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Back off Ofsted!

The NUT has been flooded with letters and emails from members concerned about the new Ofsted inspection framework – many with shocking stories about how it has been unfairly applied at their school. Here we look at the problems and explain what the union is doing to address them.

In September 2009, Ofsted introduced a new framework for education inspections. Within weeks, NUT divisions and regional offices noticed a significant increase in casework from members concerned that they or their schools had been unfairly treated in the new-style inspections.
To assess the scale of the problem, the NUT put out a call for members to share their experiences. Within a week hundreds had responded, many reporting serious concerns about both the new inspection arrangements and the way inspections had been conducted in their own school.

Background

Announcing details of the new Ofsted framework last summer, chief inspector Christine Gilbert said there would be “a tougher test on attainment” and that it would “be harder for a school to be rated good or outstanding”. Her comments raised alarm among many in the education world, who feared the system would unfairly penalise schools serving deprived areas or working in challenging circumstances. NUT general secretary Christine Blower said at the time: “Many in the profession will suspect that the government has pressured Ofsted into abandoning the principle of taking into account the profile of the school community when making its final judgement, to support its stance of being tough on failing schools.”

A couple of months into the new framework, critics’ fears seemed to have been entirely justified. The NUT received reports of schools failing inspections for petty reasons, such as having too low a perimeter fence or not immediately asking to see the inspector’s Criminal Records Bureau check form. Schools previously deemed outstanding were told they could not be graded higher than satisfactory because their SATs or GCSE results didn’t meet arbitrary minimum standards set by the government.

“There is a strong perception that inspectors are attempting to over emphasise issues or ‘catch schools out’ on safeguarding issues in particular. Trivial issues are being used to downgrade schools and inspectors are acting to a rigid formula which often takes no account of evidence,” wrote Christine Blower in an article in The Independent in November.

Ofsted responds

In response to the wave of protests about inspections, Ofsted held a meeting with teacher organisations on 17 December 2009. Christine Blower urged Ofsted to adopt immediate measures to reduce the pressures on schools.

Rejecting Ofsted’s description of teacher complaints being based on myths, Christine urged the inspectorate to issue new guidance on the attainment and safeguarding aspects of the new framework. She also urged that the 20-day window for inspection visits to schools deemed ‘satisfactory’, which has been causing intolerable strain on teachers, should be dropped in favour of a two- to three-day notice period. The other teacher organisations supported Christine’s proposals.

In reply, Ofsted said that:
• schools deemed satisfactory in safeguarding would not automatically have their overall judgements reduced to that level
• the 20-day notice period would be reviewed.
• the union could forward unresolved complaints about the behaviour and judgement of inspectors directly to a named contact at Ofsted.

As a result of the meeting, the union immediately sent an NUT News to schools urging members to forward any complaints to their regional offices so they could be taken up with Ofsted.

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