The role and performance of Ofsted

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 3 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