‘This was a failure’ you say.How do you know that the OFSTED inspector in this case got it wrong? Perhaps they got it right and did their job properly.

Galaxy

Yes every one who holds even a slightly different opinion to you has no empathy or logic.

galaxy I'm not even talking to you

What do you need from me to feel better today?

From the evidence already shared Oreo

1. Past history
2. The experience of those who have felt the pressure of Ofsted
3. Flossing "sexualised"? Seriously, definitely a case of an inspector putting their own opinion above training

I have felt the pressure of Ofsted and I certainly wouldnt be making those assumptions, I would be waiting to see the results of any investigation, if there is one.

Erm

People are sharing that actual experience, here on this thread

I'm saying a lesson needs to be learned from that

Surely the wanted outcome for all schools is that they reach their full potential. I'd want a service that encourages and promotes that rather than something that raps your knuckles and makes you go and stand in a corner with a dunce cap on your head.

It's all wrong and I hate it for everyone who has had a negative experience because I've yet to meet a teacher not running themselves into the ground

Maggiemaybe

Galaxy

The Ofsted inspectors I have worked with have generally been of a really high standard. I am as uncomfortable with the demonising of inspectors as I am with the demonising of social workers, etc.

The Ofsted report hasn’t been published yet and the inquest into this poor woman’s death hasn’t been held, so any discussion about either is really just speculation based on hearsay and media reports, as as the case with so many tragic events these days. And of course the Ofsted inspectors involved are human beings, who must be feeling terrible about the suicide, whether their actions had anything to do with it or not.

The demonisation of any group of people - teachers, inspectors, doctors, police officers - is harmful and wrong.

You're right Maggiemaybe. It isn't unusual for an inspector to leave a school upset and frustrated because it has to be downgraded. They are not toxic like they are often made out to be.

I read the report for that school. I assume it was the real thing. This is what it said, ..............

^Leaders have a weak understanding of safeguarding requirements and procedures.
They have not exercised sufficient leadership or oversight of this important work. As
a result, records of safeguarding concerns and the tracking of subsequent actions
are poor. Leaders have not ensured that all required employment checks are
complete for some staff employed at the school.^ *These weaknesses pose potential
risks to pupils.*

So easy to see how a service trained to highlight such issues could be a positive rather than a negative

I’d like to know what role the Governors played at that school. We all (governors) had to do safeguarding training and as governors were expected to ask challenging questions about that and other aspects of the running of the school.
The school advisor should also have looked at that as something to put on the head teacher’s appraisal if it was done properly.

Our last inspector was knowledgeable and willing to talk and answer questions. Others have not been the same. E.g. when the focus was on SAT results, rather than progress of individual children shown by the data, one inspector was totally unable to comprehend that cohorts differ. He couldn’t see that some years, you might have higher/lower numbers of children working at GD, no matter how hard teachers worked.

OSTED sounds like something left over from Stalinist Russia. How ghastly and what right do outsiders have to just come in and comment anyway? Why don’t they get a better system ,some sort of peer review ?

Leaders have a weak understanding of safeguarding requirements and procedures. They have not exercised sufficient leadership or oversight of this important work. As a result, records of safeguarding concerns and the tracking of subsequent actions are poor. Leaders have not ensured that all required employment checks are complete for some staff employed at the school.These weaknesses pose potential risks to pupils.

If that is truly from the recent inspection report of this school, then the inspectors had no option but to grade the school as they did.

Leaders have not ensured that all required employment checks are complete for some staff employed at the school. This is completely unacceptable. I was responsible for safeguarding checks at the last school I worked at and thorough background checks are non-negotiable. We actually had someone with a very dubious history apply for a job in our school nursery. If we hadn’t spotted the discrepancies in their application form it could have led to serious consequences for our vulnerable 3 and 4 year olds. The safety of children has to be paramount.

Maggiemaybe, it truly is in the report, I followed this link the other day from the school site.

www.cavershamprimary.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/10242325-Caversham-Primary-Sc-109778-final-PDF.pdf

I'm horrified for the woman and her family and her friends and her school and the inspectors but agree with you that the inspection team had no option.

Although, I feel sorry at the outcome, I do agree with Maggienaybe.
As someone, who was very involved in safeguarding in my school and now in a voluntary capacity, the safeguarding of children must take priority. Procedures must be rigorous.
If they were not, then the inspection team had a duty of care to highlight the situation.

Thanks for putting up the link Ailidh. I think it was on the OFSTED site I read it.
The inspectors are damned if they do, or damned if they don't. They can't win. It sounds like the flossing issue wasn't such a big deal after all, but the media decides to make it so.
Like Marydoll have spent many a Saturday at school quietly and thoroughly checking and rechecking everyone's employment details. You have no option but to get this right. The poor Head will have felt devastated.

So, is the title to this thread now incorrect?

Feb. 2009 was the last inspection.
The staff have changed substantially and the previous headteacher had died. The governors are new too apparently.
Where was the help/oversight?

I'd be interested to see the full report (am assuming this is not it!).

I don't see the report on the Ofsted site - I think this is it:

reports.ofsted.gov.uk/provider/21/109778

Also as said upthread others have responsibility in regard to safeguarding, the governing body, the LA advisor, etc. I come from social care management so I find the hierarchy in education quite different, I always felt I had layers of support 'above' me which almost spread the load. In education it all feels focussed on the head, it seems quite a lonely place to be.

NotSpaghetti

I don't see the report on the Ofsted site - I think this is it:

reports.ofsted.gov.uk/provider/21/109778

The 2022 report was taken down out of respect and further investigation.
The inspectorate will treat this very seriously. I know that the day the announcement was made that the Head at Epsom College had possibly killed herself, (maybe after an inspection??), all upcoming inspections were temporarily put on hold.
As someone said up thread, inspectors are human beings and not cruel.

* * The Epsom College shooting was carried out by the husband, just to make this clear.

I assumed the 2022 one hadn't gone up yet.

Glorianny

My GCs certainly do the Flossing dance. They tried teaching me! If that is "evidence of sexualised behaviour" it's ridiculous. I thought we got past those sort of ideas when people did things like the Twist. Oh dear!Just remembered mine were trying to twerk the other day!!

Thanks Glory - I agree with your comparison between the flossing dance and the twist and like you, had assumed the days of moral outrage were left in the 1950’s.
One of our local schools has been marked from outstanding (20 years) to needing improvement, on safeguarding issues. The published report says some children were heard using racist or homophobic comments in the corridor. A child was not referred to as they, when this had been requested. Exam results remain excellent. The school has been over subscribed in the 40 years since I had children applying for high school.

I agree that schools should be accountable but is Ofsted fit for purpose. I remember Ofsted in the organisation I worked in. One inspector was excellent. But the nonsense about the focus in tick box exercises rather than in depth investigation of a long piece of work left me feeling it wasn’t identifying best/worst practice in a meaningful way