Time for Ofsted to reinvent itself? #PCNO
“Raising standards, improving lives.” The tagline of Ofsted (the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills) is a little over-reaching. You don’t raise standards just by inspecting. Telling people what you think doesn’t make things better. Nor is it work that directly improves lives. (For many school staff, it has the opposite effect, at least in the short term.) I suppose we live in a society that never rests with the straight-forward and the literal. Ofsted: Telling others to do better, expecting this to improve children’s lives.
I had good Ofsted experience once and I know many others have too. I know one brilliant inspector and I’ve collected a few stories of schools that have come out stronger and better as a result of poor Ofsted reports back in the 1990s. Fiona Millar’s account as a governor of a primary school that had lost its way is especially powerful. We did have schools that were coasting, I can’t help thinking, and a bit of Ofsted pressure has done a bit of good at times. We still have a few, I’m sure. But coasting schools aren’t really anywhere near the biggest problem facing education now. Those old days of arriving at a school to shake things up are done. It isn’t doing much good now to tell a school it requires improvement. And the small teams that come in for a day or two face too much of a challenge to hit the nail on the head (as if there were ever a nail in any case…)
Ofsted needs to shift. It needs to identify what its team can do to contribute to education most and relocate to this new responsibility. It arrives at a school with eyes that are both fresh and experienced, with a special kind of knowledge from visiting schools across the country, and the newness of seeing a school for the first time. In this position, having pushed standards, results, curriculum, outcomes for decades-and having changed the entire educational environment of our society as a result-the most important things they can ask right now, in a coronavirus world, is whether this is a good place to work and a safe and happy place to be.
The things Ofsted have done in the past-for good and bad-are no longer relevant. They are holding on to this past by inspecting schools as if the pandemic never happened. The prevailing mindset towards education of those in government is one of “catch up”, a mindset that is dripping down from the rafters and one that Ofsted is helping to smear across the educational landscape. But catch-up is a flawed concept of getting back to a counterfactual world that no longer exists. The pandemic has changed things, and Ofsted needs to catch up with the change.
Ofsted is one step behind schools, FE colleges, universities and early years settings because its inspectors, on the whole, have not been on the frontlines of education during the pandemic. So what can it contribute in these times? The old rules don’t seem relevant or appropriate and can be packed away. Perhaps their time will come again. What matters in education is that educators come together to support children and young people (and their families) as they find their way in this world. The people with the real, important knowledge are those on the frontlines and this real knowledge needs to be respected. There is nothing more important for Ofsted to investigate right now than whether these key workers are okay. Ofsted is in a good position to find out whether school leadership teams are supportive of staff, whether headteachers have places to go for advice and support, and what the Department of Education could do to get behind its public workers. Ofsted need only concentrate on wellbeing, safeguarding and mental health, of students and staff, asking questions such as:
- How is staff wellbeing in each department, faculty, nook and cranny of this school?
- How high is staff turnover and what is causing them to leave?
- Where do the senior leadership derive their support and strength from?
- Is safeguarding done well here?
- Is child mental health a top priority?
New Ofsted: finding out about the wellbeing, mental health and safeguarding of staff and students. Only.