Teach Primary Issue 18.5

The author is a headteacher in England. @secretHT1 VO I C E S Ofsted’s ‘Big Listen’ initiative has ended, but will it actually have any meaningful impact on how school inspections are carried out? A change is gonna come? F riday, 31st May saw the end of the Ofsted Big Listen. Tens of thousands of people have given their feedback to the consultation, and it is reportedly the biggest response to a public sector consultation there has ever been. If anything were to sum up the weight of feeling around Ofsted and its current and future role, it must be this. Since the tragedy of Ruth Perry, there has been an outpouring of emotion, anecdotes, suggestions, criticisms, and no short amount of feedback for Ofsted. The appointment of Sir Martyn Oliver felt welcome, and it seemed to be a move in the right direction. The announcement of the Big Listen, clear recognition of the need to change, and the assurance that nothing was off the table felt positive – like change could come. In the interim period, there have indeed been positive moves, including the pause policy, and the opportunity to share outcomes with trusted colleagues and families – and with medical professionals, which surely tells a story in itself. Then there came the news that deep dives would no longer happen in ungraded inspections from September, and this was also another step in the right direction. I can’t help but feel, though, that the opportunity for change is slipping away. Perhaps I’m being unfair; the outcomes of the consultations are not known, and nor is any potential response. Recently, I attended an Ofsted Roadshow, with the hope that the Big Listen be high on the agenda. I was dismayed to find that two thirds of the session was spent giving updates about topics that have been in the public domain for several years: info on deep dives, what to expect in an inspection, safeguarding, the phone call. After a short break, the session was given over to feeding back on the areas of the consultation. This section was squeezed into 45 minutes, and the setup of the session was not conducive to gathering input from the many headteachers who were there. The fact that this part was condensed so that people could get home was frustrating; I could easily have spent the whole three hours discussing the future! I really hope this is not indicative of the approach that will be taken, but I worry that it just might be. Ofsted is an organisation inextricably entangled with the Department for Education. This causes problems with any response to a consultation, as the DfE has a clear idea of what it wants Ofsted to be and how certain parameters cannot change. Surely, this will limit the scope of howmuch can be altered? Throw July’s General Election into the mix too and everything that has been decided could be thrown in the air again. That means decisions and changes may wait, and we will once again end up with stagnation of a system that almost everyone within education is crying out to change. There is so much that could be done: area inspectors linked to specific schools, visiting more often and building meaningful relationships with a school, its community, and its leaders; visits based around short, sharp foci that can be easily evidenced and show real school improvement. Ofsted could become a true partner with a school, not a cause of anxiety and worry. Another change could be a greater pledge to consistency and transparency. Share training materials, and allow all serving headteachers to access the same CPD as those who are inspecting. If inspectors are aware of the best aspects of current practice, surely it makes sense to offer that training to all schools? The reports could be open to change, too: remove the single-word judgements, focus on what is going well and what could be better, but without the fear of reprisals should things be identified as needing work. Currently, the job of a school leader often feels like it depends entirely on the opinion – or whim – of whoever might walk through the door on the morning of inspection. There has been a Big Listen. Now we need to see the Big Change. It's the only way Ofsted can rebuild and rebrand itself and regain the trust of the whole profession. Time will tell. TP “Ofsted could become a true partner with a school, not a cause of anxiety and worry” www.teachwire.net | 19