Speaking out on Ofsted
‘Does Ofsted contribute to a structural violence in which some schools are sent into spirals?’
The Quaker peace education team has spoken out about the work of Ofsted following outcries over a Berkshire headteacher who took her own life after her school’s stressful inspection.
In a Twitter thread titled ‘We have to talk about Ofsted’, the Britain Yearly Meeting team said that ‘schools and the people in them need OCEANS of support’ and ‘we need to listen and bear witness to the pain’.
The long thread came after headteacher Ruth Perry took her own life after Ofsted inspectors downgraded her school from outstanding to inadequate. Ruth Perry’s family said they were in no doubt she had taken her own life in January as a ‘direct result’ of the pressure put on her by the process and outcome of the inspection.
Pointing out that peace education staff have heard from many teachers and educators saying that Ofsted inspections cause stress and anxiety (an ‘unacknowledged trauma’), the thread says: ‘We should have been braver and more critical – we have been part of the silence on the issue.’
The ‘relative silence’ from schools about Ofsted is ‘understandable given the risks of questioning the system’, the thread goes on to say, while ‘schools that get a positive Ofsted judgement aren’t going to question the process amidst their relief or joy, and those with a negative judgement aren’t going to be listened to by many’.
Meanwhile, teachers and heads are ‘raising real concerns about whether the Ofsted inspection system is working for the betterment of schools’, with some accounts suggesting it can be counterproductive. ‘We try to understand violence in schools as being cultural+structural as well as direct… As well as grades, schools are on the frontline of mental health, hate, bullying, climate justice, social inequality. Does Ofsted make it easier to address these?’
The peace education team also highlighted a report published in the British Journal of Social Work which showed that the more deprived a local authority is, the less likely they are to receive a Good or Outstanding judgement. ‘Does Ofsted contribute to a structural violence in which some schools are sent into spirals?’ it asked.
The thread ends citing elements that staff do value about Ofsted, including the Spiritual Moral Social and Cultural part framework (SMSC) which provides space for ‘much-needed work’ for peacebuilding in schools. ‘We also like it when Ofsted praises peace education initiatives like peer mediation, which lots of schools use for conflict resolution.’
Comments
Please login to add a comment
