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Ofsted inspection at Tapton

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It seems like a good system to me. But I don't have any experience of what it was like before - one of the reasons I went to the meeting was my total ignorance of how the options systems works. The last time I had anything to do with it was choosing my own about ** years ago..... strange to hear it going back to being largely judged on exams at the end of the year - that brings back some memories.

 

Hmmm -thought the teacher was "playing" a little with the comparison to O levels which is exactly what most of us sat in room had previously taken - so don't think we were as outraged as were perhaps expected to be!

 

The system in previous years was much simpler ........they each did Maths English Re and PE. They then did dual or triple science - and then picked one subject each from 4 boxes (the humanities, a language, an Art etc)....I understand why the changes have been made though.

 

Would echo the point made about some children being more gifted in say Maths than English (or vice versa) and the potential issues that may cause.

 

To me it all feels that this year is the guinea pig year and I am a little uncomfortable with that.

 

Not sure why we can' have the reports now though.......my child assures me (does yours??) that they have seen them , done their bit and they are good to go.

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I'm a teacher and have been through a couple of inspections (Ofsted and ISI). Yes, schools are different when Ofsted are in. However the independent school I was at was also very different when the ISI were in.

 

Does this mean that the school is worse on a normal day? Probably not - the obsessive paper-driven planning and data cramming that goes on for an inspection does not make the child's experience any better. If anything it gives the whole thing a horrible stiff air, with everyone on eggshells and the kids utterly bemused by all the ridiculous hoop jumping they are suddenly made to do in lessons.

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Pathways thing ok, glad they are not making them do 13 subjects as an older child of mine had to do, also glad not enforcing ebacc, however taking PHSE out as a lesson and replacing with drop down days is really bad. OFSTED also see that as bad practice and whatever the head says, 5 days does not give enough time to cover all the careers, sex ed, parenthood, mental health, equal opps, money management etc that good PSHE covers. Even 39 weeks is scarcely enough. And Apply Sheffield can be done in 5 weeks. They have a specialist head of dept who will do their best in new system, but I'm not happy about this change at all. You can have as many exams as you like, but if you don't have the soft skills developed in PSHE, then you don't develop the right skills and attributes for future employment and building good relationships. I'm surprised more people didn't pick up on that.

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The staff clearly make changes to common working practices when OFSTED are in town and visiting schools.

 

Standards that are not normally adhered to are put right in time for the visit, so it clearly is a tick box thing. Even at one of the local nurserys my friends 2year old girl did say that she noticed that staff were paying more attention to details, when teaching during an OFSTED visit

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Would echo the point made about some children being more gifted in say Maths than English (or vice versa) and the potential issues that may cause.

 

To me it all feels that this year is the guinea pig year and I am a little uncomfortable with that.

 

Not sure why we can' have the reports now though.......my child assures me (does yours??) that they have seen them , done their bit and they are good to go.

 

Hard to know what the answer is with the Maths and English. They said if a child is good at just one of those subjects they'll be on the green pathway and there'll be extra support for them in the other subject. We can only trust them really. I know what you mean about them being guinea pigs - I said the same to my husband while we were in the hall. I'm not overly worried though, I think they'll be OK.

 

My daughter said she'd been doing her statement, maybe it's just a case of the office staff having to collate & envelope them etc. It would have helped to have had them earlier to give us an idea of who we want to speak to at parents evening.

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You can have as many exams as you like, but if you don't have the soft skills developed in PSHE, then you don't develop the right skills and attributes for future employment and building good relationships. I'm surprised more people didn't pick up on that.

 

There was a time when PSHE didn't exist you know and people still managed to get jobs and develop relationships!

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So you know for a fact that coaches turn up to take naughty kids out on inspection day? This must happen quite frequently for you to notice it. How many inspections does your local school have in a year, pray tell?

 

My friend lives right across the road from the school & both his kids go there, so he knows what goes on, I trust him. I saw the coaches turn up once when I was at his house, 3 of them, probably 150 kids had a day trip. It isn't the biggest secondary school in Sheffield. It was pretty extraordinary watching it through his front window, I had to ask what was going on, 'oh it's inspection day...'.

 

I live around the other side of the school, so the coaches don't pull up in front of my house. I don't have kids that go there & I was just round at my friends house one inspection day by chance.

 

I remember when I went to school the inspections were annual. They did similar things on a smaller scale. They'd just hide a few bad teachers & kids.

Edited by anywebsite

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There was a time when PSHE didn't exist you know and people still managed to get jobs and develop relationships!

 

I'd rather young people were best placed to make 'informed' decisions on these matters though.

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You present yourself as an expert but seem to have little grasp of what Ofsted do.They analyse the data before they arrive and usually meet the head honchos to agree an agenda,often identifying weaker teachers etc. at that point.The head will connive with Ofsted who supply them with the evidence they need to target perceived areas of weakness.Its a bit of a stitch-up.

 

I'm not an expert but do have experience and a grasp of what Ofsted do. I've never heard of Ofsted coming to a school for a meeting prior to an inspection as you claim. They arrange phone calls and email correspondence to get all the information they need prior to the inspection in my experience.

 

I simply stated that Ofsted work to a strict criteria for success which is the same for every school, rather than judge a school on how honest they were in their self-evaluation as was suggested. I'm not sure how this shows little grasp of how it works. I admit my comment about them having no access to individual exam performance linked to individual teachers was wrong, they can have anything they want - but I can't see threm usually requesting this unless there was a cause for concern. Analysing the individual exam data for every single teacher in the school (and separating those pupils which are taught by more that one teacher in a single subject in the hope of revealing poor teaching) would be a mammoth task for a standard Ofsed visit. It might be done in a HMI re-inspection where a weakness has already been identified but I can't see it being something Ofsted would do on a day-to-day basis (but I'm not an Ofsted inspector so who knows)

 

May I ask where your experience of Ofsted comes from? I see you are signed up to TES (but then again I also see you are signed up to True Nudists - be careful your pupils don't find out if you are a teacher :) )

Edited by BarryRiley

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Do you mean this?

It is hard to dismiss poor teachers.

 

Yes, that is pretty much what I typed

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My friend lives right across the road from the school & both his kids go there, so he knows what goes on, I trust him. I saw the coaches turn up once when I was at his house, 3 of them, probably 150 kids had a day trip. It isn't the biggest secondary school in Sheffield. It was pretty extraordinary watching it through his front window, I had to ask what was going on, 'oh it's inspection day...'.

 

I live around the other side of the school, so the coaches don't pull up in front of my house. I don't have kids that go there & I was just round at my friends house one inspection day by chance.

 

I remember when I went to school the inspections were annual. They did similar things on a smaller scale. They'd just hide a few bad teachers & kids.

 

Ofsted give less than a week's notice of a forthcoming inpsection. This is nowhere near enough time to organise any type of 'trip', let alone one for 150 kids (as if what you are claiming would happen anyway). You are talking rubbish.

Edited by SiSiSi

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The staff clearly make changes to common working practices when OFSTED are in town and visiting schools.

 

Standards that are not normally adhered to are put right in time for the visit, so it clearly is a tick box thing. Even at one of the local nurserys my friends 2year old girl did say that she noticed that staff were paying more attention to details, when teaching during an OFSTED visit

 

What bothers me the most with it all is that they make an effort to work to the standard they're paid to do in the first place.

 

And as soon as they've gone they lapse back into the old routine.

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