Headteachers should refuseto work as Ofsted inspectors if the watchdog is “daft and dozy” enough to think it can return to full inspections this academic year,the head of a school leaders’ think tank has said.
Ofsted’s routine inspections were suspended in March andare currently scheduled to return in January 2021, although this date is being kept under review andthe inspectoratehas said it is working closely with the Department for Educationon theissue.
Tonight, Stephen Tierney, the chair of the Headteachers’ Roundtable, raised the prospect ofreturning to the group’s Pause Ofsted campaign if full inspections were to returnas planned.
The campaign, launched earlier thisyear before the Covid crisis,involved school leaders who worked for Ofsted being encouraged not to carry out inspection work on its behalf in an attempt to force reform of the inspectorate.
Inspections: Heads warn full return of Ofsted in January is unthinkable
Exclusive:Covid Ofsted inspector visit closes school
Background: NEU tells members not to work for Ofsted
Mr Tierney also urged Ofsted not to attempt to inspect remote learning and suggestedthat school inspection reports should be “retired” after two years.
The NAHT school leaders’ union held a panel discussion tonight on what the role of Ofsted should be during the Covid-19 pandemic and afterwards.
Coronavirus: Calls for major reform of Ofsted
Mr Tierney, who was among the panellists, said: “The vast majority of inspectors are school leaders and you know what I am going to say: pause Ofsted.
“If they weredaft enough and dozy enough to think that they could get inspections going again any time this academic year, every single leader who has previously inspected for Ofsted should just make themselves unavailable and say, ‘This is not the right time -schools have so much on, school leaders are under so much pressure and have suchmassive demands that they need their whole team focused on the safeguarding and the learning and the emotional and physical wellbeing of children and not be distracted with anything else.’
“I think most people feel like they have done two academic years since September, and we are only in November.”
He added: “It is easier to say what Ofstedshouldn’t be doing rather than what they should do, and the first thing is: don’t go into schools and if you do need to speak to them, do it remotely.”
Mr Tierney described it as “ridiculous” that a school hashad to close after a visit from an Ofsted inspector who then tested positive for Covid.
And he added: “The other one is: please do not inspect remote learning. I think the inspectorate is unprepared for it. I think it lacks the capability to do it properly.”
He said Ofsted could look at data about the lack of access to online learning in different areas and demographics, but added: “I just can’t see Ofsted putting the boot into the DfE and saying, ‘It’s an absolute shambles in terms ofgetting remote access for pupils and particularly for those from disadvantaged backgrounds.’”
Mr Tierney described the 80 per cent reduction in IT deviceallocations to schools from the department as “criminal”.
On a positive note,he said he had heard of HM inspectors“doing great work on secondment”, supporting local authoritiesand in social care settings, and he said this should continue throughout the rest of academic year.
In February this year, before the Covid crisis hit,the Headteachers’ Roundtable grouprequested that all school-based employeesresign as Ofsted additional inspectors andcalled on unions and other professional associations to recommend this “quiet revolution” to their members to help to secure major reform of Ofsted
Baroness Morris of Yardley, a former education secretary, who was also on the panel tonight, said: “My big worry about Ofsted is whether it has got the ability to change to be a different animal that would come into the schools, and I think not.”
She said the system did needto be able to discover how schools were coping and share best practice but she said she did not think Ofsted was the organisation to do this.
On the question of Ofsted returning to routine inspections, she added: “Of course, we can’t go back to inspecting against the framework in January. I think that would be a nonsense, so I think the government should say for the rest of this year that is not happening.”
Ofsted and the Department for Education have been contacted for comment.
