Box-ticking Ofsted inspectors are placing unfair stress on school staff

On a Monday afternoon an Ofsted team march into a school (which shall remain nameless) and announce there will be an inspection the next day.

This means that the teachers are then expected to get their act together to present whatever these inspectors want to see.

So the teachers stay until 2am in the morning trying to get the relevant things in place.

They then get up around 6am to get in early, to again get the things needed in place that they couldn’t do because they needed to go home to rest. Except they couldn’t rest from fear of what was going to happen the next day. Plus they have to teach as if nothing is going on.

The 12-strong team of retired accountants or ex-teachers of professors then come in and mill around listening to a teacher trying to teach and start ticking boxes as he or she does so. They spend a few minutes with the pupils themselves and then leave. This goes on for four days with them demanding this, that and the other.

The teachers by now have clocked up 50-60 hours of hard work just for this team to then tell them at the end that they are under-performing and morale is low.

How on earth can they come up with an assessment in these conditions? Do they even know what these teachers go through. These people have no inkling of the character of the school and its staff.

Ticking boxes cannot tell you how a school is performing. These people can’t be challenged either. No wonder teachers are at the point of wanting out. Trouble is the parents then think that the school is bad and start questioning what’s wrong.

What’s wrong is the system. You cannot judge a school by these methods. My daughter is training to be a teacher right now. God help her. She’s going to need him.

John Batchelor

St Edmunds Road

Haywards Heath