Ofsted | Schools Week

Super heroes don’t solve problems, they punch people

Watching Nicky Morgan getting beaten up by her own party over forced academy conversions, I suddenly realised the fatal flaw of her plan is not so much money, but the fact it relies on imaginary, magical people. The idea of every school becoming an academy is that headteachers can do it all. They can train […]

‘Teachers are being treated like crash test dummies’

Levels created a misleading set of criteria from which teachers taught in limiting ways. But people were too optimistic as a landscape with “standards” looks anything but rosy These are the worst times I have known in education. Too many people stirring the education pot have made for a turbulent few years, full of disorientation […]

‘Can inspectors rate a school in 20 minutes?’

Teachers and school leaders deserve more than a quick judgment from Ofsted teams. Inspectors should instead make positive and self-aware efforts to challenge and look beyond those instant impressions, says Gerald Haigh. Can HMI tell almost as soon as they arrive at a school just how good (or, presumably, bad) it is? That’s certainly the […]

White Paper: ‘Control freakery to the left of me, neglect to the right’

Education Excellence Everywhere is the title of the government’s education White Paper published today. Although it lacks the excitement promised by Enid Blyton’s The Naughtiest Girl in the School, there are similarities. Nicky Morgan’s introduction states that in 2010 the Conservatives “inherited an education system where one in three young people left primary school unable […]

White Paper: Why should Ofsted inspect at all?

Educational Excellence Everywhere is full of fascinating, contentious and highly problematic proposals on a whole range of issues. Here, I focus on one apparently minor proposal which if carried to its logical conclusion could mean the end of visit-based school inspection. The White Paper reports that “Ofsted will consult on removing the separate graded judgments […]

A former minister’s view: thoughts on the school-led system

Five areas need to be given priority if schools-led system is to become a reality English schools have a large measure of autonomy compared with many other countries. But this is qualified by some of the most important determinants of what happens in schools sitting with the Department for Education. The control of the curriculum, […]

Is having a go at northern schools part of Michael Wilshaw’s job description?

Ofsted chief Sir Michael Wilshaw yesterday criticised schools in the north west – but was he within his remit to do so? I obsess about a few things. Clean and dry kitchen worktops, how to perfectly poach an egg (I’m a cling-film strategy guy and don’t mind split infinitives) and, more recently, brilliant job […]

‘Can I fail Ofsted if a child I teach goes to fight in Syria?’

Despite Ofsted’s changes to the framework, we are already doing what we can – and how is this new duty imposed on us any different to what went before? This week I received more than 50 emails trying to sell me things for our school – 15 of them related to radicalisation, extremism or the […]

Let’s give Ofsted’s short inspections two cheers (for now)

The lighter-touch regime is a welcome move, but why is the chief inspector still obsessing over pupils being well behaved and showing respect when finding after finding shows this is the norm in the vast majority of schools? Sir Michael Wilshaw, Ofsted’s chief inspector is right to point out that since September 2015 it has […]