Give them a break !

Because Ofsted have to justify their existence.
One of our local pre-schools was deservedly graded Outstanding during one inspection cycle.
The next time round their inspection took place on the second day of the autumn term.
They were downgraded because they "didn't have sufficient feedback from parents..."
Not all of the children were even attending yet as they operate a staggered start to settle the new three year olds in.
Ofsted don't care and don't make any allowances.

The two teachers in my family are not fans of Ofsted. They say that they make things more stressful for already overworked and stressed staff.
My D told me that an excellent teacher had been marked down by Ofsted on the basis of one 50 minute lesson that they sat in on. She said the class she had were the worst in the college and were awful for all the teachers. Ofsted weren't interested in the excellent exam results from her other classes.

Safeguarding and Fire Safety are the two main issues which can severely downgrade a school or even fail it.

Safeguarding is not box ticking. If they are inadequate with regard to safeguarding the issue is not Ofsted.

Through my job I go into numerous schools and early years provision. It is often impossible to tell the difference between good and outstanding, I have never yet been in a setting deemed inadequate where I was surprised.

How else are standards maintained? The Ofsted rating gives parents an idea of quality of education which I would have thought was a good thing.

I agree GSM and I say this as someone whose service was inspected by Ofsted and other incarnations of inspector ate before Ofsted. I often got good with outstanding features but never outstanding (the gits ) I still understand the need for Ofsted.

There is a lot of criticism of Ofsted and the tick box culture, some saying it does more harm than good.
My D works in a college constantly graded excellent. When Ofsted come in they cause extra work, chaos and stress.
There does need to be standards but the tick box method may not be the best.

Josieann

Safeguarding and Fire Safety are the two main issues which can severely downgrade a school or even fail it.

I would agree with this when I taught,unkown a perimeter fence had been broken so it would act as a gate by local vandals.
We were marked down, never mind if the children were happy, making progress and it had only happened the night before.

I wanted the people in my care to have someone other than myself taking a look at standards, I thought they deserved that much.

DH is on an inspection at the moment. The last thing his team wants to do is to fail a school. A teacher on GN was horrified when I mentioned that some inspectors are actually keen to advise and support the school in a helpful manner. Not all inspectors are monsters or ticking boxes machines, though yes, as several have said here, standards do have to be met. I'm sure my DH would give you top marks Galaxy, he isn't a git!!

I always found them really helpful Josieaa and their grading was usually where I would have graded the service. I found it a useful tool in negotiating resources/changes with senior management 'well Ofsted says this needs to happen'.

They would have marked me down on my spelling of your name though

No worries!

The real issue here is what are high standards .... are they about box-ticking, or about the rounded development of each child?

I am a school governor - as long as you have a Head who can tick all the boxes, then you will get outstanding. The boxes that need ticking have nothing to do with your child's well-being - they are just statistics that the government can use to say that they are doing something about education.

There is general agreement in education circles that OfSted has been getting it wrong and quite simply looking at the wrong things.

For the sake of OfSted, teachers are burdened with unnecessary box ticking and target setting, much of which repeats itself. Clearly some of it is necessary, but teachers know which of their pupils are shining, which are struggling and which are just ticking along OK. And they adjust their teaching accordingly.

Schools with tiny classes in rural areas are in a farcical situation - 2 children with special needs in a year of 6 pupils .... the stats reveal that one third of the children are not up to "expectations" - surprise surprise!

It is important that schools are kept up to scratch with safeguarding and buildings safety. No-one has any argument with that. The problem lies in the over-emphasis on the collection of statistics - it truly is totally out of hand, to the detriment of both staff and pupils.

Time was when there where school inspectors who also had the role of advisors (and had resources to back this up) so were there to help schools when they had problems - they had a positive role as well as a judging role.

I have been through 2 OfSteds and they were so stressful for everyone - teachers, governors, pupils. And we had to argue ourselves blue in the face about the irrelevance of the statistics to a rural school with so few pupils, and with a very high level of special needs pupils. Were they remotely interested in the massive and broad curriculum enrichment programme, the wonderful pastoral care, the individual attention that made sure that every child of whatever ability had their own programme that meets their needs, the opportunities that every child had (academically, socially - as part of the local community - musically, sports - just everything). As an example, how many tiny primary schools are there where every child in every class, from pre-school up, plays music for at least 15 minutes at the start, where they all learn to read music, where they all learn an instrument? - and the sport is at a same level.

I am told that OfSted are now changing their criteria - I have yet to be part of an inspection under the new rules and hope very much that some common sense will have been injected into the process - how anyone could possibly have thought that the system that has been present over the last years made any sense at all is beyond me and many others. Maybe it made sense to Michael Gove - but what does he know about education?

I hope the new rules are an improvement, because up till now the things that OfSted concerned themselves with are not the things that parents are looking for in a school.

Try looking up a thread about this on Mumsnet and you will hear what parents think. Basically they ignore the OfSted report and go to the school and find out for themselves about the things that really matter,

You make a good point about small schools trisher. They have to do everything in miniature in terms of tick boxes that the bigger schools do, without the same manpower and resources. And yet they often go above and beyond in terms of pastoral care and value added teaching not necessarily on the curriculum.

Its my understanding that schools rated outstandng dont have another inspection for years. Ergo my gc school. I cant believe that can be right.

I have seen the threads on MN and I think they are a bit more nuanced than that. I too am a school governor, so have been through Ofsted inspections in that capacity as well, I think anyone ignoring the inadequate judgements that I have seen through my work would be making a mistake.

Indeed - inadequate judgements are usually about the very basics - safeguarding in all its aspects.

Parents do indeed care about these things - they want their children to be safe - but not about the things that have been a focus for OfSted for so long. I can only hope that their new protocols will concentrate on the things that matter.

Ofsted inspections, jumping through hoops whether you are a good school or not. Two schools that i know of were told to improve, had their heads removed. The 'heads' then turned up as Ofsted inspectors!

Yes, always find out for yourselves. It is easy to see the Ofsted inspection reports. You will be surprised at what can put a school under 'needs improvement'. You may well decide that, is the school you wish your child to attend.

My point is really the timing. All the extra work and admin for the pandemic etc
However I have since had some inside information and it seems the leadership knew they had some failings in the safeguarding sphere and failed to address them. So not the classroom teachers …hooray !
It honestly will not affect parents choosing this school, there are several good secondary schools in the town but this and one other will never be short of students !

I have seen the threads on MN and I think they are a bit more nuanced than that.

I have to say that this was not how I read the thread that I saw. Most posters were clear that the OfSted ratings were not what influenced their choices. It is a shame in one way, as it may be that OfSted might have had something very important to say about the children's safety and well-being; but parents are so used to the idea of OfSted measuring the wrong things about a school that the baby goes out with the bath water.

Hopefully the new OfSted rules will bring back some sanity to the whole business.