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"Weaker" schools are to be visited by more inspectors and with greater frequency... As if the schools don't have enough on their hands trying to bring their students "up to scratch" they now have the extra paperwork, preparation work and distractions that these extra visits will cause. Schools that are doing well will be largely ignored and allowed to carry on without too much hindrance which surely demonstrates that the inspections are clearly a bother which the "best" schools simply don't need. Is it just me or does this make no sense at all?!??! To make the whole thing even more ridiculous, "satisfactory" schools will also be targeted by this brilliant new plan! But don't take my word for it... Chris Keates, general secretary of the teachers union NASUWT, has this to say on the subject... "The whole focus of the Ofsted's regime is on seeking to maintain failure in the system." Like the doctors and nurses trying to tell everybody about the destruction of the NHS and Chief Inspectors telling us about the destruction of the police service we now have the teachers telling everybody about the destruction of the education service... When exactly are you planning to make a difference? To make your thought and feelings known? Before your children's education is destroyed beyond recognition or afterwards? |
Friday 23rd June 2006 | The Press Association
Ofsted will target weak schools - and even some judged to be "satisfactory" - with extra inspections in a new drive to raise standards, it has been announced.
But the best schools will be largely left alone to get on with the job, the watchdog said.
Reduced Ofsted visits for top schools will last just one day and be conducted usually by only one inspector under the new system, which will be introduced from September.
Schools which Ofsted judges to be inadequate and serves with an official "notice to improve" will receive extra monitoring visits six to eight months after their full inspection.
This is designed to help make sure the school is doing enough to improve to at least "satisfactory" standards within a year.
Failing schools which are in Ofsted's lowest category - "special measures" - already get extra monitoring visits.
But even some satisfactory schools with "pockets" of weakness will face extra visits under Ofsted's plans.
Chief inspector of schools Maurice Smith said the new approach was "more proportionate to risk" and better value for money. But headteachers' leaders have attacked the idea of targeting satisfactory schools with extra visits.
Chris Keates, general secretary of teachers' union NASUWT, said: "Teachers and headteachers will feel even more demoralised by the announcement. It makes no difference how well schools perform, Ofsted constantly raises the bar and does little to assist schools operating in extremely challenging circumstances. The whole focus of the Ofsted's regime is on seeking to maintain failure in the system. Constantly raising the bar doesn't raise standards."
Mary Bousted, general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, said: "Ofsted must ensure its monitoring of underachieving schools is carried out in a way which helps those schools, rather than one that simply adds more stress. It's important that the monitoring is carried out on the school's terms rather than Ofsted's."