Ofsted Review/ Ruth Perry’s Tragic Death

[nik1231]

I was wondering what people’s thought were on Ofsted review/ideas for going forward to improve Ofsted and reduce teacher pressure as a result of Ruth tragically taking her life due to an inadequate grading. I also thought their comment about a new headteacher due to the death of the Hy in post was particularly tactless on the report.

For me, Ofsted should be supportive rather than a judgement and it’s just not that.

 

[Wednesday Break My Heart]

Two of my sisters are teachers and they give their jobs everything and more. OFSTED are nothing more than a gang of people who couldn’t hack teaching themselves and went into the inspectorate to tell everyone else what to do. Obviously schools need to be held to a standard, but they do to an absolute needless extreme and have got away with bullying for far too long. Every teacher I know has awful mental health and OFSTED have a lot to answer for in that regard.

RIP Ruth, you gave your life to education, you should not have been forced to give it your death too.

 

[Naataaliiee]

As a teacher myself, I believe schools need to be held accountable and to a certain standard, however the current Ofsted system is totally messed up and needs a huge overhaul. Inspections are not helpful to staff nor students and the irony of spending time out of class to get ‘Ofsted ready’ is ridiculous - I’d rather spend more time in class, teaching well, than ensuring data/folders are up to date, or having ‘Ofsted’ training which is causes extremely bad mental health, in preparation for a review. I want to teach children what’s important, have fun and encourage a love of learning, NOT spend time asking 7 year olds to complete mundane tasks as it’s ‘what Ofsted will like to see’.
The fear that the term ‘Ofsted’ itself brings upon staff is enough to make any sane-minded people question the system and it’s ethics. Staff morale - both teaching and non-teaching staff- is at an all time low and I genuinely worry for the future of schools if we continue with this current, unneeded and unhealthy method of judging schools and professionals. We were trusted through Covid (obviously we couldn’t put the dear inspectors at risk, though schools were safe for us…..) so why not now?
What happened to Ruth is so upsetting and distressing, and I fear there will be more similar stories if we don’t take a serious look at the ways of monitoring our education system.

 

[Notworthy]

If Ofsted is so tough on teachers, try running a restaurant and having the food hygiene people show up with absolutely no notice at all. No option to delay it etc. I'm sure no one would want food hygiene ratings to stop because it's detrimental to the restaurant owners heath and please do not tell me it's different, it's bloody stressful and can absolutely ruin a restaurant.

 

[Naataaliiee]

If Ofsted is so tough on teachers, try running a restaurant and having the food hygiene people show up with absolutely no notice at all. No option to delay it etc. I'm sure no one would want food hygiene ratings to stop because it's detrimental to the restaurant owners heath and please do not tell me it's different, it's bloody stressful and can absolutely ruin a restaurant.

There are many procedures like this that, quite frankly, need an overhaul and could be carried out in a better way. It doesn’t mean that none of them can change because there’s not talk of others changing. Ofsted cannot be delayed either and to be honest, the 12/18 hours advance notice time is pointless as there’s very little you can do in the time between the call and when they arrive. I’d rather no notice as it would avoid un needed stress the evening before!

 

[elderflowerrose]

It is an absolute tragedy and I feel so sorry for the family.

With that being said, I do think some aspects are reactionary and fuelled by grief and sadness (understandable) rather than an actual pragmatic desire for change. Being realistic here, the government - any government - will never turn around and state that schools and childcare providers can self govern, there will always be something there which does the job of OFSTED, even if it takes on another name or form.

I do think OFSTED needs to be reformed, but the form this takes should not be springboarding off grief and pain. That’s never going to end well.

 

[ikayimonoko]

I think there are some unfair comments here. A huge amount of school inspectors ARE teachers and inspect part-time.

The system is not perfect, but much of the hype around inspection and 'getting Ofsted ready' is driven from senior leaders. Ofsted have been going on for years about not preparing for inspection and just doing what you would normally do. I think a lot of SLT use the threat to pile work/pressure on.

 

[Lynn’ssnazzycardigan]

Thought I would give a bump to the thread as it’s the inquest into Ruth Perry’s death in the news at the minute. I’m not a teacher but I have been in nursing jobs during CQC inspections so I know the pressure involved and how much is at stake based on how your unit presents in that small snapshot of time.

 

[Ensay]

My Dad was in teaching prior to retiring and he used to get incredibly stressed out by Ofsted inspections and he was normally a laid back person.

He always did a good job but he hated how certain things were outside his control (eg student involvement/comments) but could be used against him and he said that it was hard to judge teaching in such a small window. He also commented that the demeanour of the inspectors was judgemental - he'd say they appeared to look down their noses at teachers, which I think links in with how many teachers don't see them as supportive.

Don't get me wrong: I'm not suggesting inspections shouldn't take place, as it's obviously important to ensure good quality, but I think there has to be a better way of doing it.