Secret Teacher - letter to Ofsted Inspectors

The difference between inspections in business and those in schools may be that in a school inspection there are 30 unpredictable variables to affect the outcome, ie the children! I could be wrong though as I have only ever been a teacher and have never worked elsewhere.

Thanks feetle - I roared with laughter. And sent it on to a teacher friend - but not to the friend who is an OfSted inspector!!!

At one time there used to be a concept of "value added" so that spme measure could be made of progress against that child's own target rather than a national, average. Our school has 30% SEN - so what price averages here?!

Love the Fascinating Aida OFSTED song.
I guessed my comments would be a little controversial but I do think there are strong parallels as well as differences between business and school. Both are certainly nerve wracking.
If we seriously fail any one of our inspections we can be closed forthwith with loss of jobs and all that entails - or at the very least a door could be closed on a particular market place and of course word would soon get round. Any non serious points noted have to be put right - and evidence provided - within a time frame.
It certainly keeps you on your toes and you have to keep up to date with each country's requirements - typically they are not all the same!
Businesses have to pay for the pleasure of all of these inspections, including travel costs and subsidence for the inspectors. And by the way, I was once a teacher too so I have a little understanding of being 'observed'. Out of the frying pan into the fire you might say..........

Thanks a million for that, feetle. I have sent the link to my DiL whose opinions on M. Gove are probably unprintable - if anything is nowadays!

A song about OFSTED from Fascinating nAida -

www.youtube.com/watch?v=d13gX-1HJg4

Teachers are judged purely the progress their children make against a list of targets. Rather than educate they now find themselves teaching to the list. To me education is more that ticking boxes. It's about encouraging an enquiring mind and a love a learning for it's own sake as well as helping a child to achieve the most that he/she is capable of. This has nothing to do with low expectations. We see it all the time in society. Some people are more able to learn than others. If a child is capable of a level 5 at Year 6 and achieves it then it should be celebrated but equally if a child is capable of a 3A and achieves it then that too should be celebrated. As it stands children who achieve below 4C feel they have failed and teachers are told they are inadequate. Common sense says that not every child will achieve a level 4 but then when did OFSTED or HMI have anything to do with common sense.

When I taught a small challenging group of children I had one child who came up as a 2C. When I first got him he had no social and learning skills. He demanded attention and because he couldn't deal with having to wait he would scream, shout, swear, throw things (including chairs) around the room, hit other children and/or storm out and create havoc in the corridors.

By the time he left me a year later he could put up his hand, wait his turn, take part in conversations that required him to listen to others and take on board their ideas, stay on his chair, not hit others when frustrated, take pride in his work and a host of other things that help a child to mature as a person and become a better learner. Unfortunately he was still a 2C so I was judged to have failed him.

vampirequeen said it all - children are not like products. It's simple, it is unfair to test them and their teachers, their school, as though it was a production line.
Yes, teachers should be accountable for their work. That's why there is a management structure, so that work can be evaluated. The amount of form filling and box ticking that goes on detracts from the real work that schools should be doing.

I don't think you realise what OFSTED and HMI are actually like, goldengirl. It's not that teacher's aren't in the real world. Teachers would actually like to be able to educate children and produce fully rounded adults who can find their way around and make a contribution to society. Children are not like products made for sale. They are all individuals with their own particular needs. Teachers used to be able to nurture these round, square, rectangular and whatever shaped pegs they had in their class. Now they have to hammer them into a one shape fits all hole whether they fit or not. I know of a child with Downs Syndrome who is expected to achieve a 4B by the end of Year 6. As he's already Year 5 and can just about write a simple sentence seems to have bypassed the powers that be. In fact he's doing remarkably well. He is simply incapable of learning fast enough to be an 'average' child. But instead of being allowed to celebrate his achievements the teachers are accused of letting him down.

Although it's not totally to blame I don't think it was a coincidence that I had my breakdown the day after an HMI inspection. The stresses had been so huge I broke under the strain.

Ofsted is a pain in the butt to teachers but inspections are part of life. In our company, because it is medically related, we have inspections around 4 times a year; some of them are carried out by representatives abroad. If we want to sell to other countries outside of Europe we have to jump through hoops and some of the inspectors can be real jobs worths. It does keep you on your toes and ensures paperwork / certification is up to date. Come on teachers, this is what happens in real life. Yes, it's stressful and yes it takes up time but at least you don't have it umpteen times a year!!!!

Janerowena - that was a brilliant idea - I might just pinch it!!!

I am a governor at a primary school and find the whole OfSted thing entirely tiresome. I know an OfSted inspector - he is very nice and gets frustrated that schools see him as a threat rather than a support for improving education, but the reality is, as the Secret Teacher says, that the whole inspection roundabout dictates what goes on in schools to the detriment of professional teachers being responsive to the real needs of the children in their care.

Assessment and monitoring are all that matter now and this is ongoing. The head has to bring stats to every governors' meeting to prove that the children have made progress and these are compared with national averages. The fact that it might be a rural school with only 5 children in a year group, one of whom has SEN, and that this skews the stats (20% of those children are bound to fall below target!!) is completely ignored.

School Improvement Plans, SEFs (School Evaluation Forms) etc fill the teachers' days. Governors have to keep a log of what they do to show evidence to OfSted that they are doing all the right things; processes are gone through by governors solely for the purposes of keeping OfSted happy and not because it changes the outcomes at all.

We have a School Improvement Officer on our backs all the time.

The ultimate irony in all this now of course is that OfSted have become so much more stringent recently that parents ignore the outcomes as they do not expect to find a school with an Outstanding rating!! - so what is the point I ask myself?

It's true. My husband spent last night filling in forms and updating records for an Ofsted inspection. 'Oh really? When is it?' I asked, alarmed because I know how evil he will be for the preceding four weeks.

His reply was that he had no idea, they are having to do it all 'just in case' so that everything is ready and correct and can just be handed over because the sooner the inspectors get it, the sooner the misery will all be over. But occasionally they get an email telling them to get on with it so that it can be looked at and inspected by the Head/Director of studies in case there is anything that contradicts the recommendations from the last visit. So it's an ongoing process now, the stress is always there with no respite. At first DBH thought it would be a good thing, no last minute panic and there would be plenty of time to give teachers who weren't keeping up a boost, but it doesn't work like that, it just piles on the hours spent on paperwork, which gets looked at and then sent back to be done again.

Years ago he was a newby at a school in Lincolnshire with a new Head, the previous Head had had a bad inspection, so all were worried and stressed, really badly so. He said that they were so stressed that he feared for the inspection going well. I made an enormous chocolate cake in two biscuit tins, iced it and wrote 'HAPY INSPEKSHUN DAY' on it, put 30 balloons around it and encloed 30 napkin 'reports'. They said things like 'Oh dear, see the Times Ed next week', and 'Could do better' and 'Talks too much in Class' and so on. That was the hardest part actually, thinking of all the different things to write.

The Head phoned me and thanked me. He said they had been sitting in the staff room all feeling gloomy, he had been just about to make his 'Good Luck, do your best' speech when DBH revealed the cake. He said the mood instantly changed, they were shrieking at the 'reports' and went out laughing with chocolate cake around their mouths.

Having been a school governor at both primary and secondary levels, I can confirm the amount of stress the staff suffer due to Ofsted. A visit from Ofsted is like a threat where it could be an opportunity. However, 'my' primary school used their reports (on the effect of dilapidation on teaching and learning) to lean on the LEA to submit a bid for a rebuild which, to our great joy, we won and had a lovely new building as a result. So for once, and once only, we had cause to thank Ofsted!

I too have shared it on Facebook.

Thanks for the link When, I've shared it on Facebook. I have never been a teacher, but have a number of relatives and friends who are. I'm very aware of the enormous stress caused by Ofsted inspections and often ponder on how much better the sums of money spent on such organisations could be used to provide, well more teachers and resources perhaps

Odd isn't it that I managed to get a perfectly good education 60 years ago? There must have been more than 30 of us in the class - one teacher, no assistants, the minimum of books and paper because it was just after the war, some very deprived children from poor homes, BUT no one constantly nagging about standards. We learnt to read, write and count, with a smattering of drawing, history and geography. Some children were brighter than others but no one was stresed or pressurised and a lot of it was fun.

One of my recent supply engagements was in a reception class. The head was doing an observation of some sort and was following the little ones around the outside area with a clipboard asking them what they could do differently next time to get better at what they were doing ........ they were playing in the sand. It's beyond belief.

Wonderful letter from 'Secret teacher'. Every Ofsted inspector should receive a copy. I always tried to do my best for EVERY child I taught but certainly in my latter years teaching was something you did when every other box had been ticked.

Ofsted is the most scariest thing for teachers. When I go in on supply there is a palpable air of fearful anticipation for "when Ofsted come". This atmosphere last year lasted the whole of the academic year for one of my regular schools with the dreaded event happening one week before they broke up for the summer term. Although its a lovely hardworking school with average results they are now in the category called " room for improvement".
Ofsted was one of the reasons I took early retirement. One school I go to regularly is now on the same Ofsted alert as the one I mentioned above. The teachers look exhausted and terrified already despite having a " good" last time. Not good for teachers or learners mental health.
And dont get me started on the new pay and conditions! Suffice to say I might be seeking alternative methods of earning my daily crust!
Rant over. I feel dreadfully sorry for full time teachers and those poor little learners who also become pressurised.