Memorandum submitted by Katharine Birbalsingh
Below are my thoughts on the ways in which Ofsted
could develop for the better.
1. Inspectors need to have more respect for the
teacher and her choices on how to teach. She should be free to
do what is necessary for the children in her classroom. The expectation
of a prescriptive lesson plan must be abandoned. A teacher should
be able to stand in front of the class and have the children answer
questions. We need to move away from the idea that the teacher
is a "facilitator of learning" who moves around the
class instead of teaching up at the front.
2. We need to reduce the emphasis on group work
and games. This must change if we are to see more learning take
place in lessons. This trend is destructive to real learning and
real development of our children. That isn't to say that group
learning does not have its place in lessons, but the expectation
should not be that all good lessons should have group work and
games, whatever the topic, whatever the subject.
3. Behaviour is not held up to a rigorous standard.
Ofsted says behaviour is good when it isn't. Inspectors need to
raise their standards.
4. Inspections should be done without warning.
Otherwise, inspectors are simply watching a performance. Schools
are able to hide their worst children on the inspection days.
5. Judging schools entirely on results and little
else means teachers teach to the test and the whole child is abandoned.
We need to have more breadth and depth in the league tables—behaviour,
kindness, manners, rigour etc need to be judged. Anthony Seldon
has written extensively on this. These values are difficult to
quantify and qualify and so clever thinking is needed to establish
ways to judge them.
6. Inspections should be testing the ability
of the Senior Team to observe lessons and get it right. This is
done to a certain extent already. But inspectors should roam the
school with members of the Senior Team, to get a sense of the
understanding the Senior Team has of the school. Then a greater
trust could be built with schools and inspections would not have
to take place so often.
7. Inspectors should monitor Senior Teams by
looking for consistency and leadership. This can be done by clever
questioning of leadership figures and ordinary staff. Do they
match up? Is there a vision? Is the school being properly led?
This should be done at random, involving a wide variety of teachers.
Inspectors should be looking for consistency.
8. Ofsted should judge how competitive schools
are - how they instil competition in their children.
9. Inspectors should judge motivation and aspiration
in the children. This should not only be judged (as it currently
is) in lessons, to see how engaged the children are. This should
be judged overall in the school, to see what systems the school
has in place to encourage motivation and aspiration in its children.
10. Ofsted should judge the level of the excuse-culture
and balance this against how well the children are supported.
So yes, it is good to have anger management classes, but how far
does this then allow the children to behave badly? Do members
of the Senior Team understand this tension?
11. While Ofsted judges the curriculum offer
schools give to children, it should not just look at the range
of the offer but also at how academic the offer is. Are children
left to choose what they like? Or are they given the right kind
of direction to choose what will later benefit them in life?
12. We need radical and creative work around
the expectation of inspectors to see new fads being implemented.
Starters, plenaries, AFL, personalised learning, targets, independent
learning etc. Inspectors need to be shaken out of this box-ticking
mentality. There should be an overall sense: Are the children
learning? Are they happy? Is there consistency amongst the teachers?
Do the systems work? Is the school being led well? Inspectors
need to move away from judging minutiae and allow schools the
freedom to make their own decisions. Inspectors should then judge
the outcomes. This requires a massive shift in culture.
The problem Ofsted has, in the main, is that it tends
to judge that which can be easily quantified and qualified. But
leadership, consistency, culture (behaviour and motivation) and
teaching are the main things that make for a successful school.
These are what we should be judging in our inspections, and judging
them by criteria that are meaningful, not just to tick a box,
but to inspire real change for the better.
December 2010
| 
