OFSTED

Is there a word¹ more likely to cause stress and panic amongst teachers than OFSTED? We get a phone call, up to 48 hours before arrival and then they’re in, looking at everything and anything they want. Then they disapper, and providing everything is okay, they disappear for three years. They are switiching to a new framework now, which means apparently, fewer inspections right now and none in the week before Christmas². This is only for 2025, just in case I just got anyone’s hopes up.

See, OFSTED are the bad guys of education, the Empire’s stormtroopers, the Uruk-Hai of the Education department, the Klingons and any other number of classic villains. They shouldn’t be, really, genuinely, shouldn’t be, but they are.

For me, any inspection of an education establishment should focus on what you are doing right, and then some advice as to what you can do better. You rarely get either, and have to read through paragraphs of bland statements to find the nuggets of good practice. Of course, those nuggets will then be plastered on posters and adverts forever.

What actually happens is everyone flies into a state of panic. Is this good enough? Am I failing my students? What about our provision for SEND pupils? What about our GCSE results for the most disadvantaged? What about our attendance rates?

These are all valid questions, of course, and the people who worry most about them are the ones who should worry least. I’ve seen great teachers reduced to gibbering wrecks when OFSTED swoop³ into the room and I’ve seen poor teachers pull it out of the bag. Inspectors see multiple lessons these days, and are usually pre-informed as to weak areas, so are hard to fool. This is a good thing, but the stress surrounding OFSTED is not.

I’ve never worked in a school that didn’t know where it needed to improve – even back in the 90s, when you had nearly six months warning for OFSTED⁴. I have worked in places where they don’t know how to get there, or need help. This is actually where inspections could actually help – OFSTED are a huge resource that could help schools to improve.

Think about it. This school is brilliant at working with high attainers – here’s their contact details. We can organise an introduction and cover the cost for any meeting. This school has issues with parental engagement, who can help? I can think of hundreds of different scenarios here, but OFSTED could really be central to all that and could really help drive improvement across all education establishments in the country.

Instead, what we currently have (and I am writing this before any effects of the new framework are known) are things like Art and Music being relegated to third world status as they’re not part of the EBacc. This is nonsense, as I’m currently listening to music as I write this⁵, am surrounded by art and am a writer. The Arts are as equally important to a child’s growth as English and Maths. Anyone suggesting otherwise is a fool⁶.

During my most recent inspection (and hopefully last ever!), I was teaching a group of students who were, shall we kindly say challenging⁷, and the inspector walked in to promptly sit next to the most challenging student in the room. After two minutes, the inspector asked me to step outside – cue panic on my behalf. This was not going to be good. The class were coded as ‘Band1’, and he had incorrectly assumed they were a top-set. After a brief chat, he went on his way happy I was doing everything I could to support the students. But what would have happened if he hadn’t spoken with me? I dread to think.

I firmly believe education should be about care, warmth and encouragement. This is what we want for our children. It’s what we remember in teachers we respected. Why don’t we apply it to staff? What is wrong with us?

None of this comes close to addressing the massive inequality of funding that currently exists in the UK, which leads to a spiral of underachievement in schools in our most deprived areas. OFSTED really should be a supportive organisation. Schools shouldn’t fear a visit, they should be looking forward to it.

Sadly that is not currently the case.

Man, no funny stories this week. I meant to tell you about the teacher who forgot his trousers the day OFSTED arrived⁸. Or when I managed to nick the inspectors timetable for the day, so everyone knew when he was coming to their lesson⁹. Or when two inspectors had a stand up row at the start of my lesson as they both turned up and both thought they should be there¹⁰.

Until next time.

1. Technically five letters, but no-one calls it the Office For Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills. Ever. ↩︎
2. Why would you inspect a school in the week before Christmas? Stupid, unless you have a fetish for carols, Christmas jumpers and films. ↩︎
3. Even worse than the Dementor style SLT. ↩︎
4. Yes, really. You can imagine what that six months was like. ↩︎
5. The Stone Roses and Primal Scream. RIP Mani x ↩︎
6. Other, harsher, terms are available. ↩︎
7. It was like the opening of the Muppets Show. ↩︎
8. He came in by motorbike and had to spend the day in his leathers…. ↩︎
9. Didn’t make much difference to be fair. ↩︎
10. Of course, the criticism of the lesson was it was slow to start…. ↩︎