00:00 I had lots of Ofsted inspections in my lessons, so it's something I've certainly got a lot
00:07 of personal experience of and yeah I would say suffocating rather than toxic is the word.
00:13 The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills, or Ofsted, is responsible
00:18 for examining the standards at any institution which provides education for young people
00:23 in England. They regularly send inspectors into schools to assess the quality of the
00:27 services provided, but now an inquiry has recommended this direct contact be put to
00:33 an end.
00:34 My name's Neil Fatkin. I work for 17 years as a teacher in secondary schools, as a drug
00:40 reteacher, also running heads of department and head of humanities. Unlike an assessment
00:46 process in other industries where you're working with rational adults or it may be machinery
00:52 or IT or some form of technology, obviously when you're dealing with children there are
00:57 so many things which are outside of your control before that child arrives in school that day
01:01 which can have a massive impact on how your lesson goes or indeed how your day goes in
01:06 school. That's one of the reasons why I think when the inspectors come in it does feel unfair
01:13 that they make a snapshot judgment whether it's on you as an individual or the school
01:17 in such a short space of time.
01:19 The beyond Ofsted inquiry, chaired by former Schools Minister Lord Knight and funded by
01:23 the National Education Union, has found the governmental department to be toxic and not
01:28 fit for purpose. Alongside an end to in-person inspections, they propose getting rid of single-word
01:34 judgments like outstanding or inadequate, claiming they're too simplistic to describe
01:39 a whole school.
01:40 Most of my lessons were judged as good, but as I said I did have one or two disappointments
01:43 where an inspector may have given it requires improvement and yeah you really do take that
01:49 to heart because of the emotional investment you've got in the children and also the feeling
01:54 you know have you let your colleagues down, have you let your school down. You know I
01:56 had teachers who have lost their jobs as a result of schools you know being deemed requires
02:01 improvement or indeed inadequate which obviously you can imagine the kind of pressure which
02:06 you feel you know when you've got an inspection team come in and make a snapshot judgment
02:11 which could result in I suppose yeah a headteacher ultimately losing their job which I have seen
02:16 happen.
02:17 The school has thought the pressure put on schools and their staff by inspections is
02:20 too high, underscored by the suicide of headteacher Ruth Perry earlier in the year. Lord Knight
02:26 told BBC Breakfast, "It's created a culture of fear in our schools and if anybody thinks
02:31 that fear is the basis for sustained improvement rather than support, then I think they've
02:35 got it completely wrong."
02:36 I do still feel there does still need to be an independent body which does assess school
02:42 performance. Instead reports are one of the main ways in which parents can assess and
02:46 see how schools are doing and how you know how teaching staff and school is can be held
02:51 to account.
02:52 In response to the inquiry Ofsted said inspections are needed to ensure a high quality education.
02:57 A spokesperson said children only get one chance at education and inspection helps make
03:01 sure that education standards are high for all children.
Comments