Ofsted: the longest week ever!

[Waffler]

Boy am I tired!

I've missed you guys, but I literally have not had time to come on in the last week and a bit because we've had the dreaded Ofsted at school. The call came last Friday, so between Friday morning and Thursday night I worked 2 weeks in the space of a week. My poor hubby has barely seen me, and when he has it's been to briefly shovel the food he has lovingly prepared, before continuing with the work and falling into bed. However, the work paid off: they observed my lesson and it was graded as 'good' (which these days is really quite good, if I do say so myself) and the school overall got a 'good', which was more than we had expected, so great news all round.

Then... whilst everyone else was chilling yesterday and recovering from said inspection, muggins here had to go to an interview, so Thursday night was spent finally giving the preparation for that some attention and another stressful day yesterday! Phew! Plus... we had arranged to go out with about a million (ok maybe only 15 or so) neighbours to celebrate a birthday, so I didn't get to bed until 1am.

The interview went well but I haven't heard anything yet (as I said about a dozen times in as many minutes as I met up with the guys for a drink after school yesterday!)

So just to reiterate: boy am I tired! Thank goodness for bank holiday weekends! Finally I can pay my poor garden (and husband!) some attention!

[yancancook]

Congrats of surviving Ofsted, we had ours last November and I suffered for weeks afterwards... At least you get to chill in the garden, I had to suffer indoors. Hope you get the job you went for, I'll keep my fingers crossed.

[Waffler]

The letter arrived this morning: I didn't get the job. I'm not that bothered about the job itself, but I'm really surprised and annoyed because the school had spoken to my head to ask whether I had any other interviews because they'd move theirs forward if I did; I thought I interviewed (and taught/presented etc.) well and my head had told me it was almost in the bag. I'm annoyed because I put in all that work ON TOP of having Ofsted and missed out on a chilled day at work! Bummer!
Still, I have another interview lined up for Friday, so I guess I'll just put my all into that one.
In what way did you suffer posted Ofsted Yancancook? How did it go?

[zazen999]

Waffler; sorry to hear about the job. Did you ask for feedback; my Other Half never does; I keep getting him to but until someone else at work asked him whether he got feedback or not he wouldn't ask. Sometimes they can pick up on things you aren't aware of and you can avoid them the next time.

We used to have Ofsted, as I used to work for a huge training organisation. they had the national contract for one single sector; about 7000 students that they farm out to colleges. The whole of that dept would go bananas but as I worked on the employer side, I didn't every have to endure. I think the impact of the whole week probably hindered you performing on the day; if they don't find anyone on this round perhaps ask for a re-interview as you have to take these things into consideration...

[kirsty b]

My daughter's school had Ofsted last week, and we think things went well. Most of us parents think its a fab little school. Laurens class was the only one observed because the rest of the teachers were out on strike and her class was the only one in school. (her teacher not in the union)

[Waffler]

My daughter's school had Ofsted last week, and we think things went well. Most of us parents think its a fab little school. Laurens class was the only one observed because the rest of the teachers were out on strike and her class was the only one in school. (her teacher not in the union)

I'm amazed they inspected on a 'strike' day (our school didn't strike).

As far as Ofsted affecting my performance is concerned, I don't think this was the case as my Head knows the Head and pre-warned her, and even if I do say so myself, I think I was pretty good! I have a feeling I know what the potential reasons were behind me not getting it. It was a KS1 post and I made no bones about saying that my preference was up to Y1. It also transpired on the day that they were looking for someone to lead maths, which really isn't my thing (though they wouldn't have given that to an NQT if that's who they appointed - the other 2 interviewed were both NQTs.)

I'll definitely look into feedback as it can be very useful (we think the reason they sent letters is to get out of feedback though, which I think is a little naughty.) Since my Head knows the Head, I think I'll ask him to approach them first, as I'm more likely to get a true answer that way, e.g. they wouldn't turn round and tell me that they hired an NQT because I'm too expensive, but they might tell him!

C'est la vie! Time to move on and focus on the interview next week (3 day week at school for me then!)

[yoanbob]

good luck with the next interview, fingers crossed

[janeyo]

I cetainly don't miss teaching from the ofsted visiting side of things!

Well done for surviving a gruelling week. Good luck for the new interviews and getting the one you want!

janeyo

[BarleySugar]

Sorry you didn't get the job, but congrats on the Ofsted. We had ours the week after Easter. Found out the Tues morning (Obviously with Good Friday and Easter Mon couldn't let us know earlier) that they were coming on the Thurs. We had been expecting it since Sept, but...I suppose on the plus side we didn't have much time to panic.
They decided to watch my year 13 ICT lesson! The group were halfway through a project managment unit, so I wasn't really 'delivering', just being on hand for tech help. Anyway, I re-iterated all the points they needed to evidence in their write up, then sent them to get on with it. He (ICT expert, so he knew what to look for ) only stayed 20 minutes . Only hoped for a satisfactory, but got a good, which amazed me, because I didn't feel that I'd really taught anything.
Still the kids were great, except one forgot it was week 2, and turned up at 9.15 instead of 9! He was really apolgetic afterwards, and promised to keep me in my old age if I got the sack! Kim really talked me up as a teacher, and Hannah, although she had been away for 4 weeks, could still explain what she was doing. Mind you Alex commented afterward about my wobbly voice, and the fact that my hand trembled when I picked up some paper! I'll really miss them all when they finish in 3 weeks time. The school got outstanding in almost all areas, so the head was really pleased. We made it onto the front page of the local paper this week.

[heebiejeebie]

Well done you lot! Last time I was in a school being inspected they didn't come to observe me (full-time, with TLR etc) but "got" my part-time one-day-a-week doing-it-for-a-favour colleague five times. Weird. She was not chuffed.

Waffler - good luck with the next interview. It sounds like the first one wouldn't really have suited your skills anyway so you haven't lost out (although a knockback is never pleasant).

[Stacey Steve]

You get prior notice of an Ofsted inspection?

I thought the idea was to see how a school was normally run, not where it had been "sanitised" to look good for the inspectors.

Surely a if a school is to be marked as good, then it should be good all the time.

To say that you worked 2 weeks in one week to bring things up to standard is a fraud.

I'll look a bit more closely at my daughter's school in future, I want a good education for her all the time.

Sorry, I do have a lot of respect for teachers generally but this has really shocked me.

[heebiejeebie]

It used to be about 6 weeks' notice, now it is a couple of days. You can't do much "sanitising" in two days!

[winnie]

Hi, at my school (primary) we got the Ofsted call on Monday and they were there Thursday morning. You need a couple of days to get the paper work out as they want timetables and loads of information before they come and then they literally flew through the school and wanted everything on hand the second they asked for it. They ask you to get work ready with books labelled and to be honest, other than checking my room was tidy and my weekly planning was clear, there wasn't much time to do anything else. We got a 'good' so we were very pleased.

I don't think it's a question of 'sanitising'. I can't speak for every teacher, but lots of my colleagues (and myself) are such perfectionists, we want the absolute best for the children & our school and want it to be seen to be as good as we believe it really is.

The job never ends and no matter how much you do there is always a little something else that you could do. Many of my colleagues go into work at weekends & I will be in school tomorrow, preparing for Tuesday morning. We are dedicated (probably mad) but love the job we do.

xxx

[BarleySugar]

We didn't have time for any sanitising, as Winnie says, it's a case of getting everything together. I know the curriculum manager was asked for statistics that he wouldn't normally have to hand, so he had to have time to produce them from the data he had. Of course the test there was did he have the raw data? Yes.
I suppose the only thing different for the lessons was having typed up lesson plans for every lesson you were teaching, but what they saw was what would have been taught anyway. I plan every lesson, but I don't type up every one, it would be a waste of time better spent elsewhere.. I keep progress records of every class I teach. I wouldn't have time to sent all of them up in a couple of days, let alone input data and be able to explain how I used them to inform my teaching.
You can't get outstanding for a result with just 2 days notice, we had record GCSE results last year, and had been improving everything since the last inspection 4 years ago, since we were rated 'Good'. In the past it was 6 weeks notice, but that still wouldn't enable bad practice to be hidden that effectively, and they do ask parents and students for their opinions too.

[Waffler]

Certainly I'd agree that it wasn't really 'sanitising' that took place; more titivating.
I agree Stacey Steve that a school should be 'good' all the time if it is to get that grading, but to perhaps put your mind at rest, annoyingly for us teachers, the weighting is on the paperwork produced by management beforehand, far more than what they see when they're actually in. I also agree that they should just turn up rather than give fore-warning; far less stress on children and staff alike.
From our point of view, there was an awful lot of tidying (which in fairness, when you're teaching 'good' lessons all the time does not get much of a look in as it doesn't directly affect the children's learning) and changing displays which begin to get a bit tatty after a while anyway.
Also, whilst every teacher produces their weekly plans, when Ofsted call, they want to see detailed plans with learning intentions clearly outlined, so this is paperwork in addition to our usual workload.
Unfortunately, whilst you may not want to hear it, to expect teachers to perform as they do for Ofsted, ALL the time is completely impractical; that is NOT to say we don't do a good job the rest of the time, more so as Winnie said, that we want everything to be perfect for the inspection because we know what it means. Inspectors aren't stupid; they know it's a performance to a certain extent, but unless they change the rules to spot checks it will remain the same. And as I said earlier, in most cases the grading is almost set before they actually reach the school; the idea is for them to check that what management have put on the paperwork is actually the case.

Well done Barley Sugar on your good Ofsted result.