The suicide of a serving headteacher, apparently as a result of her school being downgraded to “inadequate”, inevitably made headlines and brought Ofsted and its methodology into sharp focus. Ms Spielman, His Majesty’s Chief Inspector, has announced a few changes this morning and it seems to me has gone about as far as she could reasonably go.
I like Amanda Spielman (she will be so pleased to hear that). She is a bit better than some of her predecessors in my opinion and has brought a touch of reason and humanity to an organisation that could have descended – and arguably had begun to do so – into cold cynicism. A senior HMI lamented to me a few years ago that in Ofsted trust had long gone – no-one trusted anyone - and I suspect that was about right.
Few people, least of all headteachers, would claim that Ofsted was perfect. No organisation responsible for inspecting and reporting on others is ever likely to be popular. Ms Spielman’s announcements today will not make much practical difference, but will maybe soften the “feel” of an Ofsted inspection to some degree and that is probably a good thing. Even I, at my great age and with many years of experience (and in general a fairly thick skin), am not immune from feeling that shiver up the spine when an Ofsted inspection is mentioned. I’m not sure that’s inappropriate – we should all expose ourselves to scrutiny from time to time and something not far short of fear is arguably healthy in such situations. But one of the perceptions of Ofsted which has grown up over the years is that they mark their own homework and are more or less unaccountable. Ms Spielman has responded – some would say she had no choice politically, but she has responded – and we should be pleased.
G K Chesterton, who is always a source of great quotes, said “if a thing is to be improved, it first must be loved”. That seems to me to be brilliantly profound. Let’s hope that the soon-to-be-appointed HMCI (Ms Spielman retires soon) will be someone who really loves schools, teaching and children. Then we might see some further improvement, not just to Ofsted, but to schools across the country.
And by the way, we have an Ofsted inspection coming up. Help me, someone ...