Memorandum submitted by Liz Rook
I am responding to your request for written submissions
on whether the inspection of all organisations, settings and services
to support child learning and welfare should be conducted by a
single inspectorate.
I have been a Head for 20 years and have a fair knowledge
of the way OFSTED has worked in schools in that time. I have been
Head of a special school and now am Head of a maintained Nursery
School.
I have always worked with and not against the inspection
regime believing that it is a necessary tool to ensure both the
quality and consistency of education across the country and to
ensure that children and parents are getting the best service
possible.
That said I have been experiencing growing apprehension
about the demands being made of my school by OFSTED recently and
have written to Liz Elsom at OFSTED about this.
I share with you the scrutiny under which my school
has been put in recent years which I believe results from an overly
complex system of inspection and regulation.
— In
2006 my Nursery School was inspected under by Ofsted under section
5. (Good with outstanding features)
— In
July 2009 the same Nursery was inspected, this time under the
Early Years Inspection regime. (Outstanding)
— In
January 2010 the same Nursery was inspected again—under
a section 5. (Outstanding)
— In
April 2010 the same Nursery was visited by another inspector wishing
to carry out an Early Years Inspection. I suggested that this
was not acceptable in view of the visit three months earlier and
the inspector left.
— This
year I am expecting to be inspected again, but this time as a
Children's Centre (Nursery School plus the Day Nursery and Crèche
for which we are now responsible.)
Clearly all of this puts everyone under continuing,
additional stress. It also means that much time that could be
used much more creatively to develop our Centre and the staff
who work so hard for us.
Our quality has always been found to be at least
good but the amount of attention we are receiving is definitely
not in inverse proportion to our success! And perhaps we could
be even more "successful" without having to be in this
constant state of readiness for OFSTED.
August 2010
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