Testing related to work (ex. OFSTED, interviews, etc.)

dowie

dowie

dowie

Caporegime
Joined
29 Jan 2008
Posts
59,180
I saw these tweets by some American Conservative commentator yesterday and I'm not sure to what extent I agree that this is necessarily gendered behaviour but it does seem quite plausible that it's more common among females than males... this different approach to rules, objectivity etc. and then thought of it when I saw this news story re: a head teacher taking a stand against OFSTED today:



Now obviously this teacher suicide is a very sad story but I don't really see this as anything more than a bit of grandstanding, I certainly don't think that OFSTED is really to blame, we don't know that the same person wouldn't have sadly taken her life as a result of some other incident occurring.

If a pupil committed suicide because of exam stress I presume, if they worked in a secondary, they'd not seek to cancel or obstruct the taking of GCSE exams, lots of jobs have some stressful aspects, I've got relatives who work in healthcare and they get stressed around inspections, salespeople get stressed when they don't meet targets, software developers get stressed when their code fails etc.

I saw similar grievances during the tech recruitment boom only a few years ago, "women in tech" influencers rallying against objective testing during interview processes, their education certificates/degree(s) should be sufficient and the interview just a friendly chat in their mind.. how dare an interviewer ask them for some variant of FizzBuzz on a whiteboard or anything else that may bring out some insecurities or reveal weaknesses.

Anyway here is the story, interested to hear what your thoughts are GD:

www.theguardian.com

Headteacher withdraws request for public support to help stop Ofsted inspection

Initial call for protest came after family of headteacher Ruth Perry said she took her own life after news of lowest rating
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
A Berkshire headteacher who is expecting a visit from the schools watchdog Ofsted has said she will refuse inspectors entry after the death of Ruth Perry, who took her own life after a negative inspection, according to her family.

Flora Cooper, the executive headteacher at the John Rankin federation of nursery, infant and junior schools in Newbury, said Ofsted inspectors were due to visit on Tuesday morning, but wrote on Twitter that she would not allow them to enter the premises, adding that she was doing it “for #RuthPerry”.

[...]

Cooper wrote on Twitter: “I’ve just had the call. I’ve refused entry. Doing this for everyone for our school staff everywhere!” She called for outside support: “Can I please get everyone here tomorrow? Would you show up? John Rankin School, Newbury.” She added: “Please! We have to do this! I’m taking the stand!”
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Labour is proposing to make some reforms to testing but it's not clear what the "report card" is going to be, if it's going to provide some feedback and receiving negative feedback can cause stress for some people then I don't see how that changes much.
 
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The current head teacher doesn't exactly inspire confidence, some vague sentimental stuff in the bio:

DzZIb9f.png


Taking a stand against OFSTED (doesn't seem like a good idea as a head to refuse entry to government inspectors)

Then some vague pleading for people to show up at the school... I'm sure the government inspectors would love to be faced with a crowd at the gates/quite possibly an angry mob:


And now some backtracking when reality sinks in that that may not be a good idea:

 
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I've spent a number of years as a secondary school governor and been involved with two Ofsted inspections.

One team was fine, rigorous but polite.

The other team had one inspector who was basically aggressive in their lines of questioning and downright rude.

Whether or not Ofsted are inspecting the right things, they should be polite, professional and fair.

This does not seem to have been the case with the inspection that Ruth Perry was connected to.
 
dowie said:
...
Now obviously this teacher suicide is a very sad story but I don't really see this as anything more than a bit of grandstanding, I certainly don't think that OFSTED is really to blame, we don't know that the same person wouldn't have sadly taken her life as a result of some other incident occurring.
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Objective male alert ;)
I agree though. And the Newbury headteacher tweeting appears ridiculously out of her depth.
 
Hodders said:
I've spent a number of years as a secondary school governor and been involved with two Ofsted inspections.

One team was fine, rigorous but polite.

The other team had one inspector who was basically aggressive in their lines of questioning and downright rude.

Whether or not Ofsted are inspecting the right things, they should be polite, professional and fair.

This does not seem to have been the case with the inspection that Ruth Perry was connected to.
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First of all I have to say Ofsted inspections are essential and a Headteacher being allowed to not allow them entity is potentially very dangerous. Having been though many Ofsted's of every type I can say the function Ofsted perform is essential they must have full access. There are different types of inspection. Generally speaking if you are doing your job ok or better and Ofsted come in expecting you to be good or outstanding doing a section 8 inspection there is stress but a reasonable level of stress.

Now a section 5 inspection its hard to get across just how stressful those can be and if it turns into Special Measures ongoing stress..... I have mixed feelings about Ofsted inspections as they are essential but the stress levels in the worse types of section 5 inspections are beyond reasonable levels and do break people. I have seen people working till 4am in the morning to be at work 8am the next day. People breaking down crying under the stress of losing there jobs and extreme scrutiny not just the people rubbish at there jobs but the good ones as well. Reading about a section 5 inspection and Special Measures doesn't really get across what the actually experience is like.

Its not just the inspection week either its the months or year leading up into it and the aftermath and often follow up inspection. You get all the high levels of stress, scrutiny and expectations of work leading up into the inspection, then the inspection which can be hell then the stress doesn't go away after if the inspection goes badly. This doesn't fall completely on Ofsted. A lot of it comes down to the sites local leadership and how they handle it.

Until you have experienced a full section 5 inspection you cannot really understand just how stressful they can get and the build up lead into the inspection. Its not everything's normal, you get the call, 1 week of stress, then back to normal. It is said two of the most stressful things in life are getting married and moving house well those are a peace of cake compared to the worst section 5 inspections. I would even say I would rather move house in the same day as getting married and repeat that multiple times a month to even remotely get near the stress levels of the worst section 5 inspections. As I started though, inspections are essential and must be allowed.
 
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OFSTED itself is a bit of a flawed system. They are supposedly on 3 year cycles for inspections, so it can end up nearly 6 years between them. So to make an assessment on the entire working of the setting based on 1 days assessment, it's really influenced by who the inspector is and if they like or understand your setting or not. As there is no standard on the pedagogy employed, that's down to each setting and their own ideology.

What would probably be better is to devolve this assessment down to the LA, as they are the ones working closely with each setting on an ongoing daily/weekly basis, so know their methods and know as they go along what's working and what isnt. That way you can have a form of continual assessment, with help and intervention given to improve areas that are needed at the time, rather than just a limited grade being given every few years.
 
At least from what I've seen there isn't enough information on the teacher suicide/Ofsted thing, whether there was a decline in standards at the school or an unfair appraisal by Ofsted, etc.

EDIT: From just published article https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-65021154

The systems schools have to keep children safe have come under particular scrutiny, and that's what led to Caversham Primary School being downgraded despite otherwise good standards.

There is also a bigger debate about whether single grades for schools make sense, with the Labour party saying it would move to a system of report cards.
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Makes more sense and definitely agree with the last bit.
 
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Make them right, Ofsted has been behind and had some ****** inspectors for years.
Same in any testing/regulatory work, you'll get some lovely testers/examiners/auditors who know whats right and wrong, but can have a decent approach about it.
Its the one's that go in thinking they are Judge Dredd and have to be brutal or get a kick out of being a dick are the problem. There is being a hard worker and being true to your job and requirements, but from numerous first hand experiences, there is no requirement to be an outrageous dick at the same time.
 
I liken an Ofsted inspection to an MOT for a car. If your car has been maintained and is running well it should sail through the MOT. Same with a school. Do what you're supposed to do and the inspection will confirm you're good.

That said, I would change the system and offer a wider range of grades for each area (as mentioned above) rather than just 1 headline grabbing grade.
 
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john_smith said:
I liken an Ofsted inspection to an MOT for a car. If your car has been maintained and is running well it should sail through the MOT. Same with a school. Do what you're supposed to do and the inspection will confirm you're good.

That said, I would change the system and offer a wider range of grades for each area (as mentioned above) rather than just 1 headline grabbing grade.
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It doesn't quite work like that though. There isn't a "checklist" to work through.

If you read the Ofsted report for this school, students are well behaved, doing well in their subjects but the school is judged to be inadequate.

My issue with Ofsted is that they always come with a preset agenda in my experience and then look for "evidence" to back up their assumptions. You can easily make any school Outstanding or Inadequate if you wanted to, very easily. They are often also only in for 2 days so how can you understand the school and the pupils and staff in that time?
 
Chuk_Chuk said:
It has been a while but when I was in school I feel like they were in for the whole week. Was that changed at some point?
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I've worked in schools for 14 years and never known a week long Ofsted inspection. If things don't go right they can stay for an additional day if they want to collect more evidence.
 
Kyle009 said:
I've worked in schools for 14 years and never known a week long Ofsted inspection. If things don't go right they can stay for an additional day if they want to collect more evidence.
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14 years puts your start at the tail end of my mandatory schooling years :D

I was thinking before then but now I wonder if it was just the teachers try to get us to behave for longer
 
I work in the education sector.....like the police, NHS, transport it's another part of the country in crisis. It's been in decline for years.

The idea of Ofsted is sound, as are all the other rules/regulations/certificates you have to have these days. The issue is with funding. In order to achieve what you are being asked costs money, yet there is no money. It's become something of a joke, no wonder everyone is leaving, staff turnover 25%.

Ofsted, we are ensuring you are operating at a high standard.............staff turnover 25%, nobody wants to work in education anymore lol well done!
 
Chuk_Chuk said:
It has been a while but when I was in school I feel like they were in for the whole week. Was that changed at some point?
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They were definitely in for the best part of a week when I was at school - that would have been the best part of 30 years ago though.

Kyle009 said:
If you read the Ofsted report for this school, students are well behaved, doing well in their subjects but the school is judged to be inadequate.
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That is the problem with a single grading like that - they were it seems falling down badly in one area despite being top notch in most of the others - as above potentially comes down to budget but still.

Reminds me a bit of a school a family friend used to own - while they were working there it was highly rated but after they sold it the place went downhill a lot and Ofsted deservedly rated them poorly to a lot of complaints about how it was "unfair" "because they'd been highly rated for years"...
 
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Never got to witness an Ofsted inspection personally. I was always fortunate enough to win the schools "most potential" award which meant I went to Alton Towers the day of the inspection; along with some of my friends.
 
And anyway, under this government we have a record of schools leaving Special Measures - so something must be going on that means we are doing exponentially better than before (and absolutely nothing to do with deleting history by becoming an academy).
 
Bro do you even Judge Judy.

Of course this is a load of tosh, information selectively chosen and disregarded to suit someone's "I wonder if..." nonsense.

It's Twitter though, as soon as I see something's on Twitter I instantly default to "lol probably retards" and move on with life.
 
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