Spot the error: Ofsted under fire for blunder

St Mary’s Church of England Primary School, in Pulborough, was penalised because students’ handwriting in English books was not as neat as handwriting on wall displays.

Pupils’ pride in their work was also criticised with inspectors stating they were not always careful in the way they presented their work, before repeating the word “is” the very next sentence. Peter Kyle, chair of governors at Brighton Aldridge Community Academy, said the clanger was unbelievable while Paul Shellard, the NUT Brighton and Hove divisional secretary, thought the mistake was ironic. He said: “We support a positive inspection system, not a nitpicking one focussing on negatives.”

An Ofsted spokeswoman said: “While every effort is made to ensure our reports are of the highest standard, occasionally errors are made, as in this case.

“We apologise for this and will amend the report accordingly.”

It is the most recent in a string of controversial findings from inspectors.

Two weeks ago Annecy Primary School, in Seaford, was criticised because children as young as five did not have enough of a grip on the meaning of democracy.

In February, K-BIS Theatre School, Cumberland Road, Brighton, was rapped because children did not spend enough time playing outdoors.

A month earlier, Brighton Aldridge Community Academy lodged an official complaint after the school was marked down because inspectors overheard the derogatory use of the word “gay”.

The reports have led Mr Shellard to claim Ofsted are more concerned about finding something to mark a school down for than actually driving the standard of education up.

He added: “With the example of the handwriting – of course exercise books are not going to be as neat as wall displays because that represents students’ best work or it’s been specifically designed to go on display.

“That’s in primary schools and secondary schools.

“Exercise books are for putting ideas down, working on something and redrafting, diagrams and showing progress.”

David Harris, lead inspector, visited the school in March. He said: “Although pupils are proud of what they do, they are not always careful in the way they present their work. Pupils’ work in books is is (sic) sometimes untidy and difficult for others to read.

“The quality of pupils’ handwriting is too variable.

“Pupils produce good quality work for displays around the school, but they do not use the same good quality handwriting when working in books, including in their English books.”

But Alyson Heath, headteacher at St Mary’s Church of England School, said she was happy with the result despite the school falling from the top-level outstanding grading to good.

‘Inspectors not fit for purpose’

Gareth Davies
narrative

IT’S no secret Ofsted has come in for its fair share of flack in recent years, but since the turn of the year it seems to be even more prominent.

The things inspectors are picking up on, although brilliant for newspapers, are bizarre for outsiders and must be torture for those inside schools.
 

It has led the divisional secretary of Brighton and Hove’s NUT to claim the government watchdog is “not fit for purpose”.
 

Strong words, but the evidence is mounting.
 

Mr Shellard said: “Ofsted are not fit for purpose. Schools would rather work with the local authorities to mark judgement themselves and work in partnership with them.
 

“And there is plenty of evidence to support that.
 

“I think people feel Ofsted come in and just get a snapshot of what a school is like and they just don’t get an overall feel for how the school performs on a day-to-day basis.
 

“Ofsted come in and nitpick about irrelevant things rather than looking for the positive things that are going on.”
 

But despite the criticisms, Ofsted remains defiant.
 

A spokeswoman said: “Parents who rely on Ofsted judgements expect our reports to reflect accurately on what they find in schools and it is our duty to look in detail at the quality of education children are receiving.
 

“Ofsted inspectors make judgements that are rooted firmly in the evidence found within a school and in accordance with our inspection frameworks.
 

“Inspectors assess whether children are receiving a high standard of education, including being prepared for life in modern Britain, in line with guidance published by the Department for Education.
 

“Rather than declining, the percentage of schools rated good or outstanding in the Brighton and Hove area has in fact increased over the past year.”
 

Rise or not, if a school disagrees with a judgement of a Department for Education’s inspector, there is no real place to turn.
 

Like if a sportsman or woman wants to appeal a referee’s decision, the chances of it being overturned are slim to none regardless of how blatantly wrong that decision might have been.
 

So not only do you end up losing the appeal, you also run the risk of being frozen out by the very people you are trying to impress.
 

Haydn Stride, headteacher at Longhill High School in Brighton, found this out the hard way when he lodged an official complaint against an “illogical” and “irrational” report that saw the school fall from good with outstanding features to requires improvement.

Unsurprisingly, the appeal came to nothing.

He said: “It’s a challenge, and it’s not a comfortable one, because Ofsted has the final say on whether your school stays open or closes.
 

“The headteacher has to decide what is in the school’s best interest, but the way the system is set up is generally to work with Ofsted rather than suggesting something is wrong.
 

“The system is set up so that when a team come in and make a judgement, the school is better off agreeing with that as quickly as possible.
 

“Making a complaint is quite a challenging experience.
 

“Even though Ofsted has been issued with the complaint and may have got things wrong, the pressure is for the school to move on.
 

“And that’s hard when you think you have evidence to suggest otherwise.
 

“That’s when it becomes difficult.”
 

And Mr Stride’s points are illustrated by Alyson Heath’s response to the report which saw her school slip from outstanding to good because of reasons including handwriting.

She said: “I don’t want to rock any boats, but we know our handwriting could be better and it’s given us an opportunity to review our policies.
 

“I was actually really pleased with our report.
 

“I only came here in July, and we had a great Ofsted team.
 

“You’ve heard of a lot of horror stories, but it was a good experience for us.”
 

There is a glimmer of hope, according to Mr Stride, in that to become an Ofsted inspector – training is done in-house.
 

He said: “I would say that it’s quite widely accepted now that Ofsted and its inspectors are inconsistent.
 

“They are now doing their training in-house, so hopefully that should have a positive impact.
 

“I’m hoping that the complaints procedure will get better [with the change in training].”
 

With the country’s fate for the next five years decided in the next week, education is high on the agenda.  
 

Whoever is in the hotseat might want to address Ofsted’s downfalls before more schools decide to fight back.

‘Far too many inconsistencies and issues’ by Peter Kyle

Ofsted has contributed to improving schools’ outcomes for standards, but there are problems, and I have seen these first hand.

There are far too many inconsistencies in the way they inspect different schools and that differential is growing.

That’s even on a local level.

And these inconsistencies are also apparent in their personal approach.

The behaviour of inspectors falls well short of what staff, students and teachers have a right to expect.

When I put my appeal in, one of the things they do is at the end of every interview is ask each person they talk to, “Do you have any problems with how this interview was conducted?”.

Anyone who has been a victim of bullying or has been intimidated by someone, the very last thing they will do is confront that person about it in the immediate aftermath.

But once that person has said “no”, that is logged and that’s the end of it.

With BACA, teachers were told that was their opportunity to make their point.

So there is an underlying problem with Ofsted’s complaints procedure.

Complaints from schools need to be taken far more seriously than they are at the moment because as it stands it’s not a learning process.

The best schools will learn from their Ofsted reports – whether that’s a good report or a bad one – but Ofsted are not a learning institution.

It doesn’t take very seriously its responsibility to learn or at least the top people appear not to be being very proactive about it.

I think an Ofsted inspector is given a disproportionate level of empowerment, and I think that power needs to be rebalanced.

I’ve never met an Ofsted inspector worried about getting a report wrong, but teachers and staff quake in fear every time they come to their school.

I think that is wrong.
 

Peter Kyle is chair of governors at Brighton Aldridge Community Academy and Labour Paliamentary Candidate for Hove