Ofsted inspections: When will they get it right?

Have you faced an Ofsted inspection this term? Or are you, like many others, playing the waiting game? Knowing you’re due for an inspection and having to manage that weekly sense of dread that ‘the phone call’ will come. In this post, former DH Steph Caswell shares her opinion on how Ofsted have handled the post-COVID crisis and why they seem to keep continually getting it wrong. 

Ofsted and absence

Last week I received my son’s autumn term report - always something I receive with a sense of trepidation. Is he making progress? What are his learning behaviours like? Is he still, as his Y5 teacher once said, a class clown? 

Panic over, no clown antics made an appearance, but my eye was drawn to another issue. His attendance. Now, being a former Deputy Head, attendance is something I know a lot about - particularly the statistics around loss of learning. As a result, the rule in our house has always been that unless you’ve got a temperature or something’s exploding out of an orifice, you’re going in - how very 1980s.

On Beau’s report was a box, outlined in red, pointing to the fact his attendance was lower than expected. His attendance ‘crime’? Having 10 days off with COVID. 

And it got me thinking, how could a school raise this as an issue when we’re told to isolate for 10 days if we have COVID? How could they send a warning about something we’re told is the law? And then it hit me. 

It’s not the schools. It’s Ofsted. 

But that’s no surprise, right? From the many tweets I’ve seen and reports I’ve read in newspapers recently, Ofsted is handling this post-pandemic situation like a toddler throwing their toys out the pram. Whether it’s absence rates or progress, they’re being relentless in their approach - demanding that schools snap back into shape like one of those celebrities you see fitting into their pre-pregnancy jeans three days after giving birth. 

And, for many schools, snapping back into shape just isn’t a simple process. 

Resignations on the rise

Last week, I saw a particularly sad tweet from a headteacher who’d had a recent Ofsted inspection. Despite asking to defer the inspection due to a close family bereavement and the fact she had five staff members off with COVID, they refused and did the inspection anyway. 

And the scary thing is she isn’t alone in being treated appallingly by an Ofsted team. An article in the Guardian recently echoed her sentiments, with a number of headteachers resigning over the stress of trying to build things back up after the pandemic.

One reported: 

“Since the pandemic, attendance has been poor and there has been a 40% increase in referrals to social care. Criminal child exploitation, mental health problems, children going missing and substance misuse problems have all “exploded”. Staff absences have rocketed because of Covid and few supply teachers are available. Some staff are on long-term leave and those who are still working say they are exhausted.”

All of this is happening and yet Ofsted teams are adopting a ruthless approach to inspections, seemingly unable - or unwilling - to listen to the real problems schools are facing. 

Now don’t get me wrong, children should be getting the best education possible, but not like this. Not at the cost of brilliant school leaders and teachers finding resignation the only option. No one has ever had to bounce back from a pandemic before, but rather than trying to listen and understand the plight of schools, Ofsted is simply putting its hands over its ears and pretending it can’t hear them.

How do we move forward? 

I’d love to say I had an answer, but until Nadim Zahawi and his team of inspectors really start listening to schools, nothing will change. 

The only thing teachers and school leaders can do is keep talking about it. Raising the issues and shouting loudly about the problems they’re facing. But I know it’s not as easy as that. Banging the drum requires energy and time - something you’re in short supply of. 

Keep talking to each other though. Find your support network and lean on each other over the coming weeks and months. Communication has never been more important. Build a team that has one another’s backs so that when Ofsted do come, you can stick together and brace for impact. 

If you’d like some support to boost your team’s mental health and wellbeing, we’ve got some resources on our Free Stuff page to help you.