Deadly school inspections

OFSTED: not fit for purpose

Ofsted controversy

Known for their school inspections in England since the 90s, Ofsted has been related to lots of teacher stress, more noticeably a recent death of a primary headteacher.

The lead coroner of the case saying

“The inspection "lacked fairness, respect and sensitivity" and was at times "rude and intimidating"“

Amanda Spielman, Ofsted chief inspector at the time said:

“yes we inspect schools but we inspect nurseries colleges and children social care so wider than just schools”

Emphasizing Ofsted inspects, regulates and reports on education services aiming to raise education standards in England. Reporting to parliament, parents, carers and commissioners.

They aim to inspect schools every 4 years or 30 months, but recently they've had gaps of over 10 years due to school exemption.

“In 2012, the Department for Education made outstanding primary and secondary schools exempt from routine inspection.”

“When the exemption ended in 2020, there were 3,400 outstanding schools. We had not inspected 82% for at least 5 years, and not inspected around half of these for at least 10 years”

“17% retained their outstanding grade, 62% became good and 21% were judged requires improvement or inadequate”

The 4 main areas assessed using the Ofsted inspection framework are:

• Quality of education.

• Behaviour and attitudes.

• Personal development.

• Leadership and management.

Parents can then use the rating and report, to help choose which school to send their children to.

But as one head teacher said:

“if you put a grade on something that's all people read”

And even though 88% of schools were judged to be either good or outstanding.

A former inspector said:

“Ofsted says that nearly 90% of schools are good. That’s nonsense. That’s complete nonsense. Having seen some of the schools judged good over the last few years, I would not say [they] were good.”

And saying

“it’s giving false comfort to parents.”

Lord Knight and former Schools Minister saying Ofsted is

"not fit for purpose"

"It's created a culture of fear in our schools, and if anybody thinks that fear is the basis for sustained improvement, rather than support, then I think they've got it completely wrong."

Former Ofsted inspector Dr Martin Hanbury, adding he:

"felt his role could cause more harm than good."

However, a spokesperson for Ofsted said:

"Children only get one chance at education, and inspection helps make sure that education standards are high for all children,"

Another saying:

"Ofsted has a crucial role to play in upholding education standards and making sure children are safe in school.

Another adding:

We always want inspections to be constructive and collaborative, and in the vast majority of cases school leaders agree that they are."

However, some argue

“the one-word grading system as totally unfit for purpose”

and that

“classifications are too simplistic”

But Amanda Spielman said:

“unless government changes its policies we can't take those away”

Grading

Government uses the ratings. One teacher talking about parents picking schools said:

they often have to send them to a school that is near by them anyway but ofsted ratings play a part in that

Which is a major point of the inspection ratings. The department for education saying:

One-word inspection grades succinctly summarise independent evaluations on the quality of education, safeguarding and leadership, which helps to give parents confidence in choosing the right school for their child.

But some argue it:

“is high stakes for staff but low information for parents [...] staff feel that ofsted come in to judge and pick holes […] unfortunately ofsted isn't about coming into support schools”

With Amanda Spielman confirming that by saying:

Ofsted is only a diagnosis piece […] the responsbilities for supoort and improvement and all the funding for them go to other bodies in the system

With 18 various agencies and public bodies supporting the department for education, Ofsted being one, education support is spread across the sector.

Ofsted’s job

Ofsted is specific to England, not the UK.

Wales have inspections by Estyn, Scotland by Education Scotland, and Northern Ireland by Education and Training Inspectorate.

Ofsted have a team of inspectors that go into a school or service for a day or two, to, inspect.

So ofsted only see a snapshot of a school meaning

“anyone can get a good score if they try hard enough on the day. Its not a true reflection of what the day to day life is like” (4:26)

Normally notified the day before, a school can request to defer or cancel in exceptional circumstances, but as Amanda discussed:

“the short notice we give was actually worked through with the sector.”

Some wanting no notice, others wanting more.

During a section 5 graded inspection, Ofsted look at:

• School websites.

• Student performance.

• Parent, pupil and staff, surveys.

• Safeguarding procedures and policies.

Observe lessons, break and lunch times, and meeting with students and pupils to talk all things education.

The report gives feedback on areas for improvement from the education inspection framework.

But after Ruth Perry. Her school being one of those downgraded from Outstanding to Inadequate, The National Association of Headteachers (NAHT) have said current inspections are

"a completely unacceptable level of pressure on individual school leaders".

Inadequate schools are made sponsored academies unless, due to a recent change, all other areas are good or outstanding in which case they are inspected within 3 months to check safeguarding.

And sponsored academies, like other academies, are not run by local authorities, which can put jobs at risk.

New academy trust owners may want to replace leaders and teachers.

The inadequate rating potentially resulting in headteachers losing their jobs.

A researcher said:

“What we especially notice is that full time inspectors that were employed by ofsted were harsher” (6:55)

Going on to say:

“some are twice as likely to judge a school inadequate and less likely to rate a school outstanding” (7:30)

Highlighting some of bias with inspection, adding:

“disadvantaged schools more likely rated lower” (9:00)

Headteachers have brought up lots of issues in the past with Ofsted, who have now said they will have:

1. Improved dialogue during inspections.

2. A new opportunity to raise unresolved issues the day after an inspection.

3. New arrangements for finalising reports and formal challenges to inspection outcomes.

4. Direct escalation to the Ofsted complaints service and regular reviews of closed complaints using external representation.

But NAHT said these are

small improvements [...] fundamental reform [...] urgently needed.

Estyn in Wales have moved away from the single word grading and use a report system instead.

Similar to what the Labour party have suggested for Ofsted.

Paul Whiteman general secretary of NAHT saying:

“we welcome the proposals to end this overly simplistic approach that does more harm than good.”

The Labour party adding:

“The overall grade descriptions, such as outstanding, would be replaced by a new system after consultation with teachers and parents. […] introduce annual reviews of school safeguarding as part of its Ofsted changes, to avoid potentially long gaps between inspections.”

Something some teachers have been asking for

“I want more regular input. I want more regular advice and guidance, not less”

However, Amanda said that:

“I think it's the consequences of the inspections the thing that causes the biggest fear. [...] What one thing would they all like to change about the inspection and they all said the consequences.”

Going on to emphasize:

That is the thing we (Ofsted) have no control over”

Ruth Perry

However, Ruth's family wanted to dig deeper, but the family were told their request for legal aid had been refused.

Aid to help them with the Ofsted inquiry into Ruth's death.

On the GoFundMe page, it said

“The family hopes that the inquest will reveal the truth about the circumstances leading to Ruth’s death and the opportunities that were missed to prevent it. They hope that lessons can be learnt to prevent future such deaths from occurring.”

After the inquiry:

“The coroner's verdict was recorded as "suicide: contributed to by an Ofsted inspection carried out in November 2022."“

Before she died, Ruth wrote:

"I do not believe any child has been harmed because I have been negligent in my duties,"

Which was confirmed during the inquest.

Also writing:

“She feared house prices in the area would fall if the school was deemed inadequate and was terrified the local community would be angry.”

Showing her worries about the overall rating went beyond her school and her job, into the surrounding communities.

The inspection grades impacting teachers for various reasons, resulting in teachers feeling:

Stressful, judged, intimidated, restless, useless, not good enough, deflated, angry

Telling stories like:

“I had a student badly beaten, kerb stomped and left. The school didn’t call the ambulance that was needed because they were worried it would trigger an Ofsted inspection.”

“There were anecdotal reports of several head teacher suicides over a number of years”

Many of the points directed at inspectors with:

“no apparent knowledge of how to engage with children in that specific age group”

“no understanding of teaching children with special educational needs (SEN).”

Currently, inspectors need a qualified teacher status (QTS) and relevant undergraduate degree alongside:

• At least 5 years 'successful' teaching experience

• 2 years 'successful' and 'substantial' management experience in the relevant area

• Up-to-date' knowledge and practice in the sector

• Experience from more than one institution

Getting paid between £300 to £500 a day, over the 2-day inspection.

But with the Ruth case and NAHT comments, there is clearly disagreement with inspector behaviour, practices and overall expertise.

Future Ofsted

For context, one teacher wrote:

“There appear to be many people whose complaint about Ofsted is that headteachers may lose their jobs, and that this is stressful. Obviously, if they lose their jobs unfairly, that is a concern. But if the claim is that all headteachers deserve to keep their jobs, regardless of how things are going in their schools, I have no sympathy at all.”

Leading on to say:

“Schools should not be left to fail their pupils just to avoid upsetting the headteacher. […] An Ofsted replacement, or reformed Ofsted, could easily be worse than what we have now”

Language changes have been discussed:

"Ofsted has promised it will change the inspection handbook to make it clear to head teachers "they can share inspection outcomes with colleagues, family, medical advisers and their wider support group, before they are shared with parents".

But

"the resources available to do the job have diminished, and children and young people are not as they were in 2019."

Ofsted responded to the coroners words saying:

“After Mrs Perry’s death we made changes to the way we work, to help reduce the pressure felt by school leaders”

Closing with:

“We will continue to listen to heads and teachers, and to refine and improve the way we work, with school staff in mind.”

But the coroner has said they will share a regulation 28 report about how to prevent future deaths, said to cover 7 concerns, which is why:

“We are calling for an immediate pause to Ofsted inspections to allow time for meaningful action to be taken to address the concerns raised by the coroner in the inquest into the death of Ruth Perry.”

Sir Martyn Oliver is set to be the next chief inspector of Ofsted, but as

“the leader of an academy trust renowned for high numbers of suspensions”

And

“Oliver’s promotion comes in spite of criticism – including from Ofsted inspectors – of his trust’s record on pupil suspensions and exclusions.”

There are questions hanging over his appointment.

But as Tom Bennet, a government behaviour advisor, said:

“One possible reason for higher suspension rates might be that schools use them more as a way to prevent permanent exclusions – the theory being that if a student receives a suspension, then it gets through to them that their behaviour is unacceptable. In that scenario, we could interpret higher suspensions [and] lower exclusions as a success,”

Planned to start in January 2024 Martyn is taking on a big challenge.

Educational challenge

After the pandemic, pupil absence has been a hot topic:

“The average rate of persistent absence has doubled since the pandemic 28% of secondary school pupils are absent at least 10% of the time.”

Amanda saying:

“the importance of getting to school consistently, being there everyday [...] that has broken down [...] the loss of the understanding that consistent school attendance is essential to make the progress”

Ofsted inspecting schools is one thing, but a student’s learning environment is arguably more important with:

“only a tenth of the variation in how students progress is between schools some 90% is within schools” (12:33)

and

“we obsess about school differences but actually more important than that is the home environment” (13:00)

Ofsted inspection grading between schools seems less valuable. One parents saying:

“might not be the best school but the best school for our daughter” (27:30)

One researcher saying:

“I would still say they are of moderate use if not useful at all” (5:28)

Because

“they say nothing about why one school is better than another” (16:30)

One previous headteacher saying:

“this is not new. This has been the inception of Ofsted. […] It’s never been about improving schools it’s always been a punitive measure […] to put pressure on schools to toe the line.”

and

“its not just headteachers this impacts everyone in school”

Another previous headteacher saying:

“the pressure put on children is unbelievable”

Then when thinking about learning environments, a headteacher added:

“nobody’s going to take risks with learning at the moment […] it is a completely risk averse situation created by ofsted”

Which is why educators have said:

“we need to rethink how we examine and rethink how we teach”

because

“teachers are spending more time doing silly forms than teaching lessons”

Regulation specifics, inspector and teacher education, and assessment systems are central to this conversation.

There has been a pause of inspections until 2024. When Martyn takes over, all eyes will be on the decisions he makes.

However, with so many moving parts, there is a long journey ahead.