O.F.S.T.E.D tricked by schools
I really cannot say that this surprises me!
A year ago, the primary school my 3 boys went to was placed into special measures. The O.F.S.T.E.D report slammed everything about the school, and especially for those children who were gifted and talented.
Well the school has continued to plod along, and from where I stand, as a parent of 2 boys there now, I have not seen enough improvement to consider keeping my children in the school. The eldest there is off to senior school in September and I don’t believe that any change in school would be 100% beneficial to him at this time, especially considering the fact the school have started to challenge his learning, and in any case he is self motivated and would spend hours reading reference books and learning in his own time.
Anyway, back to O.F.S.T.E.D being tricked by the school. When they had their last inspection, every single child with S.E.N and challenging behaviour was sent to the neighbouring secondary school so they wouldn’t be observed in the class room. The great teachers from the secondary school were pulled over to the primary school and took specialist lessons to give the inspectors a false representation of the school environment. Those of us parents who had negative things to say about the school were not given questionnaires to fill out, and therefore our voices were not heard.
Admittedly, in this situation, although the school was taken out of special measures by this inspection, the report constantly references the ‘soft federation’ with the secondary school, and how the improvements noted have been due to the expertise and specialism brought by the staff of the secondary school. O.F.S.T.E.D do appear to have seen through this, to a point. The ‘soft federation’ will never be able to become more solid, neither school wants to lose their budget nor their narrow view of independence. And when it comes to subsequent O.F.S.T.E.D inspections they can merely repeat the procedure and move staff and children around to suit their own agenda of deception.
Ultimately though, it is only our children who are going to suffer when sub-standard schools are judged to be good. We are merely teaching our children that it’s ok to bend the rules and move things around to make a better impression, even if that impression is false.
Our children are going to be left behind, left to coast through their primary years and this will have a knock-on effect when it comes to them going to secondary schools and on the world of work and higher education.